
D15TRICBC0LVABIA 



Q P O 9—1456 



HISTOEY OF THE 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



f^yifi^' 



I 



HISTORY 



OF THE 



UNITED STATES OE AMERICA 



BY 
HENRY WILLIAM ELSON, Ph.D., Litt.D. 

AUTHOR OF "SIDE LIGHTS ON AMERICAN HISTORY," ETC. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 

1918 

All rights reserved 



TENLEl 



Copyright, 1{X)4 and 1017, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1904. Reprinted 
July, October. 1904 ; January, 1905 ; June, 1906 ; April, No- 
vember, 1907 ; July, 1908 ; September, 1909 ; June, December, 
1910 ; September, 1911 ; September, 1912 ; August, 1913 ; July, 
November, 1914 ; August, 1915 ; August, twice, 1916. 

Revised edition, June, 19x7. ' 



TRANSFHB 
O. O. PUBLIC LIBHAJIY 
SaPT. 10. 1940 



TBAKSFiUBJElED £'BOM PUBLIC LtB&ABX 



? 



CO 



741415 



PREFACE 

For many years I have contemplated writing a history of the 
United States in a single volume, that should fall between the 
elaborate works, which are beyond the reach of most busy people, 
and the condensed school histories, which are emasculated of all 
literary style through the necessity of crowding so many facts into 
small space. 

In writing this history my aim has been to present an accurate 
narrative of the origin and growth of our country and its institu- 
tions in such a form as to interest the general reader. I have con- 
stantly borne in mind the great importance of combining the science 
Of historical research with the art of historical composition. I have 
aimed also, especially when treating the national period, to balance 
^ the narrative and critical features in intelligent proportion. A 
P=4 mere recital of facts, without historic criticism, without reference 
25 to the undercurrents that move society, is no longer acceptable in 
^ this age of thinking readers. 

i-« I have endeavored to write, as stated, for the general reader, but 
• not with a patronizing form of expression, as if addressed to the 
uneducated, or to children, 'nor 'with a burden of worthless incident 
A and detail, nor yet" with* any effort to please those who delight only 
in the spectacular. At the 'same time, knowing that many intelli- 
gent people who wish to know something of their country are not 
fond of reading history, I have given careful attention to style, in 
the hope that the book might be easy and pleasurable to read, as 
well as instructive. 

I have devoted much space to the life of the people, — their 
habits, modes of life, occupations, general progress, and the like, 
especially in the earlier period when they differed most -widely 
from ourselves. But in treating the national period I have, how* 



PREFACE 



ever, without neglecting the industrial and social features, given 
greater space to political and constitutional development, as in this 
the life of a people who govern themselves is epitomized. 

In my treatment of wars and disputes with foreign powers, I am 
aware that, with all my effort to view a subject from a neutral, 
judicial standpoint, an unconscious bias may be discerned; but 
should the book find any foreign readers, I beg them to remember 
that I have written absolutely sine ira. 

In treating the Civil War and the great events that led to it, I 
have taken the utmost care to be fair to both sides; though as a 
native and resident of the North I no doubt partake of the prejudice 
of my section, if such prejudice can still be said to exist. I have 
refrained from using the terms "rebel" and ''traitor" to designate 
those who rose against the government in the sixties, because of my 
profound respect for their sincerity. 

One subject — American literature — I had hoped to treat with 
greater fullness ; but I found that an adequate treatment of this very 
important subject would require too great a space for the scope of 
this volume. It is therefore recommended that this phase of our 
history be studied in separate works devoted to the purpose.^ 

The notes at the ends of the chapters are intended to elucidate 
something that has preceded in the text, to give personal traits of 
leading characters, to mention matters of too meager importance for 
the main narrative, or, as in many cases, to relate some event of 
real importance which did not exactly fit in the body of the text. 

In preparing this work I have had frequent recourse to the 
original sources, but make no pretense that the work is based 
wholly, or even chiefly, on original research. I have freely used 
the works of other writers. A large number of these have been 
cited in the footnotes for the purpose of aiding the reader who 
desires to pursue the subject further, or to acknowledge an obliga- 
tion to an author whose thought or form of expression has been, 
in some measure, adopted. Much information, however, has been 
gathered from sources not herein mentioned. 

1 Wendell's "Literary History of America" is an excellent work; so also la 
Trent's " History of American Literature." 



PREFACE vfi 



That the work may be accepted as authoritative throughout, I 
have exercised the utmost care to secure historic accuracy ; but 
absolute accuracy is not always attainable, especially where points 
are under dispute, and where such a great number of subjects are to 
be treated. The pointing out of any errors by the reader will be 
deemed a kindness. 

My thanks are due to many kind friends for suggestions 5 to 
various librarians in Philadelphia and New York for special cour- 
tesies ; to Mr. Stewart Culin, former curator and Indian specialist 
of the University of Pennsylvania, who kindly read and criticised 
the chapter dealing with the Indian character. Above all, I am 
indebted to Professor Herman V. Ames of the University of Penn- 
sylvania, who read the greater portion of the manuscript and made 
many important suggestions. To his thorough scholarship and ripe 
judgment I have deferred in many instances. 

H. W. E. 
Philadelphia, 
February, 1904. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 
Christopher Columbus 

VASH 

Spirit of the Age 1 

Theories of the Earth and Geographical Knowledge 3 

Early Life of Columbus 7 

Columbus and the Sovereigns 9 

The Voyage 11 

The New World 15 

Later Career of Columbus 19 

John Cabot .23 

The Naming of America 25 

Other Discoverers and Discoveries 26 

CHAPTER n 
The Indian 

Indian Religion 28 

Home Life , 29 

Indian Occupations 32 

Civilization 35 

Nations and Tribes 38 

CHAPTER m 
Explorations 

DeSoto 41 

Florida 42 

Wandering in the Wilderness 44 

The Indian Queen 47 

The Battle of Mavila . . , 49 

Discovery of the Great River 51 

Other Explorations 64 

is 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER IV 
Colonization — The Southern Colonies 

PAGE 

Virginia ,60 

Maryland . . 75 

North Carolina . 83 

South Carolina . 88 

Georgia 93 

CHAPTER V 

Colonization — New England 

The Pilgrim Fathers 99 

Massachusetts Bay 103 

Connecticut Ill 

Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 115 

New Hampshire 117 

CHAPTER VI 

New England Affairs 

The New England Confederation (1643-1684) r 120 

King Philip's War 121 

Edmund Andros 123 

Puritan Laws and Character 127 

CHAPTER VII 

Colonization — The Middle Colonies 

New Amsterdam 138 

New York 138 

New Jersey 146 

Delaware 149 

Pennsylvania 161 

CHAPTER Vm 

Colonial Wars 

French Explorers j - . 160 

King William's War „ . . 162 

Queen Anne's War . 165 

King George's War . 168 



CONTENTS 3rt 



CHAPTER IX 
The Fbench and Indian War 

PAGE 

A View of the Belligerents 174 

Duquesne and Acadia 178 

William Pitt 186 

Fall of Quebec 188 

Conspiracy of Pontiac = . o 194 

CHAPTER X 

Colonial Life 

Population and Social Rank 198 

Occupations and Customs 201 

Religion ; Education ; Medicine 206 

Means of Travel ; Mails ; Newspapers 208 

Colonial Government 210 

The Navigation Acts 216 

«..HAPTER XI 

The Revolution — Opening Events and Causes 

Otis and Henry 222 

The Stamp Act and Other Acts * 224 

King George III 231 

The Continental Congress ; Lexington 236 

CHAPTER XII 

The Revolution — War and Independbncb 

Second Continental Congress 243 

Bunker Hill 244 

Washington and the Army 247 

The Great Declaration 260 

Fort Moultrie and Long Island ......... 264 

New Jersey and Trenton 268 

CHAPTER Xni 

The Revolution — From Saratoga to Monmouth 

Struggle for the Hudson Valley 268 

Foreign Aid 275 

From Morristown to Germantown 280 

Valley Forge and Monmouth 283 



xii CONTENTS 



CHAPTER XIV 
The Eevolution — The Frontier, the Ocean, and the South 

PAGB 

Border War in the South and West 290 

The Wyoming Valley and Other Valleys ....... 292 

War on the Sea .294 

The Treason of Arnold 296 

War in the South ,...,. 301 

Yorktown . .309 

Observations , . 313 

CHAPTER XV 

The Temporary Government 

The " Articles" and the Land Cessions S19 

Drifting toward Anarchy . .321 

The Annapolis Convention 324 

CHAPTER XVI 

The Constitution 

The Men that made it 327 

Business of the Convention 328 

The Constitution before the People . . 334 

The First President , 337 

CHAPTER XVII 

Twelve Years of Federal Supremacy 

The First Congress .342 

Rise of Political Parties o . 348 

America and France . 5^1 

America and England ; the Jay Treaty 364 

Relations with France . 360 

Fall of the Federal Party c 367 

CHAPTER XVIII 

Jefferson and the Democracy 

A View of the People • . , . 376 

A View of the Leaders , 380 

Louisiana 383 



CONTENTS xiu 



PAGE 

Burr and Hamilton 388 

Impressment of Seamen . . 394 

French Decrees and English Orders in Council 398 

The Embargo ,400 

Character of Jefferson 403 

CHAPTEE XIX 

The Wak of 1812 

Drifting toward War . 409 

Hostilities on the Great Lakes 415 

Victories on the Sea 420 

Further Operations on the Lakes 426 

The Washington Campaign 434 

War in the Soiith 438 

National Finances 443 

Observations 445 

CHAPTER XX 
Dawn of National Consciousness 

Recuperating 452 

The Missouri Compromise 456 

Monroe's Second Term , 462 

John Quincy Adams 469 

Means of Travel and Invention 472 

CHAPTER XXI 
The Reign of Jackson 

American Life in 1830 478 

T^e People's President , 480 

The Civil Service 484 

Jackson and Calhoun , . » 485 

Nullification in South Carolina ......... 487 

The Reelection and the Bank 492 

Foreign Relations and Indian Wars 496 

Character of Jackson . 498 

Maxtin Van Buren 501 

The Panic and the Independent Treasury , 503 

The Harrison Campaign <..•.. 506 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER XXII 
Rise of the Slavery Question 

PAGE 

Harrison's Brief Tenure 613 

Tylerand the Whigs 514 

The Story of Texas 516 

Presidential Election of 1844 518 

CHAPTER XXIII 
The Mexican Wak and the Compromise of 1850 

Oregon and California 525 

Zachary Taylor in Mexico 527 

The Conquest of California 529 

The Great March upon Mexico c . . 530 

^Results of the War 533 

>A Zachary Taylor 538 

sEighteen Hundred and Fifty 640 

The Fugitive Slave Law in Operation 548 

The Underground Railroad 553 

•■ Slave Life in the South 556 

CHAPTER XXIV 
The Great Political Duel between the North and the South 

PRECEDING the CiVIL WaR 

v^The Presidential Election of 1852 563 

Death of Clay and Webster . . . . = 566 

" Fall of the Whig Party 569 

' The Kansas-Nebraska Bill 571 

Founding of the Republican Party ........ 578 

Presidential Election of 1858 , o .682 

The Struggle for Kansas 586 

Dred Scott Decision 595 

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates ..,....<>. 598 

John Brown and Harpers Ferry 604 

The Presidenital Election of 1860 608 

CHAPTER XXV 
An Ante-bellum View 

Inventions and Discoveries o . 616 

Education and Literature 619 

Population and Immigration . . . . ^ 621 



CONTENTS xt 



CHAPTER XXVI 
Drifting toward Hostilities 

PAOB 

Causes and Preliminaries r. . . 624 

Secession 628 

The Winter in Washington 633 

The New Administration 639 

Fort Sumter 641 

CHAPTER XXVII 

Beginnings of the Great War 

A View of the Belligerents 647 

Events of April 649 

Opening of Hostilities in Virginia and Missouri ...... 653 

The Extra Session of Congress 669 

The Trent Affair 661 

CHAPTER XXVni 

The Civil War — The First Year's Conflict 

The First Naval Expeditions . 670 

The Duel of the Ironclads 673 

Operations in the Mississippi Valley " 676 

Farragut and New Orleans 688 

The Peninsular Campaign 691 

The Seven Days' Fight before Richmond 697 

CHAPTER XXIX 

The Civil War — War on a Grand Soaub 

The Confederate Government 704 

Pope's Campaign in Virginia 706 

Antietam 708 

Emancipation 712 

Buell, Bragg, and Rosecrans 716 

Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville , . 721 

Democratic Opposition — Vallandigham < . 726 

Doings of Congress . 780 

Vicksburg .732 

Gettysburg 739 



xvi CONTENTS 



CHAPTER XXX 
The Civil War — The Great Final Double Movement 

PAGE 

Chickamauga and Chattanooga , . 748 

Grant in the Wilderness . 751 

The Atlanta Campaign — Mobile , . 758 

The Presidential Election . 761 

The Final Work of the Armies , , 765 

Death and Character of Lincoln , . 773 

Foreign Relations — The Alabama 776 

Observations on the War 780 

CHAPTER XXXI 
Andrew Johnson and Reconstructiok 

The New Problem 786 

The New President and the Old Plan 790 

Thirteenth Amendment 793 

Congressional Reconstruction 795 

The Carpetbaggers — The Race Question 799 

Impeachment of President Johnson . 805 

The Great Trial 808 

CHAPTER XXXII 

Recuperating Years 

The Election of 1868 813 

Opening of a New Era 816 

The Treaty of Washington , . 819 

The Liberal Republican Movement . 822 

Horace Greeley » . . 824 

Executive Demoralization , . 826 

Financial Legislation ^ 829 

Political Reaction , 832 

The Centennial .834 

The Disputed Presidential Election 835 

CHAPTER XXXIII 

Industrial Progress 

New Conditions c-o, ..,. 843 

The Fisheries Dispute .... , 847 

The Garfield Tragedy . . . , 849 



CONTENTS xvii 



PAGE 

Civil Service Reform 854 

A Political Revolution 857 

New Conditions 861 

The Tariff Issue .865 

Important Acts of 1890 ■• .868 

The Election of 1892 873 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

War and Expansion 

Hawaii, Silver, and the Wilson Tariff 878 

The World's Columbian Exposition 881 

Two Unusual Occurrences 883 

The Silver Issue 885 

The War with Spain 889 

Our Island Possessions 896 

Cuba 900 

The Isthmian Canal 906 

CHAPTER XXXV 

The Twentieth Century 

Second Terra of Roosevelt 912 

The Taft Administration 918 

First Term of President Wilson 925 

CHAPTER XXXVI 

Latest Industrial Progress and Inventions 

Integration of Industries 942 

The Labor Movement 944 

Travel and Transportation 945 

Other Important Inventions 949 

Index c <>....... i 



LIST OF MAPS 

FULL-PAGE COLORED MAPS 

PAGH 

Great Voyages facing 6 

Indian Reservations " 38 

Before and after the French War ..... " 196 
Scene of War in the Northern and Middle States (the Revolution) 

facing 270 

Scene of War in the South " 306 

The United States at the Close of the Revolution . " 313 

The United States in 1830 "476 

Territorial Growth of the United States . . . following 896 

MAPS IN THE TEXT 

Mela's World 5 

Bunker Hill and Boston 245 

Long Island 267 

New Jersey and Trenton . . 262 

Champlain and Saratoga 273 

Valley Forge and Philadelphia 281 

Siege of Charleston . 303 

yorktown 311 

The Lake Region 419 

Washington and Vicinity , . 435 

Battle of New Orleans 441 

The Erie Canal 473 

The Mexican Campaign 531 

After Kansas-Nebraska Bill 576 

Election Chart, 1860 6!4 

zix 



LIST OF MAPS 



The United States in 1801 
Capture of New Orleans 
Scene of War in Virginia 

VlCKSBURG AND ViCINITY . 

Battlefield of Gettysburg 
Chattanooga and Atlanta 
Sherman's March 
Election Chart, 1868 
Election Chart, 1884 
Election Chart, 1900 
Center of Population 



PAGE 

678 



695 

737 
742 
759 
766 
814 
861 
898 
904 



AMERICAN CHRONOLOGY 
DISCOVERY AhD COLONIZATION 

1000. Leif Ericson discovers Vinland (New England). 

1492. Oct. 12. Columbus discovers the New World. 

1497. The Cabots discover the continent of North America. 

1498. Columbus on third voyage discovers South America. 

1506. Columbus dies at Valladolid. 

1507. New World named after Americus Vespucius. 

1513. Balboa discovers the Pacific Ocean and Ponce de Ledn discovers Florida. 
1519-1521. Cortez conquers Mexico. Magellan sails round the world. 

1524. Verrazano and Gomez explore New England coast. 

1628. Cabeza de Vaca explores southern United States. 

1533. Pizarro conquers Peru. 

1534. Cartier sails to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
1541. De Soto discovers the Mississippi River. 
1565. Founding of St. Augustine. 

1576. Frobisher discovers northwest passage, Frobisher Strait. 

1579. Drake explores coast of California. 

1584. Raleigh sends first expedition to America. 

1588. Defeat of the Spanish Armada. 

1604. Acadia settled by the French. 

1607. May 13. Founding of Jamestown, Virginia. 

1608. Founding of Quebec by Champlain. 

1609. Hudson discovers the Hudson River. 

1619. First assembly meets at Jamestown. Slaves first sold in Virginia. 

1620. Coming of the Pilgrims in the Mayfioxoer. 

1623. Settlements at New Amsterdam. First settlements in New Hampshire. 

1630. The great emigration to Massachusetts. The founding of Boston. 

1634. Maryland first settled by Calvert. 

1635. Connecticut settled by emigrants from Massachusetts. ( 



xxii AMERICAN CHRONOLOGY 

1636. Founding of Providence by Roger "Williams. Harvard College founded. 

1637. War vyith Pequot Indians. First negro slaves in New England. 

1638. Swedes first settle in Delaware. 

1639. First constitution in America adopted by Connecticut. 
1643. May 30. New England Confederation formed. 
1649. Toleration Act in Maryland. 

1655. Stuyvesant conquers the Swedes in Delaware. 

1656. Quakers expelled from Massachusetts. 

1662. Connecticut charter granted. 

1663. Charter granted to Rhode Island. 
Charter for the Carolinas granted. 

1664. Sept. 8. The English conquer New Amsterdam. New Jersey given b> 

King Charles II to his brother, the Duke of York. 
1667. Fundamental Constitutions drawn up for the Carolinas. 
1673. Marquette explores the Mississippi. 
1676. Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia. King Philip's War in New England. 

1681. Penn receives charter for Pennsylvania. 

1682. Penn founds Philadelphia and makes treaty with the Indians. La Salle 

explores Louisiana and takes possession for France. 

1686. Edmund Andros made governor of all New England. 

1689. Rebellion against Andros ; his fall and arrest. 

1692. Salem witchcraft delusion. 

1700. Iberville plants colony in Louisiana. 

1713. Treaty of Utrecht, ending Queen Anne's War, which began in 1702. 

1733. Georgia settled by Oglethorpe. 

1748. Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, ending King George's War, which began 

in 1744. 

1754. Colonial Congress at Albany ; Franklin's plan of union. 

1755. Braddock's defeat. 

1756. French and Indian War formally begun. 
1759. Wolfe captures Quebec. 

1763. Treaty of Paris ; end of the war. Conspiracy of Pontiac. 

PERIOD OF THE EEVOLUTION 

1765. Stamp Act. Colonial Congress in New York. 

1770. ' ' Boston Massacre. ' ' 

1773. Destruction of tea in Boston Harbor. 

1774. Sept. 5. Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia. Boston Port BiL. 

1775. April 19. Fight at Lexington and Concord. 

May 10. Capture of Ticonderoga. Meeting of Second Continental 
Congress at Philadelphia. 



AMERICAN CHRONOLOGY xxiil 

1775. June 17. Battle of Bunker Hill. 
December. Daniel Boone settles in Kentucky. 

1776. July 4. Declaration of Independence. 
Aug. 27. Battle of Long Island. 

Dec. 26. Washington captures Hessians at Trenton. 

1777. June 14. Flag of stars and stripes adopted by Congress. 
Sept. 11. Battle of Brandy wine. 

Oct. 17. Surrender of Burgoyne, 

Washington encamps at Valley Forge and Howe occupies Philadelphiao 

1778. French-American alliance. 
June 28. Battle of Monmouth. 

British take Savannah. 
Naval victory of John Paul Jones. 
Charleston taken by British. 
Battle of Camden. 
Battle of King's Mountain. 
Adoption of the Articles of Confederation. 

Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. 
Preliminary treaty of peace. 
Final treaty of peace signed. 
British army evacuates New York. • 
Washington's farewell to his officers. 

1786. Shays's rebellion in Massachusetts. 

FROM THE MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION 
TO THE CIVIL WAR 

1787. Ordinance of 1787 adopted. 

May 14. Constitutional Convention meets at Philadelphia, 
Sept. 17. Constitution finished and signed by the delegates. 

1788. Rufus Putnam plants first settlement in Ohio. 

June 21. New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify the Consti- 
tution, securing its adoption. 

1789. March 4. New government goes into operation. 
April 30. Washington inaugurated first President. 

1790. First census. Population .3,929,214. 

1791. Vermont admitted to the Union. St. Clair defeated by the Indians. 

1792. Kentucky admitted to the Union. 

1793. Jefferson founds Republican (Democratic) party. 

1794. Wayne defeats the Indians in Battle of Fallen Timbers. 

1795. Jay's treaty ratified. 

1796. Tennessee admitted to the Union. 





Dec. 29. 


1779. 


Sept. 23. 


1780. 


May 12. 




Aug. 16. 




Oct. 7. 


1781. 


Adoptioi 




Oct. 19. 


1782. 


Nov. 30. 


1783. 


Sept. 3. 




Nov. 25. 




Dec. 4. 



AMERICAN CHRONOLOGY 



1797. John Adams inaugurated President. 

1798. Alien and sedition laws enacted. Navy department establishea. 
1798-1799. Kentucky and Virginia resolutions. 

1798-1800. Serious trouble with France. 

1799. Dec. 14. Washington dies at Mt. Vernon. 

1800. Overthrow of the Federal party. 
Capital removed to Washington, D.C. 

1801. Jefferson becomes President. 

1802. Ohio joins the Union. 

1801-1805. War with the Barbary States, North Africa. 

1803. Purchase of Louisiana. 

1804. Burr kills Hamilton in a duel, 
1805-1807. Lewis and Clarke expedition. 
1806-1807. Burr's conspiracy, trial, and acquittal. 

1807. Fulton succeeds with the steamboat. 

June 22. The Leopard fires on the Chesapeake. 
December. Jefferson's embargo enacted. 

1808. Prohibition of the foreign slave trade. 

1809. James Madison inaugurated President. 

1811. Nov. 7. Battle of Tippecanoe. 

1812. June 18. War declared against England. 
Aug. 16. Hull surrenders Detroit. 

Aug. 19. The Constitution defeats the Guerriere. 
Oct. 13. Battle of Queenstown Heights. 

1813. Sept. 10. Perry's victory on Lake Erie. 
Oct. 5. Battle of the Thames. 

Nov. 9. Battle of Talladega. 

1814. July 25. Battle of Lundy's Lane. 

Aug. 25. The British capture Washington. 

Sept. 11. Battle at Plattsburg and defeat of the British on Lake 

Champlain. 
December. Hartford Convention. 
Dec. 24. Treaty of Ghent. 

1815. Jan. 8. Battle of New Orleans. 

America secures indemnity and treaties from Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, 

1816. Indiana admitted to the Union. Admission of Mississippi, 1817 ; of 

Illinois, 1818 ; of Alabama, 1819 ; of Maine, 1820 ; of Missouri, 1821. 

1817. James Monroe becomes President. 

1818. War with the Seminole Indians. 

1819. Purchase of Florida from Spain. 

First steamship, the Savannah, crosses the Atlantic. 

1820. The Missouri Compromise. 



AMERICAN CHRONOLOGY 



1823. Dec. 2. Monroe Doctrine promulgated. 

1825. Inauguration of John Quincy Adams. Opening of the Erie CanaL 
June 17. Lafayette lays corner stone of Bunker Hill Monument. 

1826. July 4. Death of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. 
Panama Congress. 

1828. Building of the first passenger railway begun at Baltimore. 

1829. I Andrew Jackson becomes President. 

1830. Pifth census. Population 12,866,020. 

1832. Nov. 19. Nullification by South Carolina. Jackson vetoes bank charter. 

Black Hawk War. 

1833. Jackson removes bank deposits. Compromise tariff adopted. ( 

1836. April 21. Battle of San Jacinto. 
Wilkes's Antarctic expedition. 
Admission of Arkansas. 

1837. Inauguration of Van Buren. 
Patent of the telegraph by Morse. 
Great panic. Admission of Michigan. 

j Burning of the Caroline. 
1841./ March 4. William Henry Harrison inaugurated President ; dies April 4, 
/ and John Tyler becomes President. 
Howe invents the sewing machine. 

1844. First telegraph line in America, between Baltimore and Washington. 

1845. James K. Polk becomes President. Florida and Texas admitted into 

the Union. Death of Andrew Jackson. 

1846. Beginning of the Mexican War. Fight at Palo Alto. 

Admission of Iowa. Walker tariff enacted. Wilmot Proviso intro- 
duced in Congress. 

1847. Feb. 2.3. Battle of Buena Vista. 

March 29. Capture of Vera Cruz by General Scott. 

Conquest of California. 

September. Fall of the City of Mexico. 

1848. February. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. 
Discovery of gold in California. 
Wisconsin enters the Union. 

1849. Zachary Taylor inaugurated President. 

1850. Admission of California. Death of Calhoun. 

July 9. Death of President Taylor. Millard Fillmore President. 

Clay Compromise enacted. 

Census shows population of 2.3,191,876. 

1852. Death of Clay and Webster. 

1853. Inauguration of Franklin Pierce. 

1854. May. Kansas-Nebraska bill enacted. 



AMERICAN CHRONOLOGY 



1854. Commercial treaty with Japan. 

1857. Inauguration of Buchanan. 
March 6. Dred Scott decision. 

1858. Admission of Minnesota. 
First Atlantic cable laid. 
Lincoln-Douglas debates. 

Sept. 18. Mountain Meadow Massacre, Utah. 

1859. Admission of Oregon. 

John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. 

1860. Population 31,443,321. 

THE CIVIL WAE AND OUR OWN TIMES. 
Dec. 20. Secession of South Carolina. 

1861. Secession of Mississippi on Jan. 9 ; of Florida, Jan. 10 ; Alabama, Jan. 11 ,- 

Georgia, Jan. 19 ; Louisiana, Jan. 26 ; Texas, Feb. 1 ; Virginia, April 
17 i Arkansas, May 6 ; North Carolina, May 20 ; Tennessee, June 8. 

Feb. 4. Confederate government organized. 

March 4. Lincoln inaugurated President of the United States. 

April 14. Fall of Fort Sumter. 

July 21. Battle of Bull Run. 

Nov. 8. Capture of Mason and Slidell. . 

Admission of Kansas. 

1862. Feb. 16. Surrender of Fort Donelson. 

March 9. Duel between the Monitor and the Merrimac 

April 6-7. Battle of Shiloh. 

April 16. Slavery abolished in District of Columbia. 

"April 25. Farragut captures New Orleans. 

July 1. Battle of Malvern Hill ; last of the seven days' battle before 

Richmond. 
Aug. 30. Second Battle of Bull Run. 
Sept. 17. Battle of Antietam. 
Dec. 13. Battle of Fredericksburg. 

1863. Jan. 1. Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation. 
Jan. 2. Battle of Murfreesboro. 

Admission of West Virginia. 

May 2. Battle of Chancellorsville. 

July 1-3. Battle of Gettysburg. 

July 4. Surrender of Vicksburg. 

Sept. 19-20. Battle of Chickamauga. 

Nov. 19. Lincoln's address at Gettysburg. 

Nov. 24-25. Battle of Chattanooga. 

1864. May 6. Battle of the Wilderness. 
May 11. Battle of Spottsylvania. 



AMERICAN CHRONOLOGY xxvil 

1864. June 19. The Kearsarge sinks the Alahnma. 
Aug. 5. Battle of Mobile Bay. 

Sept. 2. Sherman captures Atlanta. 

Oct. 19. Battle of Cedar Creek. 

Nov. 16. Sherman begins his march to the sea. 

Dec. 15-16. Battle of Nashville. 

Admission of Nevada. 

1865. April 1. Battle of Five Forks. 
April 3. Evacuation of Richmond. 

April 9. Surrender of Lee at Appomattox. 

April 14. Assassination of Lincoln ; Andrew Johnson President, 

April 26. Surrender of Johnston's army. 

Dec. 18. Thirteenth Amendment ratified. 

1866. July 27. Second Atlantic cable completed. 

1867. May 2. Reconstruction bill passed over veto. 
Purchase of Alaska. 

Admission of Nebraska. 

1868. Feb. 24. President Johnson impeached by the House. 
Trial in the Senate fails. 

July 21. Fourteenth Amendment adopted. 

1869. Inauguration of U. S. Grant. 

May 10. Pacific Railroad completed. 

1870. Population 38,558,371. 

March 30. Fifteenth Amendment ratified. 

1871. November. Great fire in Chicago. 
1873. February. Congress demonetizes silver. 

Financial panic. • 

1876. Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia. 
Admission of Colorado. 

Invention of the telephone. 

Custer's army destroyed by the Indians. 

1877. Inauguration of R. B. Hayes. 
Great railroad strike. 

1878. Electric light perfected. 

February. Bland-Allison silver bill passed. 

1879. Jan. 1. Resumption of specie payments. 

1880. Population 50,155,783. 

1881. James A. Garfield inaugurated President. 

July 2. Assassination of Garfield. Dies September 19. Chester A 
Arthur becomes President. 
lSo3. Letter postage reduced to two cents. 

1885. Grover Cleveland becomes President. 

1886. Oct. 6. Statue of Liberty unveiled, New York, 



AMERICAN CHRONOLOGY 



1886. Presidential Succession Law enacted. 

1889. Benjamin Harrison becomes President. 
April 22. Oklahoma opened to settlers. 

North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington admitted into 
the Union. 

1890. Population 62,622,250. 
Idaho and Wyoming admitted. 
McKinley tariff enacted. 
Sherman silver law passed. 

1891. Chilians assault American sailors at Valparaiso. 

1893. World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago. 

1894. Wilson tariff law enacted. 

1895. Dec. 17. Cleveland issues his Venezuelan message. 

1897. William McKinley becomes President. 
July 24. Dingley tariff becomes law. 

1898. Feb. 15. Destruction of the Maine at Havana. 

April 25. Congi'ess declares war against Spain (existing from April 21), 

May 1. Battle of Manila. 

July 1-3. Battle of San Juan. 

July 3. Battle of Santiago. 

July 7. Annexation of Hawaii. 

Aug. 12. Peace protocol signed. 

Dec. 10. Treaty with Spain signed at Paris. 

1899. May 18. Peace Conference meets at The Hague. 

Samoan treaty made by the United States, Great Britain, and Germany. 

1900. Allied Powers enter China to quell Boxer disturbances. 
Civil Government established in Alaska. 

Sept. 9. Great disaster at Galveston, Texas. 

1901. Jan, 1. The Hague Arbitration Court organized. 

May 3. Civil Government established in the Philippines. 

Sept. 6. President McKinley shot by an assassin. Dies on Sept. 14. 

Theodore Roosevelt becomes President. 
Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo. 

1902. Cuban Republic established. 

May 12. Great Anthracite strike in Pennsylvania begins. 

1903. Feb. 14. Cabinet Department of Commerce and Labor created. 
March 17. Panama Canal Treaty with Colombia ratified by the United 

States Senate. Rejected Aug. 17 by Colombian Senate. 
July 4. Pacific Cable completed. 
Oct. 17. Alaskan Boundary Tribunal in London decides in favor of the 

United States. 
Nov. 6. The United States recognizes the new Republic of Panama. 
Nov. 18. Canal Treaty with Panama signed by Secretary Hay. Ratified 

by Panama Dec. 2; by the United States Senate, Feb. 23. 1904. 



INTRODUCTION 

The history of the United States of America is a story of intense 
interest, not only to the American people, but to intelligent people 
of all countries. This has been especially true with regard to 
foreigners in the past few years, owing to two facts : first, the 
extraordinary prominence given to our country by the recent war 
with Spain and the consequent acquisiti'on of a vast archipelago in 
the Orient; second, our wonderful commercial expansion in recent 
years, and the irresistible "invasion" of the European countries 
by our products. It may truly be said that the eyes of the world 
are turned upon our land to-day as upon no other, and that our 
history is now of greater interest than ever before. 

Mr. Bryce in his "American Commonwealth" points out three 
phenomena, peculiar to the United States, as new in the annals of 
the world: first, that our great population is the resultant of the 
blending of numerous European peoples ; second, that besides the 
predominant white race there are seven millions of men belonging 
to a dark race,^ thousands of years behind in its intellectual devel- 
opment, but legally equal in political and civil rights ; and third, 
no other people in history, speaking the same tongue and living 
under the same institutions, has occupied so vast an area. To these 
we might add the more important and striking fact that the United 
States government is the first in history in which the federal 
system has been successful. This great fact is inconspicuous be- 
cause it is old and well established, and also because our system 
has in some measure become general by being copied in part by 
other nations, notably by Mexico, by various countries of South 
America, and by Switzerland and Germany. The fact remains, 

i Increased to 8,840,789 by the census of 1900. 
xxix 



INTRODUCTION 



however, that America was the first great nation in history to solve 
the greatest of all governmental problems, — to blend Nationality 
and Democracy in perpetual wedlock under one government, in 
such proportion as to secure the benefits of both ; to protect local 
self-government by the mighty arm of a great nation, which is 
strong enough to perpetuate its own existence. 

Other facts that render the study of our history important are, — 
that our manhood suffrage is more nearly universal, our free school 
system more extensive, than in any other country; that our land 
first introduced religious liberty to the world ; that in the past 
hundred years we have been the greatest colonizer of all countries, 
though this fact has been disguised by the further fact that our 
colonies have become coequal states, — a thing unknown before in 
history; and that, on the whole, the growth and development of 
the United States during the nineteenth century is the most won- 
derful fact in modern history. There are other items also (of which 
we are too prone to boast), such as these, — our iron and steel prod- 
ucts are greater than in all other countries combined; we produce 
more coal, wheat, maize, and cotton than any other country. Our 
railroad mileage far exceeds that of any other nation, so also oui 
telegraph lines, our newspaper issue. In short, our nation, though 
still in its youth and in its most rapid period of growth, is already 
the richest nation on the globe. 

The New World, inhabited only in modern times by civilized 
man, has been divided, for the most part, into a dozen or more 
independent republics, and it is very remarkable that one of these 
republics stands without a rival and without a second among its 
fellows ; that this one, as a civilizing force and as a military power, 
surpasses all the rest combined. 

A study of American history will reveal the fact that many of 
our institutions, customs, and characteristics are indigenous to our 
soil; but it must not be forgotten that most of the best things in 
our civilization have their roots in the far past, in the centuries 
that made their record in the world's life long before this Western 
Hemisphere was known to the white man. In art, in sculpture, we 
must still find our models in the old masters of other lands; in 



INTRODUCTION xxxj 



music we have only made a start, and are still dependent on the 
German and the Italian ; in literature we have made a noble begin- 
ning, but we must still bow to the mother country, whose classic 
treasures we have appropriated as our rightful inheritance. But in 
useful inventions we surpass all peoples of all ages. That this one 
country in a single century has given to the world steam naviga- 
tion, the electric telegraph, the cylinder press, the sewing machine, 
the mower and reaper, anaesthetics, the telephone, the electric light, 
and the electric railway is the most astonishing fact in the history 
of modern progress. On the whole, however, the history of our 
country but illustrates the truth of the continuity of history, the 
transplanting of Europeans and European institutions to the New 
World and their development under new conditions. That most of 
our institutions have grown by evolution from the beginnings made 
by the early settlers and brought by them from their homes across 
the sea no thoughtful student of history will deny. 

At first glance it might seem that the history of the United States, 
from its mere newness, must be less fascinating than that of the 
older countries; and it is true that the stories of royal dynasties, 
of orders of nobility, of ancient castles, are wanting in American 
history. But we have much to compensate for all this. We have 
not only the story of the marvelous development, the unprecedented 
growth of a vast people and their institutions ; we have also the 
personal story of the barefoot boy, born among the lowly, but 
untrammeled by the iron fetters of caste, rising by the force of his 
own genius to the highest rank in the political, the military, or the 
industrial world. Among the greatest of our statesmen, our com. 
manders of armies, our captains of industry, the great majority 
have risen from the commonest walks of life ; and who can write 
fiction so fascinating as to compare with the story of such a life ? 

Again, American history presents one absorbingly interesting 
feature that is wholly unique in modern annals, — the removal of 
an ancient race that another race might be transplanted to the soil 
Behold first the wild man of the forest in his native haunts. See 
him chase the deer and the buffalo and strive with his enemy in 
battle. His life is full of tragedy and romance, of rivalry, of hatred, 



xxxil INTRODUCTION 



and of love. See him in the vast solitudes of nature living in 
apparent contentment with his family and kindred, amid the crude 
surroundings of his home ; hear his rude song resound from hill to 
hill. Now behold a stronger race coming from afar, and the long 
warfare between Civilization and Barbarism begins. The wild man 
at length must yield, or flee before the forces of modern life, or he 
must die. It is the decree of Providence, for he is a cumberer of 
the ground. 

Now comes the pioneer with his ax, his cattle, and his plow; 
the development of a continent begins. The New World becomes 
the home of the oppressed from every land. Cities rise where the 
forest waved over the wild man's home, and the hills and valleys 
resound with the teeming life of an industrious and ambitious 
people. Nearly two hundred years pass, when they rise and win 
their freedom from political bondage. Now are laid the founda- 
tions of a mighty nation, and the people grapple with the greatest 
problem of all, — the problem of self-government. The new nation 
has a thorny road for many years, but it toils upward, surmounts 
every obstacle, and increases more and more. Three quarters of a 
century pass. The nation has grown great. But, alas! there is 
internal strife that now breaks forth into dreadful war. The 
nation's life trembles in the balance, — but it is saved, and the 
nation is born again. It rises from the civil conflict with youth 
renewed and stronger than before ; and the men that strove to- 
gether become friends and brethren. Now begins the latest scene 
of the wonderful panorama, — an industrial development which has 
no parallel in the world's history. In the space of forty years the 
youthful nation shoots ahead of all its rivals as a financial and 
military power, in commercial, manufacturing, and agricultural 
industries, and is second to none in its standard of civilization. 
Such is the United States of America at the dawn of the twentieth 
century. 

Pew civilized nations have less in common with the United States 
than has Italy or Spain ; yet the history of our country must begin 
with the story of a Spaniard who was first an Italian. 



HISTOKY OF THE 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



HISTOET OF THE UNITED STATES 

CHAPTER I 

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY 

In the world of history we find here and there the name of some 
commanding genius that stands out as a landmark, and shines with 
a luster that time has no power to dim. Such is the name of 
Christopher Columbus. 

It will hardly be disputed, that among rulers and statesmen of all 
time Julius Caesar must be placed at the head ; that among military 
leaders the greatest the world has yet known was Napoleon Bona- 
parte; and that in the still higher domain of literature William 
Shakespeare holds the foremost place. And it is no less true that 
the name of Columbus stands at the head of the list of navigators 
and discoverers. 

SPIEIT OF THE AGE 

At this point it is well to give passing notice to the historic set- 
ting of the career of Columbus. For immemorial ages Euroj^e had 
enjoyed commercial relations with Asia. But in the seventh and 
eighth centuries the Saracen invaders came near destroying these 
relations. The Mohammedan hordes became masters of North 
Africa and of Spain, and Christian Europe was cut off from the 
East as never before. Of all the European cities Constantinople 
alone retained a flourishing trade with the East. 

At length, near the end of the tenth century, the Seljukian Turks, 
a nomadic, half-civilized people of Central Asia, became converted to 
the religion of Islam, and in their zeal for the new religion and for 
conquest they soon began to encroach upon the Byzantine Empire. 
Early in the eleventh century they had spread their blighting power 
over Armenia and Asia Minor, destroying a noble civilization and 

B 1 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



substitirting their ovra barbarous mode of life. The menace to Chris- 
tendom was appalling, for the terrible Turk seemed insatiable in his 
greed of conquest. Then it was that Christian Europe awoke to the 
necessity of self-defense, and the result was a series of uprisings, 
known in history as the Crusades. These Crusades, seven in number, 
covering nearly two centuries, were undertaken for the purpose of 
rescuing the Savior's tomb from the hands of the infidel and of re- 
■jijjg storing to the Christian zealot his time-honored privilege 

Crusades, of making a pilgrimage to the holy city of Jerusalem. 
1096-1270. This result Avas not permanently achieved, but the com- 
mercial results were great and lasting. The Crusades not only 
checked the Mohammedan invasion, they also brought about a 
diffusion in Europe of a wider knowledge of Asiatic lands and 
peoples and created a greater demand for their products. 

Meantime the city of Venice became a rival of Constantinople in 
trading with the Indies ; and at length Genoa becajne the rival of 
Venice and allied itself with Constantinople. The southeastern por- 
tion of Asia, with the numberless adjacent islands, was known as 
the Indies ; and the term had also a general use which included the 
islands of Cipango, or Japan, and parts of China, known by the 
poetic name of Cathay. There were two important routes of trade 
with the Indies. The favorite route of the Venetian trade was 
chiefly b}" water, by way of Cairo, the Red Sea, and the Indian 
Ocean, Avhile Genoa took the northern route by way 
toe Indies^ of the Bosphorus, the Black Sea, and thence overland 
by various routes by means of caravans. The goods 
sent to the Orient were chiefly linen, light woolen goods, coral, glass 
vessels, and wine ; those received in return and distributed over 
Europe from Venice and Genoa were spices, ivory and pearls, silks, 
and precious stones. The routes were long and laborious and fraught 
with many perils. The goods changed hands several times in the 
long journey, and the Europeans never met the people of India. 
They believed Cathay to be a vast empire of fabulous wealth, of 
gilded cities, and of mighty rivers. 

The rivalry in Eastern trade had continued for a long period be- 
tween these two Italian cities, when one of the routes was suddenly 
Fall of blocked by one of the great events of history — the fall 

Constantino- of Constantinople. For more than a thousand years the 
pie, 1453. (3if;y Qf Constantine, beautiful for situation above all 
the capital cities of the world, had been one of the chief centers of 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY a 

Christendom ; but the detestable Turk, now of the Ottoman type, 
had again, since the last Crusade, been extending his baleful influ- 
ence over the eastern Mediterranean and tightening his coils about 
the city on the Bosphorus — and at last it fell into his power and the 
crescent supplanted the cross. The Moslem now made hazardous 
the use of the Bosphorus and the Black Sea to the Christian trader, 
and his corsairs plowed the eastern Mediterranean in search of Chris- 
tian plunder. Thus an important route to the Indies was closed. 

This checking of the Eastern trade at a moment when Asiatic 
products had become a necessity to Europe caused the idea to take 
possession slowly of men's minds that some other route, an "outside 
route," to the far-off "land where the spices grow" might be found. 
But first we must glance at the 

THEORIES OF THE EARTH AND GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE 

For many ages before the time of Columbus there was a general 
belief among scholars that the earth is a sphere. This doctrine was 
taught by Pythagoras, nearly six hundred years before Christ, by 
Plato, by Aristotle, and later by nearly all the leaders of thought 
down through the Middle Ages.* 

There was some vague notion of an antipodal world, yet how 
men on the opposite side of the earth could walk with their heads 
downward was a question that puzzled the wisest; for no Newton 
had yet risen to tell the world of the law of gravitation, and no 
Copernicus to teach that the earth is but a ball swinging in space, 
and that " upward " and " downward " are but relative terms.- 

For centuries the boldest navigators were deterred from ventur- 
ing far into the unknown seas, because popular fancy had filled them 

1 Aristotle, in the fourth century B.C., declared that those who connect the 
region in the neighborhood of the Pillars of Hercules with that toward India, and 
also assert in this way that the sea is one, do not assert things very improbable. 
Eratosthenes, in the third century B.C., said, " If the extent of the Atlantic was nut 
too great, one might easily sail from Iberia (Spain) to India." Strabo, in the first 
century a.d., quoted him with approval and added, " It is quite possible that in the 
temperate zone there may be one or more habitable lands." Seneca prophesied 
that, "In tardy years the epoch will come in which the ocean will unloose the bonds 
of nature, and the great sea will stretch out and the sea will disclose new worlds." 

2 Copernicus was born in 1473 — while Columbus was at Lisbon. His theory of 
the solar system is now universally accepted. 

Newton lived nearly two centuries later. He was born in the year in which 
Galileo, the greatest pupil of Copernicus, died — tho year that marks the opening 
of the war against Charles I in England — 1642. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



with, impassable barriers. It was believed that the earth was belted 
in the center with a fiery zone where the vertical rays of the sun 
were unbearable, where the seas boiled with fury, and where vege- 
table and animal life could not endure. It was also believed that 
Europe occupied the top of the terrestrial ball, that the ocean sloped 
downward in all directions, and that if a ship passed too far down, 
it would never be able to return. Still another belief was that the 
remote region of the outer ocean, the Sea of Darkness, 
Monsters of ^^ ^^le Atlantic was called, was inhabited by dreadful 
gorgons and sea monsters, while above the waters hovered 
a gigantic bird so large that it could seize a ship in its talons and 
fly away with it into the upper air.^ No theory was too extravagant 
for belief during this period. It was believed by many, and even 
taught in the schools, that the redness of the sun in the evening was 
caused by his looking down upon hell.^ 

Most of these fantastic theories, however, were exploded before 
the active career of Columbus began. In 1487 Bartholomew Diaz 
of Portugal completed a voyage, the greatest in history up to that 
time. He sailed down the African coast, doubled the Cape of Good 
Hope, proceeded some hundreds of miles into the Indian Ocean, and 
returned to Lisbon by the same route. The entire voyage had 
covered thirteen thousand miles. The fiery zone had been passed, 
no sea monsters had been encountered, and the homeward journey had 
seemed no more uphill than the outward trip. Other great voyages 
were made with like results. No one after this gave credence to the 
wild theories that had so long controlled the popular mind. 

Geographical knowledge during the Middle Ages was meager. 
The ancients believed that the outer unknown world was composed 
chiefly of water. This theory was also maintained by Mela, who 
flourished about the middle of the first century of the Christian era, 
and was known as the Oceanic Theory. But Claudius Ptolemy, who 
wrote a hundred years later, advocated the theory that Asia extended 
interminably to the north and east in vast deserts and impenetrable 
Oceanic and swamps, that Africa extended indefinitely southward. 
Continental and that the two continents met somewhere in the far 
theories. Southeast and inclosed the Indian Ocean. This theory 

gained general acceptance and was known as the Continental Theory. 

This Ptolemaic view held sway in mediaeval Europe for more 

1 Higginson's " History of the United States," p. 56. 

2 Adams's "Columbus," p. 28. 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY S 

than a thousand years. But about the middle of the thirteenth 
century certain travelers to the far East reported in Europe that 
Asia was not a terra incognita of boundless extent, but tliat an ocean 
lay east of Cathay. A half century later this fact was conhrnied in 
the remarkable production of Marco Polo. 

The Polos were a wealthy family of Venice. When Marco was a 
boy of seventeen liis father, a wealthy merchant, made a trading 





S I T E W "B- 

OR POUBTH PART 



eORMAY it CO., N.Y, 



Mela's Idea of the World, a.d. 50. 



journey to the far East and took the boy with him. For four years 
they journeyed over mountains and through deserts, 
trading as they went, until they reached the famous 
empire of Cathay. Marco was taken into the service of the great 
emperor known as Kublai Khan, was made a high official, and here 
he remained for many years. At length he returned to the home of 
his childhood, reaching Venice in 1295, after an absence of twenty- 
four years. Soon after this Venice and Genoa were at war. In a 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



sea fight the Genoese were successful, and Marco Polo among others 
was taken captive and was cast into prison. Here he became intimate 
with a fellow-prisoner to whom he related his travels in the East. 
His friend wrote the words as they fell from Polo's lips, and after- 
ward they were published in book form as "The Book of Marco 
Polo concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East." It de- 
scribed Tibet and Burmah, and Hindustan, Siam, and China. It 
told of the gorgeous landscapes, the towered cities, the beautiful 
rivers. It confirmed also the growing belief that there was an ocean 
east of Asia. The book was one of the most remarkable productions 
of the Middle Ages, and, like Ealeigh's " History of the World," and 
Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," owed its existence to a prison cell. 
No other book had ever appeared in Europe that contributed so 
much to the knowledge of the East as did the book of Polo. In the 
centuries following various Europeans sailed into China seas, so that 
by the time of the fall of Constantinople it was a well-known fact 
that an ocean washed the eastern coast of Asia. How natural then, 
since the earth was known to be a globe, for men to conclude that 
the ocean west of Europe might be the same as that east of Asia; 
and if so, a western voyage must bring the mariner to the Indies 
of the East. This belief rendered it certain that the New World 
would have been discovered, even though by accident, had Christo- 
pher Columbus never lived. 

But although the theory of the fiery zone and the devouring sea 
monsters had been exploded, and the mariner's compass had come 
into general use, no navigator was yet bold enough to venture to 
cross the Sea of Darkness. It was believed that a route to the 
Indies could be found by sailing around Africa. Portugal, leaning 
to the Oceanic Theory, took the lead in this great enter- 
HeMv prise, and Portugal was led by Prince Henry the Navi- 

gator, who was also a prince in fostering education and 
science.* He inspired many important voyages and among them the 
famous voyage of Diaz, mentioned above, which took place a score of 
years after the death of Henry.^ But the distance to the Indies by the 

1 Prince Henry was a cousin of King Henry V of England and an uncle of King 
John of Portugal. He stood among the leading astronomers and mathematicians of 
his time. He died in 1463. 

2 The geographical position of Italy prevented its taking the lead in discovery, 
but Italy was the school of navigation for the world, and the greatest of the dis- 
coverers of this period — Columbus, Cabot. Vespucius, and Verrazano — were all 
Italians. See Payne's " History of America," Vol. I, p. 95, 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY 1 

African route Avas very great, even if feasible, and thoughtful men of 
the maritime world cast their eyes longingly toward the unknown 
West — and here we must introduce the great discoverer, "Christopher 
Columbus. 

EARLY LIFE OF COLUMBUS 

One of the most beautiful of the Italian cities is Genoa, the birth- 
place of the discoverer of America. The city is built on the southern 
slope of the Apennines, between the summit of the mountains and 
the northern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and as one approaches 
from the sea, the city with its palaces and cathedrals, rising tier 
above tier, presents a sublime and impressive appearance. It was 
here that Christopher Columbus was born.^ The exact date of his 
birth cannot be determined. The older writers placed it about 1436 ; 
but recent investigators favor a later date. Tradition informs us 
that his father, Dominico Columbus, was a wool comber, and it seems 
that the family had for several generations followed the same handi- 
craft. Christopher had two brothers younger than himself, Bartholo- 
mew and Diego, and a sister of whom nothing is known. Not much 
is known of the boyhood of Columbus. It is certain that the family 
were respectable, but not of special influence nor in possession of 
wealth. The education of Christopher was not extensive nor pro- 
found. In addition to the common studies he probably learned 
Latin, higher mathematics, and astronomy; and in nautical science 
and cosmography he was a life-long student and acquired all the 
learning of the age in which he lived. 

While yet a child the attention of Columbus was turned toward 
the sea. His voyages on the Mediterranean began when he was a 
boy of fourteen, and by the time he reached his majority he was a 
hardy aiid skillful mariner. Some of his voyages were purely in the 
pursuit of commerce ; in others he was engaged in naval struggles 
between the warring Italian states. On one occasion he commanded 
a vessel which engaged in a death duel with a huge Venetian galley. 
The two ships grappled, and the crews fought hand to hand for 
several hours, many being slain, when at length both vessels took 
fire. Most of those remaining perished. Columbus saved his life by 
leaping into the sea and swimming to shore, six miles distant.^ 

1 No less than sixteen Italian towns have claimed to be the birthplace of the 
great navigator. Columbus, however, refers in his writings to Genoa as the place 
of his birth. 

2 This story, given by Columbus's son Fernando, is doubted by some critics. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



About 1470 Columbus abandoned his native land and became a 
resident of Lisbon.' He was doubtless attracted to that city by its 
reputation of being the chief center in Europe for nautical science 
and by its great activity in promoting discovery. Here for many 
years Columbus made his home, supporting himself by making 
maps and charts, taking an occasional voyage down the African 
coast to the Cape Verde Islands, the Azores, and once far into t];io 
North, touching the coast of Iceland.^ He was a man of striking 
appearance, tall and muscular, courtly in manner, and affable in con- 
versation. His eyes were light gray, his cheeks ruddy as those of 
a boy, while his hair was waving and as white as snow.^ He was 
received in the upper circles of society, and ere he had been many 
years in his adopted city he married and from this time on he seems 
to have had greater opportunity to study the one subject nearest his 
heart.* At this period also he conceived that greater thought which 
became henceforth the guiding star of his life. 

The belief that the East could be reached by sailing westward 
was held by many learned men, and was not original with Columbus ; 
but he was the first and the only man of his times who was ready to 
risk his all in an attempt to demonstrate the theory. For this he 
deserves a place among the greatest characters of history. 

Columbus had been in correspondence with the great Florentine 
astronomer, Toscanelli,^ who had sent him a map of the earth showing 
that there was but one ocean between Europe and Asia, and expressing 
his belief that the latter could be reached by sailing westward from 
the former. Columbus was also versed in the writings ot Ptolemy^ 
of Roger Bacon, and of Marco Polo. Polo's book, though nearly two 
hundred years old, made a deep impression oiv the mind of Columbus 
and had much to do in shaping his life. He read also the great work 
of Cardinal d'Ailly, " Imago Mundi," ^ and all these things he pondered 

1 Vignaud believes that Columbus did not arrive at Lisbon before 1476. 

2 Tlae voyage to Iceland is known only by tradition. 

8 This description is from Las Casas, who knew Columbus. Las Casas further 
says that Columbus -was rough in character and passionate when irritated. None 
of the well-known portraits of Columbus are accepted as authentic. 

4 It is said that his wife's father, now dead, had been a noted navigator and the 
maps and charts he left now came into the possession of Columbus. 

5 Vignaud, in a recent work, " La Lettre et La Carte de Toscanelli," tr. London, 
1902, aims to prove that Columbus had no communication with Toscanelli. rfis 
argument is very strong and leaves the matter in doubt. Columbus makes no 
reference to the astronomer in his writings. 

6 A copy of this great work, with marginal notes in the handwriting of Columbus, 
is still preserved in the library at Seville. 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY 9 

in his heart. The result was he reached the conclusion, which became 
the settled conviction of his mind, not only that the East could be 
reached by sailing to the West, but also that God had raised him up 
to accomplish this great work for maukind — and from this convic- 
tion he never wavered to the last day of his life/ 

COLUMBUS AND THE SOVEREIGNS 

Henceforth this great thought was the dominant force in the career 
of Columbus. It became the ruling passion of his life, and eutered 
into all his acts. He had not the means to carry out his great project, 
nor did he feel that it came within the province of private enter- 
prise. The work was too important and too vast for the individual ; 
it was worthy to be the work of a nation. Columbus therefore 
applied to John II, king of Portugal, laid open his plans, and re- 
quested that he be sent on the great mission of discovery. The king 
was inclined to hear ; but first he would consult with the wise men 
of his kingdom. He called them together, and they condemned the 
scheme as visionary. 

King John now did a thing that was unworthy of him, for in the 
main he was a man of probity and justice. He noted the plans of 
Columbus and sent out a secret expedition to make the 
proposed discovery ; but it resulted in nothing. Colum- gt^^ jl^ 
bus, hearing of this treachery, left Portugal in dudgeon 
and repaired to Spain. He left his home, his wife, and his children, 
taking with him only his eldest boy, a child of tendei years, whom 
he left with a relative in Andalusia. This was x^robably in 1485, and 
soon afterward he was at Cordova laying his plans before the sover- 
eigns of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella. But it was difficult to get a 
hearing from these at this time, for Spain was in the midst of a long 
war with the Moors. As the sovereigns moved from place to place 
in pursuitof the enemy, Columbus followed — to Salamanca, to Malaga, 
and again to Cordova — and pressed his suit with unwearied energy. 
The sovereigns at length referred him to Talavera, the queen's con- 
fessor, who again referred the matter to a junto of learned men. 
Some of them believed in his project, but the majority condemned 
it, and after several years of incessant toil Columbus 
had done nothing. He had already sent his brother •„ g^-n^ 
Bartholomew to England to lay the matter before 
Henry VII, and was now about to quit Spain and apply to the court 



10 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

of France when he made the acquaintance of the Duke Medina Celi. 
The duke became interested in his plans and took him into his own 
home, where he entertained him for two years. He sought to interest 
the sovereigns in the plans of his new-formed friend ; they offered 
to consider the subject seriously as soon as the war was over ; but 
Columbus thought this only a courtly way of getting rid of him, and 
at last, sick at heart, he again determined to leave Spain. 

For six or seven years he had labored in season and out of sea- 
son; he had been jeered in the streets and pointed out as a dreamer 
and a fanatic. But his lofty soul was unmoved. He met every dis- 
couragement with an undaunted spirit. He now called for his little 
boy and turned his back upon Spain, still undismayed, still deter- 
mined to achieve the goal of his ambition. In his journey afoot he 
called at the Franciscan Monastery La Rabida and asked for bread 
and water for his child. This was probably in the autumn of the 
year 1491. While here he again related the story of his ambition. 
The prior, Juan Perez, who had been confessor to the queen and 
was greatly esteemed by her, heard and believed. His patriotism 
was aroused. Why, thought he, should Spain throw away so great 
an opportunity ? He interested several others, one of whom was 
Alonzo Pinzon, who became captain of one of the vessels in the great 
voyage that was to follow. Perez also dispatched a messenger to 
the queen begging an interview. On the fourteenth day afterward 
the messenger returned with the desired invitation, and by midnight 
Perez was on his way to the royal court at Granada. He related to 
the queen anew the story that she had often heard before. He 
spoke of the grandeur of Columbus's views, and defended the scien- 
tific principles on which they were based. He dwelt on the glory 
that would come to Spain if the venture should succeed, and the 
trifling loss should it fail. This proved the turning point in the 
life of Columbus, and Perez was his benefactor. 

Queen Isabella was converted. She sent Perez back with a sum 
of money for Columbus, bidding him array himself properly and 
come into her presence. Columbus arrived in time to witness the 
fall of Granada, January 2, 1492. After eight centuries on Spanish 
soil the IMoslem was conquered at last, and as Boabdil, the last of 
the Moorish kings, slowly and sadly passed outside the city gates, 
weeping over his fallen empire, the Spanish banners were imfurled 
over the crumbling walls of the Alhambra. Spain was delirious 
with joy ; and as soon as the festivities occasioned by the great 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY 11 

victory had subsided, the sovereigns granted a careful hearing to 
the waiting navigator. 

But there were discouragements yet in store for this heroic 
soul. When he laid his plans before the king and queen, his con- 
ditions were such that they refused to accept them. He demanded 
that he be made admiral of the ocean and viceroy of the heathen 
lands lie might discover, and also that he receive one eighth of the 
income from such lands, and one tenth of all the profits by trade or 
conquest, offering at the same time to bear one eighth of the expense 
of the voyage.^ The terms were not accepted, the council broke up, 
and Columbus for a third time determined to seek aid in a foreign 
land. He mounted his mule and started toward France.^ Scarcely 
had he gone when Santangel, the royal treasurer, rushed into the 
presence of the queen and implored her with impassioned eloquence 
not to let the golden opportunity slip away. He spoke of the in- 
calculable gain if Columbus's dream should become a reality, and how 
deep would be their regret should some rival nation obtain the treas- 
ure that Spain had thrown away. The Marchioness de Moya, who 
had long been a friend of Columbus, added her eloquence, and 
Isabella was again converted. She dispatched a messenger to in- 
form Columbus that his terms would be accepted. The messenger 
overtook him when six miles on his way and told him the great 
news. Columbus quietly turned about and rode back into the city. 

THE VOYAGE 

The most famous of all sea voyages began on the morning of 
Friday, August 3, 1492, about an hour before sunrise. After several 
months of preparation three little ships or caravels had been fitted 
out, the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina, only one of which 
was a decked vessel. A motley crowd composed the crews of these 
vessels. When it was learned what the destination of the voyage 
was, the greatest difficulty was experienced in securing a crew. 
This would hardly have been possible but for the twofold error under 
which Columbus labored. He believed the earth to be smaller than 
it is, and that Asia extended much farther to the east than it does. 
Never was there a more fortunate mistake, for had the distance been 

1 Pinzon had made this offer to Columbus. The voyage is estimated to have 
cost a sum equivalent to uearly $100,000. See Thatcher's "Columbus," I, p. 490. 

2 Some look upon this act of Columbus as obstinate and showing a want of tact. 
Others regard the demands of Columbus and the high value at which he placed his 
services, in spite of his former discouragements, as the highest indication of genius. 



12 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

known, the securing of his crew would have been scarcely possible. 
Even as it was, the hardiest sailors shrank from an enterprise so dar- 
ing and so uncertain in its outcome. The government was obliged 
to use force. Men were pressed into the service, some of whom 
were criminals released from prison for this purpose. At length 
ninety mariners with a physician, a surgeon, an interpreter of 
Asiatic languages, a metallurgist and a few others, aggregating in all 
one hundred and twenty souls, w^ere got together, and the voyage 
was begun. Columbus, who was now an admiral, commanded the 
largest vessel, the Santa Maria; Alonzo Pinzon, a navigator of note, 
was captain of the Pinta, and his brother Vincent of the Nina. 
With tears and lamentations the friends of the departing ones bade 
them good-by, for it was generally believed that they were setting 
out on a journey from which none would return. The sailors, as 
well as their friends, were fully convinced that a voyage across the 
unexplored Sea of Darkness was fraught with unknown perils, and 
their minds were filled with ominous forebodings. Six days after 
leaving Palos they reached the Canary Islands, and here a sudden 
eruption of Mt. Teneriffe filled the men anew with consternation ; 
they interpreted it as an evil omen.^ The admiral allayed their 
fears by explaining the cause of such eruptions as best he could, and 
by citing Mt. jS]tna and other volcanoes whose frequent eruptions 
had no particular meaning attached to them. The first week of 
September had passed when they left the last of the Canaries behind 

and were fairly launched upon the open sea. As the 
of'the crew" ^^^^ gazed fondly upon the receding shore, dissolving 

at length into a pale blue line on the verge of the horizon, 
and then disappearing beneath the waters, they broke into wails and 
sobs. It seemed to them as the last farewell of the land of home. 
Behind them were family, home, and friends, — ail that was lovable 
and loving ; before them was the vast dark sea, whose silent depths 
seemed the more ominous from its very silence. 

Sailors are the most superstitious of men, and even in our modern 
days of geographical knowledge, of steam, and of ironclads, every- 
thing that breaks the monotonous life on the ocean wave attracts 
attention and has its meaning. How much more was this true in 
the time of Columbus. He and his crew had launched out into the 
region of the unknown ; oheir ships were small and weak, and the 

1 These incidents are from the account of Las Casas, who received them from 
Columbus's journal, which has beeu lost. 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY 13 

ocean through which they plowed was fathomless in its depths and 
measureless in expanse; never before had it been explored by civilized 
man, and moreover, in popular fancy, it had for ages been peopled 
with shapeless monsters and unknown terrors. What wonder that 
Columbus had trouble in allaying the fears of his subordinates ! 

Day after day the three caravels glided through the waters. 
The weather was fine almost throughout the voyage, says Columbus 
in his journal ; but fine weather and fair winds had little power to 
remove the superstitious fears of the sailors. They were forever on 
the watch for some dreadful happening. 

Early in the voyage they noticed the fragment of a mast floating 
in the water, and they quickly decided that it must be the remains 
of some hapless wanderer as foolhardy as themselves. It seemed as 
the bones of the slain traveler in front of the murderer's cave warn- 
ing the passer-by not to enter. 

One of the most alarming incidents of the voyage was the 
deflection of the needle. It pointed no longer to the north star, but 
deflected slightly to the northwest. The pilots were alarmed ; they 
feared that the very laws of nature were changing, and 
they were surely entering into another world. Colum- f-i^^^^^^ff 
bus himself did not understand this variation of the 
needle, but he affected to have no fears, and explained it apparently 
to the satisfaction of his followers. Again, the Sargasso Sea, 
unknown to them before, awakened all sorts of wild conjectures and 
presages of evil. The constant blowing of the trade winds m the 
same direction led them to believe that it would never change, and 
they would therefore never be able to return home. Indeed, every- 
thing possible was construed into a cause of alarm. Columbus alone 
remained undaunted ; he had absolute confidence in success, and he 
believed himself directly under the guidance of Heaven. 

After sailing westward for two or three weeks the voyagers 
became deeply interested in their outlook for land. Various signs 
indicated that it could not be far off. Tropical birds that are not 
supposed to reach mid-ocean in their flight were seen from time to 
time ; floating seaweed sometimes gave them hope. On September 
25, Pinzon shouted from the stern of his vessel, " Land, land, Senior, 
I claim my reward." ^ They all looked to the southwest, the directior 

1 A reward of 10,000 maravedis per year (probably equal to $420 of our money 
See Thatcher, I, p. 490) had been offered by the sovereigns of Spain to the one wha 
first sighted laud. 



14 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

in which he pointed, and indeed there seemed to be land. Cohimbus 
fell on his knees and thanked God ; the crew sang the Te Deum ; the 
night was spent in rejoicing. But lo ! when the morning arose the 
dream was dissolved, and only the unbroken expanse of water lay 
before them in its merciless boundlessness. They had seen only a 
mirage or a thin stratum of cloud lying low on the horizon. Fre- 
quently they were deceived by the distant banks of clouds or by fog, 
and their hopes were raised again and again only to be dashed to the 
ground. After the voyagers had sailed steadily westward from the 
Canaries for an entire month without sight of land, the crew became 
more despondent and restless; they begged their commander to turn 
back while there was still a chance to reach home and civilization. 
Columbus was inflexible. From the moment they left Palos he had 
not faltered, and now he had no thought of yielding to the clamors 
of the sailors. Now he would dilate on the honor and fortune that 
awaited them ; again he would threaten to place the leaders in irons, 
if they persisted. 

It must be confessed, however, that Columbus was himself 
puzzled. He had firmly believed that by sailing twenty-five hun- 
dred miles to the west he would reach the islands of Cipango; 
and that the gorgeous empire of Cathay was but a few hundred 
miles farther on. They had now traversed twenty-seven hundred 
miles of trackless ocean, and no land yet appeared. He had kept 
two reckonings of the distance they had come, — a true and a false 
one, the former for himself and the latter to deceive the sailors, as 
he feared that if they knew how far they were from Europe, noth- 
ing could induce them to proceed. 

Columbus was perplexed at not finding land. There is no evi- 
dence, however, that he wavered in his purpose or was inclined to 
turn back. But being urged by Pinzon, he now decided to change 
his course. Had they continued their westward course for a few 
days longer, they would have reached the coast of Florida ; but this, 
of course, they did not know, and the many flights of small birds, 
always going to the southwest, convinced them that land must be 
nearest in that direction. They accordingly stood to the southwest, 
and in this direction they sailed steadil}^ for three days and yet no 
land appeared. 

The crew now became more hopeless than ever. They felt as if 
they were in a world of enchantment, where the signs of land were 
but delusions alluring them on and on to destruction. Old seafaring 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY 15 

men were appalled at the thought of their vast distance from home, 
and the apparent boundlessness of the ocean in which they sailed. 
But on the morning of October 11 the signs of land were so un- 
mistakable that the most reluctant could doubt no longer. A float- 
ing branch of thorn with berries on it, a staff carved by the hand of 
man, and weeds that grow only on land^ — all these were picked 
up from the water on that morning. All were now convinced that 
land was near, and that it was a matter of but a few days at most 
when the discovery would be made. The three caravels that night 
presented a scene of suspense and eager expectancy ; not an eye 
was closed in sleep. About ten o'clock Columbus saw from the 
top of the castle of his vessel the dim flicker of a light at a great 
distance, and its uncertain movements indicated that it might be a 
torch in the hands of some one walking. As the long hours of the 
night wore away every eye was strained in the vigilant gaze into 
the far-away horizon in search of the longed-for land. 

The midnight hour passed and it was October 12,^ 1492, — one of 
the most prominent dates in the world's history, made 
so by the work of the men of these three little, fna* d^^^ 
lonely vessels so far from the civilized world, with 
crews so lately despondent, biit now so full of expectant gladness. 
Two hours more passed when suddenly a shout of wild joy arose 
from the deck of the Pinta. It was followed by the firing of a gun 
as the joyful signal of land. There was no mistake this time ; the 
coming dawn revealed, at a distance of six miles, a verdant shore 
covered with waving trees. The goal had at last been reached, and 
we can only imagine the joy that filled the hearts of these men after 
their long and painful voyage that seemed to promise so little. 
And what must have been the feelings of Columbus at this sacred 
moment? What a world of emotion must have thrilled his soul 
when first he realized that the object for which he had spent long 
years of unceasing toil, and had sacrificed so much, had at last been 
achieved. 

THE NEW WORLD 

Columbus fully believed that the discovery he had made was a 
new and short route to the Indies, and that the land before him was 
probably one of the Japanese islands lying off the eastern coast of 

1 The first one to see the land was a sailor namen Rodrigo de Triaua. Columbus, 
however, received the reward for having seen the light a few hours before. 

2 New style, October 21. 



16 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Asia. Had this been the extent of his discoveries, it would indeed 
have been a great boon to mankind, and his name would no doubt 
be remembered for all time. 

But he had done far more than he knew. He had opened the 
way to the discovery of a continent, vast in its dimensions, unknown 
before to civilized man, — a continent containing the greatest rivers 
of the world, lofty ranges of mountains extending for thousands of 
miles, and mineral wealth that would require centuries to unfold, — 
a continent that was to be the seat of mighty empires and the home 
of millions yet to be born. What would have been the thoughts of 
Columbus had all this, as the result of his discovery, been presented 
to his vision ? 

The land first discovered by Columbus was one of the Bahama 
Islands which he called San Salvador.^ Soon after daybreak the 
three vessels cast anchor, and the admiral, richly clad in scarlet 
and bearing the royal banner of Spain, made for the shore in a 
small boat. He was accompanied by Pinzon and a few others. The 
beach was lined with human beings who had come running from 
the woods on seeing the vessels, which they thought to be gigantic 
white-winged birds. As the Spaniards approached the shore, the 
natives fled in terror, and in a few moments all were hidden 
away in the forest. Columbus on landing was overcome with 
emotion ; he burst into tears ; he bowed himself down and kissed 
the ground ; he thanked God for the realization of the dream 
that he had cherished so long. He then drew his sword and 
took possession of the new lands in the name of the sovereigns of 
Spain, and exacted at the same time the most solemn promise of 
obedience from his followers. Their attitude had greatly changed ; 
their bitterness toward the admiral for having led them so far into 
the region of the unknown was now replaced by a feeling little 
short of admiration. They surrounded and embraced him, kissed 
his hands, and promised the most implicit obedience. 

The natives, seeing that they were not pursued, and overcome by 

curiosity began again to emerge from their coverts. They 

" Indians " approached the Spaniards slowly and timidly, bowing 

themselves to the ground again and again, and showing 

every sign of adoration. They were especially attracted by the 

1 It is not positively known which of the Bahamas was the landing place of 
Columbus. Most writers believe it was Watling Island. See Adams's " Columbus," 
p. 89. 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY 17 

shining armor, the beards, the clothing, and the light color of their 
strange visitors, whom they thought to be inhabitants of the skies, 
and the commanding appearance of Columbus in his brilliant uni- 
form plainly indicated that he Avas the leader.^ 

Columbus was greatly interested in the newly found specimens 
of the human race that stood before him. They were cinnamon- 
brown in color, darker than the European and lighter than the 
African, had straight, raven-black hair, high foreheads, expressive 
eyes, and well-formed bodies. They wore no clothing whatever, and 
all were males except one, a young female of beautifully formed body. 
Columbus believed himself to be in the Indies, and he called these 
people " Indians," a name that spread until it included all the 
aborigines of the Americas. 

Columbus cruised for ten days about this island and its neighbors, 
and he was puzzled. He was searching for the Indies. He saw 
waving forests and crystal streams and bright-plumed birds; but 
where were the towered cities, the mighty rivers ? where were the 
spices and the ivory and the gold ? He found naked savages ; where 
were the kings and the princes in their royal robes ? Surely he must 
find Cathay ? He bore a friendly letter from the king and queen of 
Spain to the Grand Kahn. Could he return to Europe without see- 
ing the mighty emperor, or even locating his gorgeous dominions ? 
Alas for the limitations of genius ! Looking upon this scene from 
our standpoint, how pathetic it seems. Columbus was groping 
among these little islands in search of an empire that was more 
than ten thousand miles away, and between him and it lay an 
undiscovered ocean far greater in extent than the one that he had 
crossed. 

When the Spaniards asked the natives where gold could be pro- 
cured, they always pointed to the south. They also told of a rich 
and popidous island called Cuba. This must be Cipango, thought 
Columbus, and thither he steered. They discovered the Cuban coast, 
but it seemed much like the other lands they had seen. The admiral 
sent two explorers far into the interior ; they found the most luxu- 
riant groves swarming with bright-hued birds and insects ; they 
found fields of maize and cotton, but no rich cities as _ . 
Marco Polo had described — only rude villages of huts 
aswarm with naked barbarians, such as they had seen at San Salva 
dor. Again was Columbus bafl&ed, and he sailed away after a cruise 

1 Irving, Vol. I, p. la*^. 



18 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

of several weeks and discovered the island of Hayti, which he named 
Hispaniola (Spanish land). The autnmn weeks passed. Pinzon with 
the Pinta had separated from the other two caravels, no one knew 
why. On Christmas Day the Santa Maria drifted upon the shoals 
of an island and was wrecked. Columbus now bethought himself of 
his condition. The world had not yet heard of his great discoveries. 
Only the little Nina was left him, and a vast ocean rolled between 
him and civilization. Suppose she, too, were wrecked! He and 
his friends must then sjjend their lives among the savages in these 
far-off islands of the sea, and who would tell the story of their dis- 
coveries? Except as a dreamer and a fanatic, who then would 
remember the name of Columbus ? It is true, they had not found 
Cathay, nor could they bring back si:)ices and precious stones ; but 
they had discovered strange, beautiful lands beyond the dark sea, 
and a new race of mankind ; and the coast of Asia they thought must 
be near, and if so, the way to the Indies was found at last — was 
this not success ? This story Columbus wished to bear to the 
sovereigns of Spain and to proclaim it to the waiting world. 

Moved by such thoughts Columbus determined to embark for 
Europe without delay. In a rude building made of the timbers of 
the Santa Maria forty of the men, who wished to remain, made their 
home, and the rest embarked on January 4, carrying with them ten 
of the native Indians. In a few days they unexpectedly overtook 
Pinzon with the Pinta cruising about the Cuban coast, and the two 
launched out together for Europe. After sailing for some time they 
encountered a storm of the most violent character. The small ves- 
sels labored and struggled for life, lost in the hollow of the waves 
or riding high on their crest, at length drifting apart to meet no 
more during the voyage. The crew of each believed the other to 
have perished. 

Columbus almost abandoned hope of ever reaching Europe, and 
he prepared two carefully written accounts of his discoveries; the 
one he retained in the ship, while the other he sealed in a ball of 
wax, placed it into an air-tight casket addressed to Ferdinand and 
Isabella, and threw it overboard, in the hope that, should he and 
his crew find a grave beneath the billows, some future wanderer of 
the ocean might pick up the little token, and that it might reveal to 
the world the strange story of their romantic wanderings, and thus the 
name of Columbus might not perish nor the benefits of his success 
be lost to mankind. 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY 19 

But the storm abated and the little craft was still afloat, and, 
strange to say, a few weeks later, on the same day and but 
few hours apart, the Nina and the Pinta, after their long 14^3 
separation, were moored in the haven at Palos, Spain, 
whence they had weighed anchor more than seven months before.^ 

LATER CAREER OF COLUMBUS 

Seldom in any country has a private citizen received such homage 
as was accorded Columbus by Spain on the completion of this famous 
voyage. The people of Palos Avere wild with joy when they learneil 
that the vessels entering their harbor on that fifteenth of March were 
the same that had gone on their perilous voyage the year before. 
The places of business were closed, bells were rung, and the whole 
people gave themselves up to a long fgte of exultation. What a 
contrast between this reception of the hero and that given him a 
few years before when, in these same streets, he was jeered by the 
rabble as an adventurer and a madman — when he was forced to beg 
a crust of bread for his hungry child at the little convent on the 
hill! 

Columbus soon apprised his sovereigns at Barcelona of his re- 
turn and hia success, and they bade him come at once into their 
presence. His journey thither was a triumphal march. In front of 
the procession were six of the ten Indians brought from the New 
World ; ^ next were exhibited live parrots, stuffed birds of unknown 
species, plants and Indian ornaments and trinkets. Columbus rode 
superbly in the midst surrounded by the choice chivalry of Spain 
As the procession entered Barcelona the people abandoned them- 
selves to the most unrestrained enthusiasm. The streets were 
thronged with a surging multitude, the windows were filled with 
wondering eyes, and even the house tops were covered Reception of 
with men eager to get a glimpse of this strange pro- Columbus at 
cession. The king and queen sat in state upon the Barcelona, 
throne, beneath a canopy of gold, erected for the occasion, and sur- 
rounded by the highest nobility of Spain. Here they waited to do 
honor to this civilian, whose achievements had made for them, as 

1 It is notable that the voyage westward had been begun on a Friday, had left 
the Canaries on Friday, that land was first sighted on Friday, that the return 
voyage was begun and ended on Friday. 

2 One had died on the voyage and three were ill at Palos. Irving gives a fine 
description of Columbus's reception by Ferdinand and Isabella. 



20 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

well as for himself, a name that would never be forgotten. If ever 
there was a moment in the life of Columbus when his joy exceeded 
that which he felt at his first view of the Bahama Islands, it must 
have been now. Well could he now forget the seven years of toil 
and discouragement he had suffered before the voyage began. 

As he approached the throne the sovereigns rose and received 
him as one of their own class. Columbus bore his new honors with 
befitting modesty. He told his royal hosts the simple story of his 
discoveries, and as he concluded they both fell on their knees and 
thanl<3d God for the new lands added to their dominions, and for 
the opportunity of carrying the Gospel to the heathen that might 
inhabit them. 

The sovereigns now decided to settle the matter between Spain 
and Portugal concerning the right to the new lands by an appeal to 
Pope Alexander VI. The Pope thereupon issued his famous bull 
establishing the "Line of Demarcation."^ All discoveries 
Line of gg^g^ ^^ ^Y-iis line, an imaginary one drawn from pole to 

pole, one hundred leagues west of the Azores and Cape 
de Verde Islands, changed the following year to three hundred and 
seventy leagues, were to belong to Portugal and all west of it to 
Spain. It will be seen that this gives all the New World, except 
the eastern portion of Brazil, to Spain. 

The sovereigns now busied themselves in fitting Columbus out 
for a second voyage across the Atlantic. No trouble this time to 
secure a crew. Young men of aristocratic birth hastened to join 
the expedition ; Columbus's brother Bartholomew and Ponce de Leon 
were among the voyagers. With a fleet of seventeen sliips of vari- 
Secondvoy- °^^^ sizes the admiral set out from Cadiz on Septem- 
age of ber 25, 1493, and after a prosperous voyage landed on 

Columbus. 2i small mountainous island which he named Dominica. 
He then hastened to the island of La Navidad, where he had left 
the colony. Of the forty left on the island every man had perished, 
and the white bones scattered about told the sad story. The colony 
— the first colony planted by white men on the soil of the AVestei'n 
World — had been destroyed by the natives, and this marked the 
beginning of that mortal strife between the white race and the redrace, 
that was to continue for centuries, and to result at last in the com- 
plete dominion of the former and the universal conquest of the latter. 

After founding a colony in San Domingo, and spending three 
1 May 2, 1493. 



CHRISTOPHER COLUIVIBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY 21 

years in Porto Rico, Jamaica, and other islands, Columbus returned 

to Spain in 1496, and two years later he made a third voyage 

on which he discovered Trinidad and the mainland of 

South America at the mouth of the Orinoco River, which, Third 

' ' voyage. 

still believing himself in Asiatic waters, he took to be 

one of the great rivers mentioned in the Bible as flowing from 
the Garden of Eden. The fortunes of the great navigator now 
took a downward turn. He had tasted of the waters of adversity; 
he had drunk at the purest fountain of success and popularity, and 
now in the closing years of his life he must again drink of the bit- 
terest cup of all — that born of jealousy, envy, and malicious hatred. 
He had powerful enemies at the Spanish court, and they were 
unwearied in their efforts to poison the minds of the sovereigns 
against him. His critics had begun their work even before his 
return from the second voyage. They belittled the value of his dis- 
coveries, represented him as a tyrant and an adventurer, and inca- 
pable of governing the newly planted colonies, never forgetting to 
speak of him as a foreigner and not a true Spaniard. At length 
they were successful, and a pusillanimous soul named Bobadilla was 
sent to the West Indies with j)ower to supersede Columbus if he 
found the charges against him to be true. He exceeded his instruc- 
tions, condemned Columbus without a hearing, and sent him bound 
in fetters to Spain. On landing Columbus wrote a touching letter 
to the queen, reciting his wrongs.^ She commanded that he be un- 
bound, and that he come into her presence. In tears he fell pros- 
trate before her and told the story of his hardships. She was deeply 
moved, and Columbus was reinstated in the royal favor ; but he was 
not restored to the governorship of his colony. Columbus now made 
a fourth and final voyage to the New World and discovered the 
coast of Honduras. He returned in 1504 and found to his sorrow 
that his enemies were again in the ascendency. His 
benefactress, Queen Isabella, was dying. A few weeks voyaee 
later she breathed her last, and the hopes of Columbus 
were shattered to fragments. King Ferdinand had grown indifferent 
to the claims of the admiral, and did not even consult him in man- 
aging the lands beyond the Atlantic. It must be stated, however, 
that the admiral had not been successful in governing his colony. 
Columbus was bowed down with grief and disappointment. Old 

1 The letter was addressed to a friend who stood near the queen and who made 
her acquainted with its contents. 



22 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

age was deepening the furrows in his brow, and his long years 
of toil and hardship had utterly broken his health. He was in want 
of the necessaries of life ; but his spirit was unconquerable, and to 
the very last he kept planning to do even greater things 
Death of ^^^ Spain than he had yet done. No palliation can be 

offered for the sovereign of Spain for allowing this 
aged navigator, who had done so much for his kingdom, to die in 
poverty and want. The end came at Valladolid on May 20, 1506, 
and there his body was buried.^ 

It is true that Columbus had made a failure in his attempt to 
govern the colony he had planted in the West Indies, and that the 
popular clamor against him, both in the colony and in Spain, fur- 
nished the sovereigns ample ground for an investigation. It is also 
true that his ever sanguine spirit, and his belief that he had found 
Cathay, led him to make promises of gold for the coffers of Spain 
that could not be fulfilled. These things and the ceaseless clamor 
of his enemies led the king to turn a deaf ear to his cries. 

It is supposed that he died in the firm belief that he had discov- 
ered the eastern coast of Asia and had opened a new route to the 
Indies. The real grandeur of his achievement perhaps never dawned 
upon his mind. What a joy must have thrilled his soul and soothed 
his dying hours could he only have known that he had discovered 
a vast continent rivaling the Old World in extent, and that his name 
would be forever enshrined in the human heart as one of the rare 
few whose luster never fades. 

As in the early years of the sixteenth century other navigators 
rapidly rose into prominence, the name of Columbus fell into tempo- 
rary obscurity, but when in later years it was known that it was not 
the East Indies, but a great new continent that had been discovered ; 
when it was remembered that the world owed the discovery to this 
wandering Genoese, his half-forgotten name was revived and he was 
placed among the immortals. 

But Columbus, with all his admirable qualities, was very human, 
and was not without his faults. That he was deeply religious none 
can deny, but he did not rise above his day and generation in morals. 
He was in no sense a reformer. He captured an Indian chief by 
treachery while pretending to be his friend; he kidnapped many 

1 His remains were afterward removed to Seville, and later to San Domingo, 
then to Havana and again back to Spain (1898) . The removal from San Domingo 
to Havana was made in 1796. But there is some doubt that the body removed was 
that of Columbus. See Adams, p. 249. 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY 23 

hundred natives and sent them to Spain for the slave market ; he 
advocated the slave trade on a large scale, and inaugurated the 
treacherous methods of dealing with the Indians that were afterward 
carried on by Spain for hundreds of years. 

But Columbus did a great work for mankind, and the world has 
rightly chosen to give his name the highest place among the great 
names of that age of discovery. His greatness consisted, not in his 
conception of a new thought, for the thought was old, nor in doing 
for the world a work that no other could have done, but in his will- 
ingness to undertake to demonstrate the truth of his theory. He 
dared to do where others only talked and theorized. In this he 
stood far above every other man of his times. " He linked forever 
the two worlds." It is true he achieved more than he intended ; 
but his intentions were great also, and he deserves the highest credit 
for carrying his vast plan into execution. The fame of Columbus is 
secure, though '' his discovery was a blunder, his blunder was a new 
world, and the new world is his monument." ^ 

JOHN CABOT 

Continental America was not first discovered by Columbus, but 
by John Cabot, who like Columbus was an Italian and a native of 
Genoa. Little is known of the life of Cabot beyond the facts that 
he was born at Genoa, became a citizen of Venice, and later, about 
1490, of Bristol, England ; that he was a seaman and merchant, and 
that, next to the Northmen, he was the first white man known to 
have made a voyage to North America. 

For ages there had been a current belief in England, known to 
legend and song, that there were lands unknown, somewhere, far 
away, beyond the stormy western sea.^ And when the news reached 
England that Columbus, whose brother had sought in vain for aid 
from the English king, had succeeded in his great voyage, this 
belief was confirmed, and Henry VII felt that the prize which 
might have been his had slipped from his grasp. But when John 
Cabot applied to him for a permit to seek western lands, it was 
readily granted. The grant bore the date March 5, 1496, and was 
issued to John Cabot and his three sons, — Lewis, Sebastian, and 
Sancto; but for some iinknown reason the expedition did not sail 
for over a year afterward. The start is said to have been made on 

I Winsor. 2 Payne, Vol. I, p. 232. 



24 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

May 2, 1497, in a single vessel, the Matthew, the crew consisting of 
eighteen men.^ They landed, June 24, on the coast of Cape Breton 
Island, or possibly Newfoundland, or Labrador. They saAv no 
natives, but found their traces, and reported that the natives " used 
needles for making nets and snares for catching game." 

In August, Cabot was again back in Bristol, and it was reported 
that he had drifted three hundred leagues along the coasts of the 
new lands ; but this is not believed, as the shorfness of the time 
would not have admitted such an extended tour. ''Vast honor" 
was paid to Cabot on his return, we are informed ; " he dresses in 
silk, and the English run after hira like mad people." The king 
granted him a bonus of ten pounds, and later twenty pounds a year. 
He made a second voyage in 1498, and followed the coast of North 
America as far south as Cape Hatteras, and some claim to Florida, 
returning to England late in the autumn. He believed, like Colum- 
bus, that he had reached Cipango and Cathay. Nothing is known 
of Cabot's career after the second voyage. He is supposed to have 
died in the year 1500. 

For many years it was believed that Sebastian Cabot, and not 
his father, was the real discoverer of North America; but modern 
research has dealt a damaging blow to this claim. Sebastian 
was a navigator of some note ; he spent many years in the service of 
England and of Spain ; but there is no proof that he had 
Cabor^^° anything to do with the discovery of America. It is pos- 
sible, even probable, that he and his brothers accompanied 
their father on his first voyage, but no contemporary record, aside 
from the king's grant, makes any ipention of them, and in the 
second grant their names are not mentioned. It is now certain that 
Sebastian Cabot played false to the memory of his father long after 
these voyages had been made. He gave out that his father had died 
before the first voyage, and that he himself had commanded bo"th. 
This story was believed for centuries, but no critical student of 
history now accepts it. The Cabot discoveries created a furor in 
England, but it was short-lived. The voyagers brought no gold, and 
interest in the subject soon died away. But many years later, when 

1 One account gives two ships, another five with three hundred men — both of 
doubtful authority (see Beazly, p. 55). The safest accounts are a letter written by 
Soucino, an Italian of London, to his friend, the Duke of Milan; and another by 
Pasqualigo to his family in Venice — both within a few months after Cabot's return. 
Payne and some other writers think that Cabot started on his first voyage in 149(:' 
and spent the following winter in Iceland. 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY 25 

the world came to know that a new continent had been found, Eng- 
land laid claim to the whole of North America on the ground of the 
Cabot discoveries. 

THE NAMING OF AMERICA 

Strange were the fatalities in the career of Christopher Columbus, 
— doubt concerning so many events of his life, no authentic portrait, 
the indigence and want of his last years, and, above all, the failure 
of the New World to be called after his name. 

For many years it was not known that Columbus had discovered 
aught than some unimportant islands of the sea; that a great con- 
tinent was to be opened to civilization, through his initiative, had 
not yet dawned upon the world. Meantime others were making 
voyage after voyage over the western seas and bringing their glow- 
ing reports of what they had found. Among these was Amerigo 
Vespucci, or Americus Vespucius, a native of Florence, a resident of 
Seville. Not much is known of his life ; but it is claimed that he 
made at least three voyages to the new lands. On one of these, 
probably in 1501, he is said to have explored far down the coast of 
Brazil. It now began to dawn upon Europe that a new continent 
had been discovered, but this was not connected in the public mind 
with the work of Columbus, who had discovered only islands and 
possibly a new route to the Indies. When, therefore, Vespucius 
wrote a brief account of the " New World," as he called it, he 
created a greater sensation than Columbus had done ten years before. 
His pamphlet was translated into many langiiages, and he was hailed 
throughout Europe as one of the greatest mariners of his time. 

In 1507 Professor Waldseemtiller, of the little college of St. Die 
among the Vosges Mountains of Lorraine, published a pamphlet on 
geography, and in this he first suggested the name America. " I see 
no reason why," he states, "this fourth part of the world should not 
take its name from its sagacious discoverer and be called Amerige, 
or America." The suggestion found favor, and it was not long until 
the name America found its way on all new maps and globes repre- 
senting the Western Hemisphere.^ At first it was confined to Brazil, 
but at length it was made to designate all of South America and 
eventually (about 1541) all the land area of the New World. 

1 This same year, 1507, WaMseeiiiuller made a map of the New World and used 
on it the name America. A copy of the original was recently found in an old library 
at Wurtemburff. 



26 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

There is no evidence that Americus, who Avas a friend of Colum- 
bus, had any intention to defraud the latter of the honor of giving 
his name to the continent, nor was there any sinister motive on the 
part of the German professor. The naming of America must be 
classed as an accident born of ignorance of the facts. The " Indies " 
discovered by Columbus were renamed West Indies, and the name 
came to be confined to the islands lying east of Central America. 

OTHER DISCOVERERS AND DISCOVERIES 

The eastern coast of North America was discovered 1000 a.d. by the North- 
men led by Leif Ericson (son of Eric the Red, who had planted a colony in 
Greenland), and a temporary settlement called Vinland made. As the vine 
does not grow north of 47 degrees, the settlement was probably somewhere on 
the New England coast, but the exact location cannot be ascertained. Several 
voyages to Vinland were made, according to the Norse sagas, and the voyagers 
encountered Indians whom they called " Skraelings," inferior men. These pre- 
Columbian discoveries had long been forgotten at the time of Columbus, who 
probably never heard of them. They added little to geographical knowledge 
and left no permanent effect on the world. 

Balboa. — A Spaniard named Vasco Nunez de Balboa, a bankrupt and 
leader of rebels, while traversing the Isthmus of Panama, in 1513, was in- 
formed by an Indian chief that there was a great sea beyond the mountains, 
and that the lands bordering on it abounded in gold, Balboa ascended the 
mountains and, casting his eyes to the southward, beheld a vast glittering sea 
that seemed boundless in extent. He called it the South Sea, It proved to be 
the greatest body of water in the world, and came to be called the Pacific Ocean. 

Magellan. — In 1519 a bold Portuguese navigator, named Ferdinand Magel- 
lan, with five small vessels and about two hundred and fifty men, sailed from 
Spain westward, and three years later fifteen of them with one ship returned 
from the East to their starting point. All the rest had perished, and among 
them the brave commander, Magellan, who was killed by the natives in the 
Philippine Islands. This was the first voyage around the world. 

Other early discoverers of importance were, Vasco da Gama, who sailed 
around Africa in 1497 and reached the East Indies by way of the Indian Ocean, 
returning a few years later laden with spices and ivory, and thus accomplishing 
what Columbus and others were attempting to do by crossing the Atlantic ; 
Caspar de Cortereal, who explored the eastern coast of the United States in 
1500 ; and Cabral, who, the same year, in a voyage to India while attempting to 
follow the course of Vasco da Gama, swung too far westward and touched the 
coast of Brazil. This was a real, though accidental, discovery of America and 
might have occurred even if the discoveries of Columbus had never been made. 
These three navigators, Gama, Cortereal, and Cabral, were all Portuguese, 

Under Discoveries may also be mentioned the Conquest of Mexico by Cortez, 
with a band of about five hundred Spaniards in 1521, and the Conquest of 
Peru twelve years later by Pizarro, 



CHAPTER 11 

THE INDIAN 

In these modern days when friend can converse with friend across 
three thousand miles of sea, when the news of the day from the utter- 
most parts of the earth lies printed before us on the following morn- 
ing, it seems almost incredible that it is but four centuries since half 
the land area of the globe was utterly unknown to the inhabitants of 
the other half. 

What a world of wonder was unfolded to the eyes of the European 
as he explored the great new continent, with its broad silent rivers, 
its illimitable plains, its boundless forests ! Here he found the most 
wonderful cataracts of the earth, the longest rivers, the broadest 
valleys, the greatest lakes ; he found a vast mountain system, extend- 
ing from the Arctic regions through the torrid zone into the frigid 
climes of the South — almost from pole to pole ; he found strange 
new birds and animals and plants ; but amid all the wonders of this 
enchanting land the most wonderful thing he found was the new 
race of his own human kind. Yes, here was man, the most interest- 
ing of all studies — more interesting even to the botanist than are the 
trees and the flowers, more interesting to the astronomer than the 
stars, or to the geologist than the minerals and the fossils. Here 
was a new race unlike all known races of men. Physically the 
Indian was equal to any other race ; mentally he was weak and 
he was strong. He was a child, he was an animal, and yet 
he was a man. He lived amid the vast solitudes of the wilder- 
ness and seemed but a part of natvire, yet his breast was filled with 
human passions ; he had his loves and his hatreds, his religion 
and his hopes. Not having advanced in civilization to the point 
of using letters, he had not recorded his own history. Where the 
Indian originally came from, how he came to inhabit America, and 
how many ages he had dwelled here before the coming of the 
white man, will probably never be known. Many are the theories 
concerning the origin of the red man, but all are mere conjectures. 

27 



28 HISTOEY OF THE UNITED STATES 

The Indian has been classed as a distinct and separate race of 
mankind, and indeed he differs as greatly from the Caucasian, the 
Mongolian/ or the Ethiopian as they differ from one another. In 
fact the various Indian nations differ so greatly as to call forth the 
opinion that they could not all belong to the same race or stock; 
but while the Algonquin and the Iroquois differed greatly from each 
other and still more from the Aztec and the Inca, the difference was 
no greater than that between the Englishman and the Russian, the 
Spaniard and the German. Moreover, all the aboriginals of the 
New AVorld were characterized by certain peculiarities which marked 
them conclusively as belonging to the same race. In color the typi- 
cal Indian was cinnamon-brown, varying in shade ; he had high 
cheek bones, small, dark set eyes, straight, raven-black hair, and a 
scanty beard. "The race is physically more homogeneous than any 
other on the globe." ^ 

INDIAN RELIGION 

The American Indians were all religious. The belief in a Great 
Spirit who governed the world, who taught the water to flow and the 
bird to build her nest, who caused the changing of the seasons and 
the succession of day and night, who gave the sunshine to his chil- 
dren and brought the thunders and the rain — this belief was uni- 
versal with the aboriginals of America.^ The Indian believed in a 
future life, a happy hunting ground, where he would be accompanied 
by his dog, would need his bow and arrow and hatchet, and where 
his occupation would be similar to that of this life, except that all 
care and sorrow, and toil that wearies, would be removed. The 
religion of the red man was an ever present consciousness; he 
prayed when he sat down to meat and when he arose ; he prayed 
when he went on the chase and when waging war upon his fellow- 
man. His religion, however, was grossly corrupted with superstition. 
He believed that spirits dwelled in animals, in trees, and in every- 
thing about him. His imagination peopled the air and the water 
and the forests with living, invisible creatures, and often filled him 
with superstitious dread. Many of these spirits are evil, and the 
Indian felt that he must protect himself against them * by carry- 

1 Physically the Indian resembles the Mongolian. 

2 Brinton's " Myths of the New World," p. 52. 

3 Some writers claim that the monotheistic idea was unknown among most 
Indian tribes until the coming of the Europeans. See Brinton, p. 69. 

^ Starr's " American Indian," p. 80. 



THE INDIAN 29 



ing some charm, by repeating certain secret words, and he often 
propitiated them, as he believed, by offerings and by prayer. He 
believed in signs and omens and dreams. The rustle of a leaf, the 
whistle of a bird, or the rolling of the thunder — all had their 
meaning to the untutored red man. His dreams were revelations from 
heaven, and he would sacrifice anything to carry out their suggestions. 

He worshiped the Great Spirit ; he worshiped the sun and the 
stars, the rivers and the mountains, but rarely did he bow down 
to that Avhich he had made with his own hands. He offered to his 
God the firstlings of his flock, the best of his possessions ; but only 
here and there, as among the Aztecs of Mexico, did he engage in the 
revolting practice of offering human sacrifice. 

In one respect the religion of the Indian differed from that of 
almost all other peoples. He did not look upon himself as a sinner 
in the sight of the Great Being. His tribe may have offended as 
a whole, but he did not feel a personal responsibility, nor did he 
believe that his future happiness depended in any way upon his 
actions in this life. His religion led him to torture himself at times 
in the most shocking manner ; he did this, not as an atonement for 
sin, but to enlist the sympathy and aid of his God in some special 
enterprise. He never failed to pray for success in any special under- 
taking, even though his sole object was to steal horses and other 
property from his enemy. He believed in a life of happiness here- 
after for all men (except perhaps his most hated enemy), regardless 
of their manner of living in this life. As a rule the Indian had little 
to regret. He followed the dictates of his conscience with the 
utmost exactness ; and while his conscience, which was based on 
tribal custom and not upon religion, bade him to be honest and 
kind in his dealings with his own people, it permitted him to steal 
from his enemy, to destroy his property, and to tortnre him to death, 

HOME LIFE 

The home life of the American Indian before it was disturbed by 
the coming of the white man was of the most, simple and primitive 
character. It was scarcely above that of the animals that inhabited 
the forest with himself. He lived in a den of filth — a little hut or 
a movable tent,^ and with this he was content. Here he often slept or 

^ To this rule there were many exceptions, such as the Aztecs, the lucas, the 
Pueblos, and the Iroquois who had houses of a more substantial character and who 
were far less nomadic in their habits than many of the tribes. 



80 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

smoked during the day, and at evening he sat with his family or hia 
friends and told over the legends and myths of his tribe that had 
been handed down from generation to generation, or dilated upon his 
own deeds of valor in the chase or on the battlefield. His legends 
were inexhaustible and included such sublime themes as that of the 
Creation, when the ocean was boundless, and silence and night were 
universal, until Hurakan, the mighty wind, or the gigantic bird with 
its eyes of lightning and the sound of its wings as the roar of thunder, 
passed over the vast, dark water and produced light and earth and 
animals and men ; ^ or that of the Heroes of the Dawn, fair of com- 
plexion and mighty in war, who had founded their nation countless 
ages ago and had departed to the East, whence they would come 
again and claim their power as of old ; - or that of the implacable 
strife between the twin brothers. Light and Darkness, who at length 
compromising, agreed that each reign half the time, and thus we have 
day and night. From these sublime legends the narrator would 
descend to the relating of weird and revolting witch and ghost 
stories unworthy of the wizard or the crone. Sometimes, however, 
he would sit for hours in absolute silence and gaze on the ground, not 
giving the slightest attention to the gambols of his children about 
him or to his squaw by his side busy with her bead work or in the 
dressing of skins. 

There is in the Indian countenance a certain serious, almost sad, 
expression which is readily noticed by strangers. This may result 
from the fact that he is never free from superstitious fear. He lives 
in constant dread, not of the armed foe or the wild beast, but of 
the myriads of invisible spirits that inhabit everything in nature 
about him.^ Against these mysterious powers, which he fancies to 
be ever present, he has no power to contend, and his unceasing fear 
of them for ages has probably set its stamp indelibly upon his face. 

Usually, however, the Indian at home seems, in a great measure, 
happy. No greater proof of this is needed than the fact that he 
sings. His musical instruments are few and crude indeed ; but he 
sings in his tent and he sings at play. His games are numerous 
and he engages in them with his whole heart. The old and the 
young, the male and the female, engage in many of the plays. But 

1 This was a legend of the northwestern tribes. 

2 This was a legend of Mexico and South America, and is considered a remark- 
able prophecy of the coming of the white man who " wrote the doom of the red man 
in letters of fire." See Brinton, p. 220. 

• Grinnell's " Story of the Indian," p. 164. 



THE INDIAN 81 



with all this, there seems to be something wanting to true happiness; 
there is a vein of sadness that pervades all Indian life. In many 
of his plays there is a self-inflicted pain; many of his songs are in 
a minor key. This results, perhaps, as stated before, from his peren- 
nial fear that is born of superstition. 

The Indian is not cruel by nature, as is commonly supposed. It 
is true that the main business of his life, the slaying of his fellow-man 
' in war and of the wild animal in the chase, and the want of refining 
influences at home, have left their mark upon his nature and rendered 
him indifferent to suffering. It is true that he is cruel in times of 
war ; but when his anger is not aroused, when unsuspicious of danger 
or treachery, there is none among the children of men more kind- 
hearted or more steadfast as a friend than the wild Indian. He will 
share his last morsel with the stranger within his gates, and he has 
often been known to offer his life for the protection of a friend. 

Another popular error is the belief that the Indian squaw is a 
slave to her husband.^ It is true that the squaw does the necessary 
Avork in the home : she prepares the meals, dresses the skins, raises 
the corn, and gathers the wild rice and the berries ; but her husband 
engages in the more arduous duties of following the war trail and 
blaying the wild beast. His toil is less constant, but far more 
perilous and fatiguing than hers. They simply divide the labor and 
both are content. The fact that the woman carries the tent when 
moving has shocked many a traveler ; but this custom doubtless 
arose from the fact that it was necessary for the man to be un- 
trammeled so as to be on the lookout for danger. One reason why 
the woman and not the man cultivates the fields will be shown by 
the following : A white man asked the men of a tribe why they did 
not help the women in the labors of the field, and they replied, 
"Because women know how to bring forth and can tell it to the 
grain ; but we do not know how they do it, and we cannot teach the 
grains." ^ 

Family quarrels are almost unknown among the Indians ; the 
man does not abuse his wife ; she manages her home as seems best 
in her own eyes, and if she has nothing to set before him when 
hungry, he does not chide her for being improvident or for not 

1 McMaster and other historians give this erroneous view. 

2 The wife of a Sioux, after planting her corn patch, will rise at night and walk 
around it in an entirely nude condition, so as to impart to the grain the magic of 
her own fecundity. Brinton, p. 174. 



32 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

raising more corn or gathering more rice and berries; he bears it in 
silence and without murmuring. In many tribes the woman has^ 
great influence and has much to do in deciding important questions. 
The descent among Indians was usually reckoned in the female line, 
and among the Iroquois the women owned the land and had greater 
influence than the men. Female Indian chiefs were by no means 
uncommon among the tribes of North America. 

INDIAN OCCUPATIONS 

North America, when first explored by the white man, was found 
to be inhabited over its entire surface by Indian tribes. They were 
scattered thinly and there were not more perhaps than half a million 
in the aggregate. It requires a vastly greater land area to support a 
people who live off the natural products of the country than to sup- 
port an equal number who live by tilling the soil and raising domestic 
animals. The Indian lived chiefly from natural products unaided by 
the hand of art. His serious occupation was twofold, — the busi- 
ness of war and one long life struggle for food. Some tribes, espe- 
cially those of the Southwest, received a partial supply of food from 
tilling the soil in the most primitive manner, raising maize and a 
few other products ; but the great source of the food supply of the 
Indian was the flesh of wild animals taken in the forest in which 
he dwelt ; and to capture these animals with his imperfect means 
required the utmost skill, and this he acquired in a remarkable degree. 

The Indian, spending his life in the depths of the forest, was 
truly a child of nature and nature was his study. He observed her 
changing forms with the utmost acuteness, and while he often mis- 
interpreted their meaning, the facts were truly his. The rolling of 
the billowy clouds, the ever changing color of the sky, the opening 
buds and the fading leaves, the majestic, silent river, the howling of 
the winter's storm — these and a thousand other things were observed 
by this inhabitant of the woods ; they spoke to him a definite language, 
and he did not fail to comprehend. But the most important acquisi- 
tion of the Indian brain was his knowledge of animals, especially of 
those on which he depended for his daily food. His knowledge 
of the haunts and habits of animals was astonishing ; and not less 
so his skill and ability in capturing them. He could imitate the 

1 Sometimes in this chapter I have used the present tense, but in the maii: 
my description of the Indians refers to them in their primitive state as fouml 
three bundred years ago. 



THE INDIAN 33 



gobble of the wild turkey, the whistle of the bird, or the bark of the 
wolf,* and deceive those creatures in their own abodes. He was 
almost as fleet of foot as the deer or the hare ; he could follow a 
trail with the keenness of a bloodhound. As he crept through the 
forest in search of game, no item of interest escaped his notice ; his 
ear caught every sound ; he seemed to see in all directions at the 
same moment, and seldom could the keenest-scented animal escape 
his cunning and his craftiness.^ 

Let us now take a rapid glance at the Indian as a warrior. It was 
in this capacity that we knew him first. We have heard from child- 
hood how our grandfathers hewed their way into the deep wilderness 
where their conquest of the forest and the soil and the wild beast 
was an easy task compared with that of the savage man with whom 
they had to contend. We have read of the Indian wars of colonial 
days — of the horrible massacres, the inhuman tortures ; of the 
bands of hideous warriors who roamed over hills and valleys, seek- 
ing out the peaceful abode of the industrious pioneer, who, with his 
devoted wife and loving children, had sought to make a home in the 
wilderness — of these painted fiends dashing with dreadful yells 
upon the harmless family ; braining the astonished husband and 
father with the tomahawk before the eyes of the wife and children ; 
stopping the shrieks of the fond wife only by striking her down also, 
to die quivering in her husband's blood ; seizing the terrified chil- 
dren and carrying them away into hopeless and life-long captivity ! 
We have all heard the baleful story, and it is not fiction ; it is truth, 
and was enacted hundreds of times. '^ 

Incredible as it seems, this monster is the same Indian that we 
have seen sitting among his children in his wigwam, telling over the 
stories of his grandfather's days, smoking serenely, accepting his 
meal, however scanty, without murmur — the Indian who never 

1 McMaster's " History of the People of the United States," Vol. I, p. 6. 

2 But no Indian could surpass our pioneer hunters in woodcraft. Such hunters 
as Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton, without the training of previous generations, 
were more than a match for the keenest of the red men. The cause of this lies in 
the fact that the white race is endowed with a greater degree of mentality than any 
other race of men. 

8 In referring to this practice of the Indians, as a necessary part of history, it is 
but fair to add that they committed such deeds only when on the war path, and also 
that the white men at times were not a whit less cruel than the untutored red men. 
No massacre by the Indians ever surpassed in fiendish cruelty the Guadenhutten 
massacre in the Tuscarawas Valley, Ohio, in March, 1782, when ninety-six peaceful, 
friendly Indians, who had been con^'erted to Christianity, were murdered in cold blood 
by a band of white men who called themselves the Pennsylvania militia. 
D 



34 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

scolds his wife nor strikes his child, who is kind-hearted, who prays 
without ceasing, and who never doubts that he will enter the happy 
hunting ground. Such a contradiction of character in the same 
being may seem difficult to explain. 

Judged from such deeds alone as the above mentioned, the Indian 
must be pronounced the most cruel and hellish of all men born. But 
let us examine the premises before drawing our conclusions. The 
Indian was essentially a warrior. His noblest art was the art of 
war. He inherited his warlike spirit from his fathers. He imbibed 
it from his mother's breast. It was fostered in his childish plays. 
It was part of his religion. But how about murdering innocent 
women and children ? This was part of legitimate warfare with the 
Indian. He practiced it on his own race as readily as on the whites. 
And even in this there was method in his madness. He killed women 
and children because they would become w^arriors or would bring 
forth warriors. His wars were wars of extermination, his motto was 
slay and spare not, and he never seemed to think he was doing 
wrong. In time of peace he was passive, and even gentle in his own 
rude way ; but when his war spirit was roused, when the peace pipe 
was broken, the wild beast in his nature took possession of him, and 
his fury knew no bounds. He became, — 

" in sober truth, the veriest devil 
That e'er clinched fingers in a captive's hair." 

During the period of our early settlements there were many fierce 
conflicts between the whites and Indians, and many were the deeds 
of cruelty recorded against the latter. But it is certain that they 
seldom or never practiced their cruelties without some specious 
ground for so doing, and in truth they were scarcely more to blame 
than their white neighbors. Sometimes the French and sometimes 
the English inflamed them against the Americans ; and again, there 
were dishonest American traders who roused their anger by cheating 
them. Finally there was one abiding cause of strife between the 
two races. The Indian saw that his lands were gradually being 
taken from him and that his race was being driven farther and farther 
toward the West; and at times whole tribes and nations rose against 
the intrtiders and determined to repossess the hunting grounds they 
had lost. Hence there was unceasing warfare along the frontier, 
and the Indian could not discriminate between the innocent and the 
guilty. He was still a barbarian. 



THE INDIAN 35 



The Indian often tortured his captive. He would flay him alive, 
cut out his tongue, or burn him to death over a slow fire. And he 
Avould gloat with the joy of a fiend over the dying agonies of his 
foe. For this no excuse or palliation can be offered. Yet it only 
proved the Indian to be a man, as distinguished from the beast — a 
crude, undeveloped, uncivilized, barbarous man. No further evidence 
is needed to prove that man and the brute are not akin, and that in 
the heart of the natural man there is a spirit of evil, as well as a 
spark of the divine. 

The Indian warrior surpassed all other men in his power of en- 
durance and his capacity for suffering. He could travel on foot for 
hundreds of miles without food. If captured by his enemy, he would 
suffer himself to be tortured to death by fire, or his body to be torn 
to pieces by bits without exhibiting a feeling of pain, or permitting 
a cry to escape his lips. He chanted his death song with his latest 
breath. 

No special rules of warfare were followed by the Indians. No 
one was compelled to go to war ; but to refnse to do so made one 
very unpopular, if he was young and able. The chief held his 
authority, not by law, but principally through his powers of leader- 
ship. If he Avas a natural commander, if he had taken many scalps, 
if he had encountered great dangers and displayed great heroism, 
the young men were quite ready to follow and obey him. Even in 
battle the Indians had no particular rules or order to guide them. 
Each brave did what seemed best in his own eyes. An Indian battle 
was not the carefully planned meeting of two armies, drawn up with 
scientific precision, as we find among civilized peoples. It Avas rather 
a series of skirmishes, of personal hand-to-hand encounters, of am- 
bushes, without plan and without order. The Indian was full of 
courage, but he was wily and treacherous. He Avould not fight an 
enemy fairly, if he could surprise and assassinate him. He would 
lurk in a ravine, or dark shadow, or behind a tree until his enemy 
came near, when he Avould spring upon him with the ferocity of a 
tiger, uttering, at the same instant, a yell so piercing, so heart- 
rending, that no one who ever heard it could forget it to the end of 
his life.^ 

CIVILIZATION 

The most hopeless feature in connection with the Indian problem 
8 that the race seems incapable of civilization. No barbarous peo- 
l McMaster, Vol. I, p. 7. 



8Q HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

pie awaits and longs to be civilized. Civilization comes as a gradual 
indigenous growth covering centuries, or is carried to them by more 
enlightened peoples. If the latter, they are almost sure to resist it 
at first as a wild horse resists capture, but eventually seeing that 
what is offered them is better than what they have, they come to 
desire further enlightenment, and when a people reaches this stage, 
its future is secure. Even the Ethiopian, while he has shown little 
or no capacity for civilizing himself, is capable of being improved 
by contact with more enlightened races. The negro race in our 
country to-day has progressed less rapidly in its third of a century 
of freedom than was' hoped, but it has, nevertheless, done something : 
it has shown a capacity to improve, and has produced many intel- 
ligent, aspiring men. But far less is this true of the American 
Indians. When first discovered by the Europeans, they ranged 
from the savage, man-eating tribes of Yucatan and British Colum- 
bia to the half-civilized nations of Mexico and Peru. Since then 
little change has been wrought in Indian culture. Their learning 
the use of firearms and of the horse has greatly changed their mode 
of life, but has not brought them civilization. Their centuries of 
contact with the most enlightened race of the earth have profited 
them little — not because they have lacked opportunity, not because 
they were crowded from their original homes, not even because of 
a want of native intelligence, but because they have chosen to fight 
against the arts of civilized life and to resist it to the death. Ages 
of contact with civilization have produced in the Indian little aspira- 
tion to improve his own condition, to make his race a world force, 
or to elevate it above the state of barbarism. The Indian languages 
are laden with poetic beauty ; but no Indian has produced a poem 
that will live, no Indian has written a history, no tribe has reared 
a monument. For four centuries the race has been associated with 
the most progressive of all races ; but has any Indian invented a 
machine, or founded a school, or established a printing-press ? 
His association with the white man has, in the main, proved a 
curse to him rather than a blessing, for he has absorbed the vices 
Without the virtues of an enlightened people. Some Indians, it is 
true, have been Christianized, but the great majority have persist- 
ently resisted every attempt to advance them. Their contact with 
the whites has largely broken up their tribal relations, and freed 
them from the rigid morality born of tribal custom, and their present 
state is worse than the first. Even the greatest Indians ever known 



THE INDIAN 87 



to the white race, such as Pontiac and Tecumseh, whose courage and 
endowments the world must admire, became great and famous, not 
by attempting to elevate their race, not by fostering civilization, but 
by fighting against it. 

The Indian is essentially a child of nature. Take him to- the 
centers of industry and civilization, and he pines for his forest home ; 
dress him in the garb of a gentleman, and place him in the home of 
luxury, and he longs for his dirty wigwam, his breech clout, and 
his bead-covered moccasins.^ He loves, above all things, the wild 
freedom of the wilderness, the flowing river, the waving forest, the 
crags and peaks of the mountains. The conventionalities of civilized 
life, the hum of industry in the great city, have no charms for him. 
It is the howl of the wolf, the scream of the wild bird, the soughing 
of the wind among the trees — these furnish the music that touches 
the soul of the Indian. He aspires to no improvements beyond that 
which his tribe enjoyed when he was born. What was good enough 
for his fathers is good enough for him. He is not educated, and he 
does not wish to be. He does not desire to know anything of the 
great world beyond his own home in the wilderness. He does not 
know his own age. He notes the changes of the seasons and counts 
time by the moon ; but how many moons ago since he was born, or 
since his children were born, he does not know, and he does not care. 

Such is the American Indian of to-day ; such he was three hun- 
dred years ago. What will his future be ? Some claim that the 
Indians of North America are not diminishing in numbers, that there 
are as many to-day as when Jamestown was settled. Others claim 
that their numbers are constantly decreasing. The latter are prob- 
ably correct. It is certain that whole tribes have disappeared ; others 
have greatly diminished ; still others have been absorbed into neigh- 
boring tribes and have lost their identity.^ 

As to the future of the Indian, one thing is as sure as the coming 
of the morning, — if he continues to reject the arts of civilized life, 

1 To this rule there are many exceptions. Since writing the above I have met 
many Indians, taken from their tribes in childliood and educated in tlie government 
schools, to whom this statement will not apply. 

2 The whole number of Indians in the United States, according to the census of 
1900, was 266,760. Of this number 137,242 are said to be "civilized," that is, they 
are "taxed" Indians, who do not live in tribal relations on reservations. Tlie de- 
crease in Indian population during the preceding ten years was 6, 847, and the 
decrease since 1850 is nearly 200,000, part of which may be accounted for by migra- 
tions to British America and Mexico. 



38 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

he must perish as a race. The white man has come with his civiliza- 
tion — his schools, his churches, and his newspapers, his railways and 
telegraph — and above all his ambition to increase more and more. If 
the red man cannot or will not meet him on the same ground, he 
must die, I am not defending the national morality of driving a 
people from the land they had possessed for ages ; I am simply stat- 
ing the great truth that ignorance and barbarism must fall before the 
irresistible march of modern civilization. If the red race will not 
rise to the situation, if it will not make itself a force in our govern- 
ment, if it refuses to join the great procession of modern thought, 
there is nothing before it but a grave ; and the future historian 
must record the story of a people that have been, a people that refused 
the sustenance necessary to life, a people that died by their own 
hand. 

NATIONS AND TRIBES 

The Indians of North America were divided into several great families, dis- 
tinguished by language, habits, and personal appearance, and each family was 
composed of many different tribes. 

One of the most prominent families was the Iroquois, living for the most 
part in New York. Some of the tribes, however, extended into Canada, the 
Ohio Valley, and the South. They built connected log houses, fortified their 
villages, and cultivated the soil. They were noted for physical strength, cour- 
age, and their warlike propensities. Five tribes of the Iroquois, the Cayugas, 
Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, and Senecas, were banded together in a confed- 
eration known as the Five Nations, and after being joined by the Tuscaroras in 
1714, called the Six Nations. In addition to these the Fries, Hurons, Cherokees, 
and a few other tribes belonged to the Iroquois. The Cherokees formerly occu- 
pied the Ohio Valley, and they with the Pawnees are supposed to have built the 
curious mounds to be found in that locality. The former belief that there was 
a civilized people known as the Mound Builders who preceded the Indians is no 
longer held by thoughtful students of the subject. 

By far the greatest Indian family in North America, measured by the extent 
of territory occupied, was the Algonquin family. They surrounded the Iroquois 
on all sides, extending from Labrador westward through British America to the 
base of the Rocky Mountains and soiithward to South Carolina. They also 
extended westward through the Mississippi Valley to the Rocky Mountains. 
The most important ti'ibes of the Algonquins were the Massaclmset, Mohegan, 
Lenni Lenape (who made the famous treaty with William Penn), Miami, Illinois, 
Sac and Fox, Ojibwa, Blackfoot, Shawnee, and other tribes. Most of the famous 
Indians of our history, as King Philip, Pocahontas, Pontiac, and Tecumseh, 
were Algonquins. This nation compared favorably with the Iroquois in every 
way. Both had advanced above the state of barbarism and showed an interest- 
ing incipient civilization. Their highest accomplishments were the raising of 



THE INDIAN 39 



corn and the making of pottery. There are at present near 100,000 Algonquins 
and about 40,000 Iroquois living on various reservations. Many of them are 
self-supporting, living mostly by agriculture ; but in general civilization they 
have not advanced greatly beyond the state in which they were first discovered. 

The Athabascans were another great family, which extended from the Arctic 
regions to Mexico, mostly west of the Rocky Mountains. They were divided 
into many tribes, including the warlike Apaches, the Atna and Kuchin of Alaska, 
the Navajos of Arizona and New Mexico, the Beavers and Slaves of British 
America. 

The Dakota or Sioux family occupied that portion of the United States west 
of the Great Lakes about the head waters of the Mississippi, the Yellowstone 
Valley, and the adjacent portions of British America. Among them we find the 
Crows, Assiniboines, lowas, Mandans, Omahas, Osages, and Winnebagoes. 
About forty-five thousand of them still exist. 

The Muskogi family were among the most cultured and industrious of 
Indians. They built good houses and cultivated the soil. The leading tribes 
were the Creeks, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Seminoles, occupying for the most 
part the southern portions of the United States. 

The Shoshone family included the semi-civilized Aztecs of Mexico, the Co- 
manches, the Snakes, the Utes, the Mokis, and many other tribes. 

Since writing this chapter on the Indian I have made the acquaintance of 
Colonel R. H. Pratt, the founder and superintendent of the Indian school at Carlisle, 
Pa. Colonel Pratt has spent many years in dealing with the Indians. He is a man 
of infinite sympathy with the great work in which he is engaged, and his knowledge 
of Indian life and character, equal no doubt to that of any other man in the country, 
entitles his opinions to the respect of all students of this question. Colonel Pratt 
does not agree with the majority of the historians in their statements that the Indians 
cannot be civilized, and I hereby cheerfully make a record of his views. He believes 
that the Indians do not differ essentially from other races in their capacity for civili- 
zation, and that only the right conditions have been wanting. He claims that it is a 
mistake for the government to keep many of the Indians on reservations, apart from 
the great currents of business, and to foster them in idleness by furnishing them sup- 
plies. He is convinced that if the Indians were scattered among the whites they 
would soon become self-supporting and show the same capacity to improve that is 
found in other races. It is a well-known fact that the most degraded Indians in the 
country are those who still maintain their tribal relations, live on the reservations, 
and are fostered by the government. 



CHAPTER III 

EXPLORATIONS 

Scarcely had Europe caught its breath after its astonishment at 
the unexpected discovery of a great continent beyond the western 
ocean when the period of exploration began. Some of the explorers 
were sent forth by their respective governments ; others went at 
their own expense. Many of the expeditions were of the most dar- 
ing and adventurous character, and the chief motive forces were a 
thirst for gold and the spirit of adventure, to which were usually 
added some pretense of preparing for future colonization and a desire 
to convert the natives to Christianity. 

Spain had taken the lead in discovery ; she also took the lead in 
exploration. Before the middle of the sixteenth century Spanish 
explorers had overrun a territory in the New World greater by far 
than the whole of Europe. Having covered Central America and a 
large portion of South America, they turned their attention to the 
north. 

Of the early Spanish expeditions on the soil of the United States 
the one offering the greatest attractions to the lover of the adven- 
turous was probably that led through the southeast and the Missis- 
sippi Valley by Ferdinand, or Hernando, de Soto, who was himself 
the most chivalrous and picturesque of all the early explorers of 
our country. To this expedition and its ambitious leader the main 
portion of this chapter will be devoted.^ 

1 To give a full account of all these exploring parties and what they did would 
tend to swell this volume to the point heyond its intended limits, while a brief 
summary of each would fail to reproduce in any degree the spirit of those times, 
and would furnish little to attract the reader. I have chosen therefore to present 
all except one in simple outline, while to that one a larger treatment will be given. 

Though it may seem out of harmony with the remainder of this history, the 
method I have employed in treating this subject (a similar method being adopted 
also, in some degree, in chap. I) was adopted because I have heard various persons 
say that in attempting to read American history, they become utterly tired of the sub- 
ject by the time they have read the dry details of the discoveries and explorations. 

40 



EXPLORATIONS 41 



DE SOTO 

The pages of fiction can scarcely parallel the strange romance of 
the career of Ferdinand de Soto. He was born in the year 1500, in 
the quaint and quiet Spanish town of Xeres — a town of ruined 
castles and gloomy monasteries. He was a boy of remarkable beauty 
and gave early promise of unusual talent. His father was an im- 
poverished nobleman, and being too poor to educate him and too 
proud to teach him the art of earning a livelihood, his boyhood 
would have been spent in idleness, had not a powerful nobleman, 
Don Pedro Avila, adopted him into his family. Avila gave him a 
thorough education, including all the chivalric accomplishments of 
the Middle Ages. 

On reaching manhood De Soto, like many other Spanish youths 
of the time, made his way to the New World. As a Spanish cavalier 
he spent many years in Darien, and many were his deeds of wild 
and daring adventure. It was said that he was the handsomest and 
most chivalric man in the army and that he surpassed all his fellows 
as a horseman and swordsman. 

In 1531 De Soto joined Pizarro, as second in command, in the 
infamous conquest of Peru. He was far more humane than his 
cruel and heartless chief. He denounced Pizarro with the greatest 
severity for putting the harmless Inca to death ; but 
the fact that he was a member of that gang of robbers per^^** ** 
andshared in its spoils must remain forever a blot upon 
his name. His share of the Peruvian gold was equal in value to half 
a million dollars. He now resolved to return to Spain, which he 
had not seen for fifteen years. On reaching his native land he was 
hailed as the conqueror of Peru and soon he became the most popu- 
lar and powerful nobleman in Spain. Before embarking for America 
lie had been betrothed, it is said, to Isabella, the daughter of his 
benefactor, Avila, the playmate of his childhood, who had been pro- 
nounced the most beautiful woman in the kingdom. All these years 
she had waited for De Soto. They were married soon after his 
landing, and for the second time within half a century " Ferdinand 
and Isabella" became the most conspicuous and popular pair in 
Spain. 

De Soto was unused to wealth, and he spent his money with a 
lavish hand. He lived in a mansion and kept trains of servants. 
In two years half his fortune had melted away. He then bethought 



42 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

himself how he might replenish his coffers, and his mind turned 
again to America. He knew about Florida and believed it to be 
a land, not only of flowers, but of gold, and his request to make a 
conquest of that country at his own expense Avas readily granted 
by Charles V. With some six hundred men he and his charm- 
ing wife embarked for Cuba in April, 1538. He had been made 
governor of that island by the emperor. His followers included 
the flower of the nobility, young men of wealth and s^.ation, and a 
number of veteran soldiers who had served under him in Peru. 
G-ayly over the sea the little fleet swept, the men as light-hearted as 
if on a holiday excursion and as confident as if the gold they sought 
were already in view. Reaching Cuba, they disembarked and more 
than half a year was spent in festivities and preparation for the 
invasion. 

FLORIDA 

Florida was the name given to the vast unexplored region of the 
southeasteru part of the United States, a region since divided into 
Ponce de ^^^^ ^ dozen flourishing states. It had been so named 

Leon, by Ponce de Leon, who, a quarter of a century before 

^^^^- the coming of De Soto, had wandered through the wil- 

derness in a pathetic and fruitless search for that magical fountain 
which, as the natives informed him, would bring youth to the aged 
and life to the dying. Fifteen years later Narvaez, with a band of 
three hundred freebooters, had landed on the coast of Florida, made 
an excursion into the interior, and treated the Indians with such 
inhuman cruelty that the latter rose in their fury and destroyed the 
invaders of their soil — and but few were left to tell the story. It 
was this land that De Soto would now invade and become master of. 
His chief aim was not to slay and conquer the simple natives, not to 
make some great discovery that would benefit his race and perpetuate 
his name, but rather to gain wealth and the power that wealth can 
purchase. 

In the early spring of 1539 De Soto left Cuba with his brilliant 
army,^ an army that, for equipment and richness of uniform, could not 
have been surpassed by Spain in the palmiest days of her chivalry. 
The faithful Isabella would gladly have accompanied her husband, 
but he antici})ated hardships as well as success, and he left her 
behind. Fondly she waved her last farewell to her gallant lord a8 

1 570 men and 223 horses. Wiiisor, Vol. II, p. 245. 



EXPLORATIONS 43 



the vessels moved out from the harbor; fondly she hoped for his 
early return loaded with riches and honor. 

The hearts beat high with De Soto's crew as they launched out 
from the Cuban coast. None seemed to doubt that wealth and 
honor awaited them. As the pale blue line in the far-off horizon 
informed them that they were nearing the flowery land, their jo}- 
broke forth into songs and exclamations of delight. There at last 
was their El Dorado. There was the land of the cedar and vine, the 
land that was abloom with perpetual spring — and it must also be 
the land of gold. It must be another Mexico, another Peru ; and the 
name of their commander would henceforth rival those of Cortez and 
Pizarro. Thus thought the followers of De Soto, and they rejoiced, 
they " filled high the cup with Samian wine" ; they saw themselves in 
imagination returning to Spain covered with glory and laden with gold. 

But with their music was mingled a minor strain when they remem- 
bered that De Leon and Narvaez had found no gold ; they had found 
only disaster and death. Again was their dream disturbed when before 
the dawn of the first morning after they landed at Tampa Bay they 
were rudely awakened by the savage yells and a shower of arrows 
from a horde of naked warriors. The Spaniards leaped up in terror 
and ran for their lives to their ships. This was the beginning of the 
three and a half years of unceasing strife and turmoil and battle 
which was to end in the destruction of the greater portion of the 
Spanish army. 

De Soto was not at heart a cruel man. He had no desire to 
wantonly slay the natives ; ^ he fully intended, however, to give 
battle whenever the Indians opposed his march. After this firet 
attack he drew up his army in battle array and marched inland ; 
but the inhabitants had all fled into the forest and their village was 
deserted. A few, however, were made captive, and De Soto loaded 
them with presents and sent them to their chief, begging that he 
return and make friends with the Spaniards. The chief sent back 
a defiant answer expressing his hatred of the invaders and his inten- 
tion to fight them as long as they remained in his territory. The 
various Indian tribes were usually friendly to their first white 
visitors, and the Spanish commander was at a loss to account for 
such hostility ; but he soon discovered the cause of it. This tribe 
had a few years before come into contact with De ISTarvaez, and this 

1 One contemporary writer, however, Oviedo, states that De Soto was fond ol 
the sport of killing Indians. 



44 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

same chief had been mutilated by that heartless Sjianiard by having 
his nose cut off while his mother had been put to death, being torn 
to pieces before the eyes of her son by bloodhounds.^ No wonder 
that a mortal hatred against the Spaniards now rankled in his savage 
breast. In fact, the one great obstacle that De Soto had to encounter 
in his long journey through the wilderness was the hostility of the 
Indians caused by the memory of Narvaez. Wherever that adven- 
turer had gone he had left a trail of infamy and a deadly hatred of the 
white man among the natives. De Soto did all in his power to 
counteract this feeling, but only partially succeeded. There is little 
doubt that the loss of half his army was due to this cause. 

The Spanish commander now made a most fortunate acquisition 
to his army m the person of Juan Ortiz, a fellow-countryman who 
had lived with the Indians for ten years. He had come from Cuba 
with a party searching for Narvaez, and with three companions had 
been made captive. The other three were tortured to death, but 
Ortiz, a handsome and athletic youth of eighteen years, was saved by 
an emotional Pocahontas, the daughter of the chief, who begged her 
father to spare him. He was now familiar with the Indian language 
and habits, and he became De Soto's guide and interpreter. The 
Spaniards eagerly inquired of Ortiz where gold might be found, but 
he could give them no definite information. He only knew that 
something over a hundred miles to the northeast there lived a great 
chief to whom ^11 the surrounding chiefs paid tribute. 

WANDEEING IN THE WILDERNESS 

To find this forest king De Soto immediately set out, and thus 
began his great three years' iparch through the wilderness which 
was to end only with his life. For more than a hundred miles the 
army, cavalry and infantry tramped through the magnificent forests 
of oak and pine, alternating with long stretches of treeless prairie 
adorned with bright flowers and waving grass. But more than once 
their steps were arrested with vast, dismal swamps and impenetrable 
bogs. Reaching the city of the great chief, they found that his 
majesty with his subjects had fled and had taken refuge -in the 
swamps and forests. De Soto sent Indian runners to offer the chief 

1 The Spanish explorers usually carried bloodhounds with them, and when they 
wished to inflict a cruel death and strike terror to the natives they would throT» 
their victim to these animals. 



EXPLORATIONS 48 



his friendship, but the wily red man feared another Narvaez and no 
efforts could draw him from his hiding place. The few Indians cap- 
tured, on being questioned about the one subject nearest the Spanish 
heart,' told of a land many leagues northward where gold abounded, 
as they had heard, in great quantities, and the army hastened on. 
This was a trick often employed by the natives to get the white 
invaders of their soil to pass on, and it seldom failed to produce 
the desired effect. The army moved steadily northward for several 
months, traversing the central portion of the present state of 
Georgia and touching upon South Carolina. 

Had not the finer and nobler feelings of the Spaniards been 
obscured by their blind pursuit of fortune, this tour might have 
been made one of great interest and of scientific usefulness. Here 
were strange trees laden with climbing vines, flowers of every color, 
herbs and grasses in numberless variety, unknown to the most 
learned botanist of that day. Here were birds and animals peculiar 
to America, and, above all, man in an uncultured state, living his 
simple life in the great forest among the lower orders of creation. 
What an opportunity for study ! But the Spaniards cared not for 
these things; they were in search of gold, and for this shining 
goddess they braved every peril and suffered every hardship that 
human nature is capable of enduring. 

The country through which they passed was far more densely 
settled by the red men than were the northern and central portions 
of the United States. The tribes were nearly all partially civilized ; 
they lived in firmly built houses and cultivated the soil. Their 
civilization was fully equal to that of the lower classes in Spain. 
The army passed through a great many Indian villages, most of 
which were deserted, the occupants having fled to the woods at the 
approach of the invaders. Frequently the Spaniards stopped for a 
rest of several days in these deserted towns. The natives would 
sometimes remain wholly out of sight until the white men had 
gone ; at other times they would suddenly emerge from the forest 
in hostile bands and attack the foraging parties sent out from the 
camp. Sometimes while on the march the army was harassed for 
whole days by marauding Indians, lurking behind trees and hedges 
watching for an opportunity to send the flint-pointed shaft, or burst- 
ing forth from their coverts in bands, sending a shower of arrows 
and then hieing away to their hiding places with the fleetness of the 
antelope. Many of the Spaniards, and a far greater number of the 



46 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Indians, were killed in these skirmishes. Had not the former been 
well protected by coats of mail, the entire army would no doubt have 
been destroyed within the first year. 

De Soto was ever ready with friendly overtures to the fleeing 
chiefs. A few of them were won by his presents and kind words ; 
others were defiant and hostile in the last degree. One of them 
made answer to his proffers of friendship as follows : " Others of 
your accursed race, in years past, have poisoned our shores. They 
have taught me what you are. What is your employment? To 
wander about like vagabonds from land to land ; to rob the poor 
... to murder the defenseless. With such people I want no 
friendship. War, never ending, exterminating war is all I ask." 
The Spanish commander admired the heroism and intelligence 
displayed by this answer and renewed his efforts for an interview, 
but all in vain. 

Long and weary months the Spanish army wandered about in 
the deep wilderness scarcely knoAving whither they went, seeking 
fortunes as one follows an ignis fatuvs. They procured most of 
their food from the fields of maize cultivated by the natives. For 
meat they drove with them a herd of swine. They often made 
Indian captives whom they pressed into service as guides or bearers 
of burdens. The guides on several occasions misled them into great 
swamps and marshes. The penalty for such an act was to be torn 
to pieces by bloodhounds, and they bore their punishment with the 
utmost fortitude. 

The Spanish army entered an Indian country, called Vitachuco, 
whose chief, a man of powerful physique and noble bearing, bore 
the same name as his country. De Soto made a friend of him, as he 
thought, and was received into his capital, which consisted of two 
hundred strong houses built of timber. After several days' feast- 
ing, Juan Ortiz, the interpreter, informed the governor that the 
Indians had laid a plot to destroy the entire Spanish army. The 
Spaniards were to be invited to assemble on a great plain between a 
forest and a lake outside the city, to witness a parade, where several 
thousand warriors were to amuse them, when suddenly, at a given 
signal, the Indians were to seize their weapons, previously hidden 
in the grass, and fall upon the Spaniards without mercy. De Soto 
was amazed at the information. He quietly informed his men of 
the plot and bade them assemble well armed and drawn up in line 
for battle. The fatal day came, and De Soto walked by the side of 



EXPLORATIONS 47 



Vitachuco, at the latter's request, to the scene of the coming battle. 
Twelve stalwart Indians, secretly armed, accompanied their chief ; 
but an equal number of Spaniards loitered carelessly near. Thus 
walked the white and the red chiefs, in apparent friendship, each 
ready to give the signal to his followers to leap in deadly strife upon 
those of the other. The moment came, the signal was given, and in 
an instant the tranquil serenity of that beautiful sunny morning was 
transformed into the dreadful din of battle. The Indian chief was 
made captive by the bodyguard of De Soto, who, leaping on a 
horse held near by a page, was soon at the head of his cavalry in 
the forefront of the battle. All day the battle raged. The Indians 
were heroic in their courage, and they outnumbered the Spaniards 
ten to one ; but it was the naked body against the coat of mail ; the 
bow and arrow against the steel Toledo blade in the hands of the 
most skillful swordsmen in the world, and the red men were mowed 
down like grass before the reapers' scythe. Many of the Indian 
braves were slain, many were made prisoners, and became the ser- 
vants of their conquerors. Vitachuco was pardoned by De Soto and 
again treated as a friend ; but the fallen chief was unconquered and 
unconquerable. Sometime after the battle his fury arose and with a 
dreadful war Avhoop he struck De Soto in the face with his fist and 
felled him unconscious to the ground. In an instant a dozen swords 
were thrust into the Indian's body and he fell dead. The blow had 
disfigured De Soto for life, smashing his nose and knocking out 
several of his teeth. 



THE INDIAN QUEEN 

De Soto learned that there was far away to the north a rich and 
powerful Indian nation known as Cofachiqui, or Cofitachiqui, gov- 
erned by a queen, a young and beautiful girl of eighteen years. 
He heard also that the land abounded in the richest mines of gold 
and silver, and he decided to direct his steps thither ; but the way 
was long and the soldiers footsore and weary, and months of jogging 
along through marsh and bog, over arid plains and through dense 
forests, must be endured ere they could reach their goal. At length 
they traversed a broad, open country and came to the bank of a 
beautiful river. One evening as they came to a bend of the river 
they heard from the opposite shore the din of voices, the shouts of 
playing children, and the barking of dogs. Next morning they 



48 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

discovered that it was the home of the princess who ruled over 
Cofachiqui.^ 

De Soto was exceedingly anxious to make friends of the youth- 
ful queen and her people. He bade Ortiz shout across the river, 
and assure the natives that he desired their good will and friend- 
ship. The Indians were astonished at the appearance of the Span- 
iards. At the break of day they gathered in great numbers on the 
i-iver bank where they now stood gazing in speechless wonder at the 
strange sight — warriors wrapped in bright steel armor, with glit- 
tering swords in their hands, and the richly caparisoned horses, 
animals which these Indians had never before seen. Presently six 
of the chief men of the nation entered a canoe and crossed to the 
encampment of their strange visitors. 

" Do you come for peace or war ? " they asked with the true 
dignity of the brave. 

'' I come for peace," replied De Soto ; " I seek only a peaceful 
passage through your land ; I need food for my people and beg your 
assistance." 

After a brief conversation and an earnest request by De Soto 
to meet their queen in person, the chiefs recrossed th& stream. 
Soon afterward the Spaniards saw a highly decorated canoe brought 
to the edge of the water, and this Avas followed by a gorgeous palan- 
quin borne by four men. From the palanquin stepped a young 
woman who took a seat amid downy cushions in the canoe. She 
was rowed across the river accompanied by eight female attendants 
and many warriors in other canoes. The queen was dressed in the 
highest art known to the red children of the forest. As she stepped 
upon the shore the Spaniards were greatly impressed with her quiet 
dignity, her modest, graceful manner, and her rare beauty. Through 
the interpreter she and De Soto entered into conversation, in which 
she offered him the use of half the houses of her capital during his 
stay with them. She then arose and handed to one of her maids a 
string of rich and costly pearls, and bade her give it to De Soto ; 
but the latter begged that she suspend it from his neck with her 
own hand. This she hesitated to do as she feared that it would be a 
violation of her woman's modesty. But De Soto insisted that such 
an act could not be immodest as they were treating of peace and 
friendship, of all things the most serious between strange peoples. 

1 It is believed that this Indian town stood on the present site of Silver Bluff, on 
the east bank of the SaA^annah River, in Barnwell Comity, S.C. 



EXPLORATIONS 49 



The princess yielded to his request, whereupon he took from his 
linger a beautiful gold ring set with a ruby and presented it to her. 

The army crossed the river and occupied the apartments assigned 
them. This was certainly an oasis in the desert, a haven of rest 
for the weary travelers, and now, too, their hopes were to rise on the 
wings of the wind to the highest point. On inquiring for the object 
of their search, their fair hostess informed them that there were 
great quantities of gold within her territories, and she sent men to 
the mines to bring specimens. At last the Spaniards believed they 
had found another Peru. Now they would load themselves with 
gold and return to their native land. The men returned from the 
mines laden with the metal, but it proved to be a worthless alloy of 
copper — and the Spaniards awoke from their radiant dream, and 
in sorrow turned again their weary eyes to the wilderness. Before 
leaving the country, however, the queen presented her guests with a 
great number of really valuable pearls. 

The habit of De Soto was to compel every Indian chief whom he 
got into his possession to accompany him at least to the bounds 
of the chief's territory. His object was to prevent Indian attacks 
upon his army. This he made known to the queen of Cofachiqui, 
and informed her that it would be necessary for her to accompany 
them. She demurred, but De Soto insisted and practically made 
her captive. This seems cruel after all the kindness with which she 
had received the Spaniards, but De Soto feared that in no other 
way could he prevent an uprising of the treacherous red men. 

They left the city by the river early in May, 1540, and traversed 
the northern part of Georgia, the princess being carried in her 
palanquin by her own warriors and followed by her maids. Thus 
they plodded along for weeks when one day the lovely maiden, of 
whom the whole army was proud, proved that she was not only a 
dignified queen and an ideal hostess, but a true Indian — she sud- 
denly leaped from her couch and, running with the fleetness of a 
deer, darted beneath the underbrush of a dense forest. De Soto 
and his men never saw nor heard of her again. She probably re- 
turned to her quiet home on the banks of the river and resumed her 
happy reign over her people. 

THE BATTLE OF MA VILA 

Our adventurers now turned southward through the present state 
of Alabama. They made a long stop with a friendly Indian tribe 



60 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

on the Coosa Eiver, and departing, left behind one of their number 
who had fallen in love with the chief's daughter and chose to 
remain with the Indians. 

In southern Alabama there dwelt the most warlike and power- 
ful of all the Indian tribes of the Southeast. Tiie chief, whose 
name was Tuscaloosa, heard of the coming of the Spaniards and 
went to meet them, receiving them with the blandest smile and 
inviting them into his capital. But this was only a blind ; his pur- 
pose was to entrap his white visitors and destroy them to the last 
man. The capital ^ was built like a fort, surrounded by a strong wall 
made of timbers and surmounted by towers. De Soto entered the 
city gates with a portion of his army, and a little later the fight 
began between two servants and soon became general. The Span- 
iards Avere standing in an open square when the Indians, who had 
sent their squaws and children to the forest, poured out from the 
houses and rushed upon them with their blood-curdling war cry, and 
white and red men grappled in deadly combat. The white men 
fought their way to the main gate, outside of which their horses 
were tethered. Leaping upon the horses they made ready to charge, 
but the Indians had surged through the gates and leaped over the 
walls in great numbers, and now they hurled the Spaniards back for 
a hundred paces over the plain, when the latter turned about, made 
a desperate charge, and drove the Indians back into the city. Again 
the Indians rushed out and again the white men hurled them back, 
following them into the open square, and there continued their deadly 
sword thrusts. Thus for hours the two armies, surging to and fro, 
fought like demons. The Spaniards set fire to the city and in a few 
minutes every house was ablaze, and the roar and heat of the flames 
Avere added to the din of battle. When night came the Indian army 
was destroyed. Some had probably escaped to the forest ; thousands 
lay dead upon the ground. But the Spaniards had paid dearly for 
their victory. Many of them Avere dead and nearly all the survivors 
wounded.^ Forty-five of their horses were killed and all their camp 
equipage, baggage, medicines, and the pearls from Cofachiqui had 
been consumed in the fire. De Soto on his noble charger had led 
the fight. Early in the afternoon an arrow pierced his thigh and 
stuck fast, rendering him unable to sit in his saddle ; but not having 

1 The town called Mobile, Mavila, or Mavilla, probably stood on the present 
site of the Choctaw Bluff, on the Alabama River, in Clarke County, Ala. 

2 The total losses from all causes at the end of this battle is stated by the 
' Gentleman of Elvas " at one hundred and two. 



EXPLORATIONS 51 



time to extract the arrow, he stood up in his stirrups and thus fought 
the remainder of the day. 

This battle of Mavila was one of the greatest ever fought 
between the white men and Indians on the soil of the United 
States.^ The army was unable to move for near a month after this 
terrible experience. There were many wounds to be dressed and 
but one surgeon, a man of little skill, left alive. 

The army never recovered from the effects of this battle. From 
this day forth De Soto was a changed man. His buoyant and jovial 
spirits were gone. He heard that ships from Cuba with fresh sup- 
plies for his army were now in Pensacola Bay, but a few days' march 
distant and thither he would go for recruits and supplies. But 
rumors noAv reached his ears that filled him with dismay. He was 
informed that his men were disheartened and would desert him at 
the earliest opportunity. Disguising himself, he mingled among 
them at night, listened to their conversation, and found the rumor 
to be true. 

De Soto was deeply dejected. He felt that he could not raise 
another army if this one deserted him. He had spent his fortune 
and accomplished nothing. His faithful Isabella had written him, 
urging and begging that he give up his vain pursuit of fortune and 
return to her. But his spirit was too proud; he could not yield. 
How could he return with his ragged and penniless army ? How 
could he endure poverty and humiliation after the taste of wealth 
and popularity he had enjoyed ? No, he must succeed or die ; gold 
was more precious than life, and disgrace was worse than death. 
Such was De Soto ; such was Spain in the sixteenth century. This 
man of iron will now came to the desperate decision to head off his 
mutinous men by refusing to inform them about the ships and by 
turning northward again into the wilderness. 

DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT RIVER 

Sadly and wearily now the army turned again to resume its 
journey through the unexplored forest. The march from this day 
was aimless and almost hopeless. They wandered from place to 
place, caring little whither they went. The army was without tents 
or baggage; their clothing had turned to rags, and they dressed 
themselves in skins. Through illness and incessant fighting with 

1 See Bancroft's " United States History," Vol. I, p. 48. 



62 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

the Indians their numbers were constantly decreasing. Bat few of 
their horses remained, and most of the men traveled on foot. 

De Soto was no longer the frank, energetic, and trusted com 
mander; he was moody, sullen, distant, and careworn. He had 
lived but forty years, but the furrows of age were deepening in his 
face. It is believed that from this time forth his mind was unbal- 
anced, that he felt his pursuit of gold to be hopeless, and that he 
was resolved to die in the wilderness. But strange as it may appear, 
the one and only great historic event in the life of De Soto was yet 
before him • he was yet to do, all unconsciously, the one thing that 
would bring him enduring fame and link his name forever with 
American history, — he was yet to discover the Mississippi River. 

During the autumn and winter months the general course of the 
army was northwestward, and it was in the spring of 1541, and 
probably at Chickasaw Bluff, not far from the present boundary 
between Tennessee and Mississippi, that they first cast their eyes 
upon the great river. The majestic current, a mile and a half in 
width, swept by, bearing upon its bosom trees and logs and great 
quantities of driftwood. Here the mighty river had rolled for ages 
unknown, and De Soto was the first white man to look upon its tur- 
bid waters.^ But he and his followers did not realize the magnitude 
of the discovery ; they were still seeking for gold. They built four 
barges, crossed the river, and made a detour of several hundred 
miles to the northwest, through the present states of Arkansas and 
Missouri. This tour covered a year, and it was a year of extreme 
hardship and toil ; a year of Indian fighting and disaster. Many of 
them perished, and among them the faithful interpreter, Juan Ortiz. 
In the early spring of 1542 the expedition returned to the Missis- 
sippi, by way of Red River, and now the great march was soon to 
close. 

De Soto was weary imto death with his long and fruitless toil. 
His countenance was haggard and worn, nor was it in his power to 
Death of De conceal his deep depression of spirits. He was attacked 
Soto, May 21, by a slow fever, which increased in violence, until he 
^^^^- saw that he must die. Calling his officers about him, 

naming one as his successor, he bade them an affectionate farewell 
and died, commending his soul to God. They buried him "darkly, 
at dead of night," with the impressive service of the Catholic 

^ Cabeza de Vaca had, however, seen one of the mouths of the Mississippi a few 
years before. 



EXPLORATIONS 68 

Church, to which he had always been faithful. That the Indians 
might not find the body, all traces of the grave were obliterated; 
but the Indians were soon seen prowling about and looking know- 
ingly at the burial place, and it was determined to remove the body 
and sink it into the depths of the river. With solemn countenances 
a few of the officers rowed out to the middle of the great river at 
midnight, bearing the body of the dead chieftain, inclosed in a cas- 
ket made of a hollowed-out oaken log, and reverently they lowered 
it into the water. 

The new leader lacked the indomitable spirit of De Soto, and the 
army soon decided to abandon the further search of fortune and re- 
turn to civilization. They at length moved toward the southwest, in 
the hope of finding Mexico. After wandering for some months west 
of the Mississippi, they returned to that river, and in rudely built 
boats floated with the current to the Gulf of Mexico, and in Septem- 
ber, 1643, reached a Spanish colony in Mexico. At starting, three 
and a half years before, they were a dashing army, many of 
them rich and of noble birth, adorned with the most brilliant uni- 
forms and animated by the highest hopes of fame and fortune ; now 
they were careworn, dejected, and penniless, dressed in the skins of 
wild animals and covered with wounds and scars, and less than half 
of their original number, the rest of them having found a grave in 
the wilderness. 

When Isabella heard of the death of her husband, her grief was 
uncontrollable. Strangely eventful had been her life. Long and 
weary years she had waited and loved. Then came a few short 
years of happiness, too ravishing to endure. And now came the 
blow that was too heavy to be borne. Her grief was the grief of 
Niobe, and in a few years she had mourned herself to death. 

For wild and reckless adventure the career of De Soto would be 
difficult to parallel. But his great expedition in the Southeast, 
while fascinating, was singularly barren of good results. Aside 
from the accidental discovery of the great river there is nothing to 
mark it as useful — no study of the language and habits of the 
natives, no record of the flora and fauna, nor scientific observations 
of the topography of the country. Little indeed was added to the 
knowledge of the New World by this costly expedition of De Soto. 



54 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



OTHER EXPLORATIONS 

Spanish. — In 1528 Panfilo de Narvaez, with four sliips and about foui 
liundred men, explored tlie northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The expe- 
dition was most unfortunate. Many were killed by the Indians ; Narvaez was 
drowned near the mouth of the Mississippi River. At length but four were left, 
Cabeza de Vaca and three companions. These wandered about for eight years, 
traveling over two thousand miles, crossing the continent, and finally reaching a 
Spanish settlement on the western coast of Mexico. 

De Vaca and his companions told wonderful stories of their travels, and one 
of these stories was of seven cities i of which they had heard, said to contain 
yast treasures of gold ; and Coronado, governor of a province in Mexico, raised 
an army of over a thousand men, two thirds of whom were Mexican Indians, 
and went in search of these cities. He discovered many Zuni Pueblos of the 
Southwest, the Grand Caiion of the Colorado, and penetrated as far northeastward 
perhaps as the valley of the Platte River. But he found no gold, lost many 
of his men, and returned to Mexico broken-hearted. In the summer of 1541 
Coronado and De Soto, with their respective parties, were but a few days apart, 
and Coronado, suspecting this, sent a messenger to find De Soto ; but he was 
not successful. The expedition of Coronado was better managed than that of 
De Soto, and it yielded better results in extending geographical knowledge. 

Other Spanish explorers were Gordillo, who explored the southeastern coast 
of the United States in 1520 ; and De Ayllon who, with five hundred men, sailed 
northward along the Atlantic coast in 1526 and made a fruitless attempt to 
found a colony in what is now Virginia, near the site of Jamestown. The fact 
that the Spanish explorers on the soil of the United States found no gold will 
probably account for the fact that no important Spanish settlements were made 
within it. 

French. — The king of France refused to respect the "Line of Demarcation" 
by which the Pope had divided all heathen lands between Spain and Portugal, 
and demanded that if Father Adam had made such a will, the will be produced. 
The French, however, confined their early explorations to the north. In 1534 
Jacques Cartier made a voyage to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, exploring southern 
Labrador, Prince Edward Island, and Anticosti. He returned to France, and 
the next year came again and sailed up the St. Lawrence River as far as the 
present site of Montreal, so called from the name he gave the place — Mount 
Royal. The explorations of other Frenchmen — Champlain, Allouez, Marquette, 
Joliet, and La Salle — will be mentioned in a later chapter. The English ex- 
plorers were settlers as well and will be treated under colonization. 



1 Known as the seven cities of Cibola. 



CHAPTER IV 

COLONIZATION — THE SOUTHERN COLONIES 

The New World had been discovered for a century, and the terri- 
tory of the present United States was still a wilderness, uninhabited 
except by the native savage.^ It was not possible that such a con- 
dition could endure. oSTorth America presented wonderful oppor- 
tunities for future development. It was bounded by two oceans, 
while Europe had but one ; its central river valley for extent and 
fertility was unequaled in the world; nor could Europe match 
the Great Lakes, the cataract of Niagara, the Mississij)pi River, 
the Eocky Mountains, or the Grand Canons of the Colorado and the 
Yellowstone. It was only through colonization that this vast and 
beautiful land could become truly useful to mankind, and the time 
was ripe for a portion of Europe to transplant itself permanently to 
North America. The burning question during the closing decades 
of the sixteenth century was, Which of the European states will 
succeed in becoming the mother of civilization in North America ? 
The chances all seemed to favor Spain. Spain had taken possession 
of Mexico and South America^ and of the adjacent islands of the 
sea ; and, moreover, she had laid claim to all of North America on 
the ground of the Pope's decree of a century before. Her great 
advantage lay in the fact that she was by far the great- . 

est maritime power of the earth. But Spain was ill 
fitted to found empires and build nations. Her motives were too 
low. She sought, not to found self-supporting colonies, but to 
plunder the natives in her mad search for gold. For gold she slew 
the red man, for gold she enslaved the black man, and gold proved 
the ruin of Spain. 

1 The only settlement of white men in the present United States was at St. 
Augustine, Fla., founded 1565, and at Santa Fe, New Mexico, settled in 1582 or later. 
The great French Hugnenot, Coligny, tirst sent Ribault, who made a settlement in 
Florida; but they were brutally massacred by Menendez, a Spaniard. Goiirges, a 
Frenchman, afterward made fearful retaliation by destroying the Spanish colony 

2 Except the eastern portion which belonged to Portugal. 

55 



66 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

'For nearly a hundred years Spain had hekl undisputed sway in 
the New Worhl. Neither England nor France had followed up their 
early discoveries with attempts at colonization. England during the 
sixteenth century was struggling with the Reformation and the 
political questions accompanying it ; France was rent with civil and 
religious wars. Both were thus deterred for many years from giving 
serious attention to the new lands of the West, though both agreed 
in disputing the exclusive claims of Spain. 

IMeautime Spain had a clear field. No other nation ever had 
such an opportunity to establish a great empire.^ But Spain proved 
unworthy of her trust. The chief cause of her downfall was, as 
stated, her too great devotion to the god of gold. This caused a 
decline in her agriculture and manufacturing. But there were other 
causes. Spain lost her best artisans and laborers through the expul- 
sion of the Moors ; she lost much of her commercial spirit through 
the expulsion of the Jews; and, worst of all, the horrors of the 
Inquisition robbed the nation of much of its choicest blood. In 
addition to all this the efforts of Spain to increase her political 
power in Europe and to lead the forces of the counter reformation 
only weakened the Empire and hastened its downfall. 

While Spain was declining through her own inherent weakness, 
France and England were rapidly rising. France had reached a sea- 
son of peace and also a season of wide influence under the reign 
of that broad-minded statesman, King Henry of Navarre, the author 
of the Edict of Nantes. The French now began to occupy Acadia 
and the St. Lawrence Valley. But it is with the work of England 
that we are here concerned. The reformation in England had con- 
tinued through the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and, after a 
momentary reaction under Mary, had been completed under Eliza- 
beth. The long reign of " Good Queen Bess," ending in 1603, 
brought not only internal peace, a notable revival of industries at 
home and activity on the sea, it also raised the British nation to a 
first-class power. And the Spaniard at length found his match in 
the Briton. 

For five centuries, in their island home, the Norman and the 
Saxon, the Angle and the Jute, had commingled, until each had lost 
his identity in the producing of a race unsurpassed by any other in 
history — the English race; and this people now, at the close of a 
long and successful struggle for religious liberty, had taken a fore- 

1 See Johns Hopkins University Studies, Vol. VHI, pp. 122-123. 



COLONIZATION — THE SOUTHERN COLONIES 57 

most place among tlie nations. England was now seized with a de- 
sire to expand, and her attention was turned toward the New WorkL 

Various were the motives of the British in turning their atten- 
tion to colony building. One of the chief causes was a feeling of 
rivalry with Spain ; another was a belief that the island was already 
overpopulated and needed an outlet for its surplus population. To 
these causes must be added the desire to search for gold, to find a 
northwest passage, and, as developed a little later, a belief that the 
colonies could be made to furnish certain commodities, such as silk 
and wine, which could not be produced in England. 

Reviving the half -forgotten voyages of the Cabots, England laid 
claim on this ground to the greater portion of North America. Con- 
scious of the strength of youth. Englishmen set forth 
upon the sea, and stood ready to dispute with Spain the 
dominion of the ocean. The Elizabethan Era is renowned in Eng- 
lish history, not only for its literature, but for its growing power 
upon the sea, and especially for its hardy and skillful seamen. 
There were Hawkins the slave trader, the famous half-brothers, 
Humphrey Gilbert and Walter Raleigh, Gosnold, Newport, and 
Erobisher, and above all Francis Drake, the greatest seaman before 
Nelson. Drake was the first to put into practice the policy of 
weakening Spain by attacking her in America.^ Drake it was who 
made a great voyage around the earth ending in 1580, the second in 
history, in which he took many Spanish prizes ; and henceforth he 
was known by the Spaniards as the Dragon. Eight years after the 
completion of his famous voyage he played an important part in 
the most momentous event of the century in which he lived — the 
defeat of the Spanish Armada. 

Never before had Europe witnessed so vast a display of power 
upon the sea as that which Philip II now put forth in the 
" Invincible " Armada. Spain was at this time by far the richest 
and greatest nation of Europe or the world. Mexican and Peruvian 
gold had poured into the Spanish coffers in uncounted millions,^ and 
the power of the Empire was felt to the uttermost parts of the sea. 
This was the golden age of the Spanish Empire, and the Armada was 
the most notable product of that age. With this vast fleet Philip 
would now smite and disable the island kingdom, and at the same 

1 Fiske's " Old Virginia and Her Neighbors," p. 24. 

2 It is estimated that by looting the Indians of Mexico and Peru, Spain was 
enriched by a sum equal to $5,000,000,000. 



58 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

time lie would present a spectacle to the world that would overawe 
auy other nation that might have the temerity to measure swords 
with the Castiliau. The Armada consisted of one hundred and 
thirty ships, the largest ever seen in Europe, bearing thirty thousand 
soldiers and three thousand heavy guns. Not only to chasten Eng- 
land for daring to claim a portion of the New World did Philip send 
forth this fleet, but especially to force back into the Church the stray- 
ing Briton who had wandered from the Catholic fold. 

Great was the excitement in the British Isles when the people 
knew of the hostile coming of the Armada. Europe stood aghast 
with consternation. Had England been conquered, France and the 
Netherlands would immediately have been attacked. But the Eng- 
lish rose to the occasion. Forty thousand soldiers were soon under 
arms. The English fleet was much smaller than the Spanish, but 
the ships were swifter, and above all, they were manned by such 
masters of the sea as Lord Howard of Effingham and Hawkins 
Defeat of the ^^^^ Frobisher and Drake, while the Armada was com- 
Spanish manded by the Duke of Medina Sidonia, a man of 

Armada. little skill and less experience. The gigantic fleet ap- 

proached the Plymouth harbor in July, 1588, in the form of a grand 
crescent seven miles in extent. The English met the foe and de- 
stroyed many of their ships by making sudden dashes, then sailing 
beyond the reach of the Spanish guns, and again by sending fire 
ships among them. In a short time the Spanish fleet was greatly 
disabled, and, moreover, it was penned within the German Ocean. 
The conquest of England was now abandoned, and the remnant of 
the Armada, attempting to reach Spain by sailing around England 
and Scotland, encountered, near the Orkney Islands, a succession 
of terrific storms, and many more of the vessels found a bed in the 
depths of the sea. The soldiers perished by thousands, and com- 
paratively few of them ever again reached their native land. Few 
events in history have been more far reaching in their results than 
the destruction of the Spanish Armada. It marked the end of 
Spanish dominion of the sea. It was the beginning of the end of 
the national greatness of Spain. From this time the Empire declined 
steadily and irresistibly, and three hundred and ten years later the 
downfall was completed in the short, decisive war with the United 
States of America. What England began in 1588 her child, then 
unborn, was to complete three centuries later ; and the power of 
Spain was confined to the bounds of her own peninsula. 



COLONIZATION — THE SOUTHERN COLONIES 69 

The greatness of the modern British Empire takes its rise from 
the defeat of the Spanish Armada. As a maritime power England 
soon rose to the first place, and from that day to the present there 
has been none successfully to dispute her sway. The defeat of the 
Spanish Armada has been pronounced the opening event in the 
history of United States.-^ From that moment North America was 
open to colonization with little danger of hindrance from the Spaniards. 
Even before that event England had made a beginning of colonizing 
America, and the first Englishman to engage in it Avas 
Sir Humphrey Gilbert. Obtaining a charter from charter^STS 
Queen Elizabeth, he made a heroic attempt to found 
a colony in Newfoundland ; but Gilbert lost his life by shipwreck, 
and his mantle fell on the shoulders of a much abler man than 
himself, one who must be considered the father of English coloniza- 
tion on the soil of the United States — Walter Raleigh. 

Raleigh was one of the best representative Englishmen of his 
age. He was a student of books and a leader of men. A pupil of 
Coligny, a friend of Spenser, he was a statesman and a scholar, a 
courtier and a soldier, and in each he was one of the 
leading men of his times." Raleigh was granted a char- gji -.fh*^^ 
ter similar to that of Gilbert. He sent two exploring 
ships to the coast of North America, and they brought back glowing 
accounts of the beauty of the land and the gentleness of the natives. 
They had landed at Roanoke Island off the coast of North Carolina. 
It was at this time that the eastern coast of North America received 
the name Virginia in honor of the Virgin Queen. ^ Raleigh's first 
colony was sent out in 1585 under Ralph Lane with one hundred 
and eight men, who settled on Roanoke Island ; but after a year of 
hardships they were picked up and carried to England by Sir Francis 
Drake, who happened to touch at that point in one of his great voy- 
ages. They brought back with them tobacco and the potato, and first 
introduced the use of these in England. Raleigh was disappointed 
at the failure of his colony and he deternxined to try again. In 1587 
he sent a colony of one hundred and fifty, seventeen 
of whom were women, under John White, and soon after i sf^ 
they landed at Roanoke, Virginia Dare was born. She 
was a grandchild of Governor White, and was the first English child 

1 Fiske's " Old Virginia," p. 39. 

2 Doyle's " English Colonies in America," Vol. I, p. 56. 

' It is said that Elizabeth herself suggested the name Virginia. 



60 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

born on the soil of the United States. The governor soon found it 
necessaiy to make a voyage to England, intending to return to his 
colony. But the war with Spain interfered, and three years passed 

before an English vessel reached Roanoke. When at 
The lost |^g|. j^gjp Q2(,m.e, the colony had utterly disappeared and 

its fate was never known.^ Ealeigh was still undis- 
mayed. He exclaimed to a friend as late as 1602, the year of his fifth 
expedition, which also failed, " I shall yet live to see it an English 
nation." But the great man's fortunes now took a downward turn. 
His royal patron died, and in her place came the bustling little 
egotist, James I. Raleigh fell into disfavor; he was cast into 
prison, where he remained for twelve years, meantime writing his 
" History of the World." Then, after a brief season of liberty, he 
was again imprisoned on the false charge of treason and was soon 
after beheaded. No more dastardly deed was ever committed by a 
British sovereign than the murder of Raleigh. 

Notwithstanding the fact that none of the colonies planted by 
Raleigh was permanent, he must be awarded the honor of securing 
the possession of North America to the English race, of making 
known the advantages of its soil and climate, and creating the spirit 
of colonization among his countrymen.^ It was Raleigh above all 
men who prepared the way for successful and permanent English 
colonization on the soil of the United States. 

VIRGINIA 

At the beginning of the seventeenth century ail the eastern 
portion of North America, which afterward became the thirteen 
original states, was known as Virginia. Great interest in American 
colonization was awakened in England by Richard Hakluyt, a noted 
geographer, who published several little books on English voyages 
and America.^ Several voyages were made before any permanent 
settlement was established."* These voyages, undertaken by indi- 
viduals, had not been successful financially or otherwise. From this 

1 Years afterward the people of Virginia found children among the Indians with 
light hair and eyes, and it was believed that they were descendants of members of 
White's colony who were probably adopted by Indian tribes. 

2 Winsor, Vol. Ill, p. 334. 

8 Hakluyt's works have recently been published in 16 volumes. 

* In 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold, one of Raleigh's captains, sailed to Cane Cod and 
Buzzards Bay, intending to found a colony, but failed to do so. In 1603 Martin Pring 
made a voyage to New England ; a son of Humphrey Gilbert sailed to Chesapeake 
Bay and was killed by the Indians. In 1605 Captain Weymouth made a voyage to the 
Kennebec River and returned with five Indians. 



COLONIZATION — VIRGINIA 61 

cause others were deterred from risking their fortunes in similar 
enterprises. But uhe success of various commercial companies which 
had multiplied in the last half century for the purpose of trading 
with distant countries, especially of the East India Company, char- 
tered in 1600, naturally suggested similar enterprises for the 
western world.^ And further, the corporation as a form of local 
subordinate government had long been familiar to the English mer- 
chant, as Osgood says, and readily " lent itself to plans of colonial 
extension." ^ Accordingly, in 1606, two companies were formed, 
Virginia was divided into two parts and a part granted to each, 
the London Company and the Plymouth Company.^ They obtained 
a royal charter enabling each to found a colony, granting the right to 
com money, raise revenue, and to make laws, but reserving much 
power to the king. Each was given a block of land a hundred miles 
square, and the settlements were to be at least one hundred miles 
apart. The London Company had permission to plant a colony any- 
where on the coast between the thirty-fourth and forty-first degrees 
north latitude, and to what they did we now direct our attention.* 

Great haste was now made by the London Company in prepar- 
ing for colonization in America, and on the 19th of December, 
1606, three small ships bearing one hundred and five 
colonists and commanded by Christopher Newport, a J^® London 
famous sea captain, set out upon the wintry sea for 
the New World. The largest of the vessels, the Snsan Constant, 
was of one hundred tons burden and the smallest of but twenty 
tons. The voyage was long and dreary, and it consumed the re- 
mainder of the winter. On reaching the American shore the weary 
voyagers were greeted by the singing of birds and the fragrance of 
flowers. Entering Chesapeake Bay they named the two projecting 
points at its sides Cape Henry and Cape Charles, after the two 

1 Doyle, Vol. I, p. 108. 

2 To the English motives for colonization, as given on a preceding page, another 
was now added — rivaliy with the French. The French king had, in 1003, made an 
extensive grant in America to De Monts, and colonists had gone out in 1604. The 
French grant was from forty degrees to sixty degrees north latitude ; the English 
tl•(lr^ thirty-four to forty-five degrees. These claims greatly overlapped, and thus 
were sown the seeds of future strife between the two nations. 

3 So called because the men composing the former were London merchants, the 
latter, Plymouth merchants. The two companies were really but subdivisions of 
one great company. 

* See Poore's " Charters and Constitutions," Part II, p. 1888 sq. The Plymouth 
Company made an effort to found a colony the same year on the coast of Maine, but 
it was not successful. 



62 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

young sons of the king.^ They chose out one of the great rivers 
flowing into the bay, left upon it the name of King James, ascended 
it for about thirty miles, and founded a town which also they called 
after the name of their king. Thus was founded the first of the 
permanent settlements which were to multiply and expand, and in 
three hundred years to grow into the greatest nation of the earth. 
Let us take a glance at the colonists. It would be difficult to 
imagine a set of men less fitted to build a colony and found a 
nation than were those who settled at Jamestown in 1607. Among 
them were but twelve laborers, a few carpenters, a blacksmith, a 
mason, a barber, and a tailor, while more than fifty were " gentle- 
men," that is, men without an occupation, idle, shiftless men who 
Character ^^^^ joined the enterprise without realizing that years 
of the of labor were essential to success. But there were a 

colonists. fg^y j^^Qj2 of worth in the company. There were Wing- 
field, who became the first president of the governing council, 
Gosnold, the famous mariner and pupil of Raleigh, and John Smith, 
the hero of many strange adventures. They soon erected a few 
tents and small cabins ; some, however, found a dwelling place by bur- 
rowing into the ground. For a church they nailed a board between 
two trees, stretched a canvas over it, and beneath this the Rev. Robert 
Hunt held services according to the rites of the Church of England. 

Captain Newport, after spending some weeks exploring the 
James River, returned with his ships to England, promising to come 
again as soon as practicable. The colony was soon in a pitiable condi- 
tion. Arriving too late to plant spring crops, and finding little cleared 
land fit for cultivation, the men Avere soon reduced to short rations. 
The allowance to each man for a day was a pint of wormeaten barley 
or wheat, made into pottage. Governor Wingfield lacked the ability 
to rule the men, and there were constant quarrels among them. To 
their other misfortunes was added a continual fear of Indian attacks ; 
and owing to their exposure in the swamps and their lack of proper 
food, they were attacked by fevers. They died sometimes three or 
four in a night, and before the end of September half of the littlo 
colony, including Gosnold, had found a grave in the wilderness. 

The entire colony would no doubt have perished before the 
return of Newport but for the courage and vigor of one man, the 
most notable and conspicuous character in the early colonial history 

1 Henry, the elder and heir to the throne, died in his boyhood, and his brothel 
became King Charles I of England. 



COLONIZATION — VIRGINIA 63 

of America — John Smith. Smith was still a young man, but 
according to his own story, his record was an extraordinary one. 
When scarcely beyond boyhood he joined the French 
army and later that of the Netherlands in which he ^joii^^smith 
served for several years. He then embarked on the 
Mediterranean and was thrown overboard as a heretic, swam to an 
uninhabited island, was picked up by a vessel and carried to Egypt. 
We next find him traversing Italy on foot, slaying three Turks suc- 
cessively in single combat in Transylvania, and at length captured 
by the Turks and sold into slavery. He slew his master with a 
flail, escaped into the Scythian Desert, wandered through every 
country of Europe, and joined the Virginia colbnists soon after 
reaching his native land. It was noAV left for his sojourn in the 
American forest to furnish the crowning romance of his life. 

While exploring the Chickahominy River he was taken captive 
by the Indians. After entertaining his captors for several daj^s 
with a pocket compass and such curios, he was condemned to death 
by the savages. Hig head was laid on the block when at the last 
moment a little daughter of the chief, named Pocahontas, 
rushed forward, laid her head upon the head of the °°^ °° *^' 
intended victim, and begged that his life be spared. Her request 
was granted, and he was sent back rejoicing to his people. 

This romantic story, as also the account of his other adventures 
above mentioned, rests wholly on Smith's own testimony, and most 
historical writers in recent years are disposed to discredit them, 
especially the story of his rescue by the Indian girl. It seems clear 
that John Smith gave a highly colored narrative in relating his 
adventures, but there is reason to believe that the story of his rescue 
by Pocahontas is true.^ The only ground for doubting the story is 
Smith's well-known spirit of boasting and the fact that in his first 
account of his capture by the Indians he does not mention this 
incident. On the other hand, there is one powerful argument, which 
seems almost conclusive, in favor of the truth of the story. It was 
not an unusual occurrence among many Indian tribes, when they 
were about to put a captive to death, for some impulsive Indian, 
usually a female and in most cases a member of the chief's family, 
to beg the life of the intended victim at the last moment.- Such a 
request was seldom denied, and the rescue was usually followed by 

1 Fiske makes a strong argument in favor of the truth of the story. 

2 See the case of Juan Ortiz, above, p. 44. 



64 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

a formal adoption of the rescued one into the tribe ; and this is 
exactly what Smith claimed was done in his case, though he was 
given his freedom to return to his colony. How could he have 
invented a story coinciding so perfectly with an Indian custom with 
which he could not have been familiar ? Such a thing is far less 
credible than the story itself. 

It is not disputed, however, that John Smith was a man of won- 
derful energy, and that he did more for Virginia than any other of 
the early settlers. He soon became governor of the colony, and he 
saved tlie colonists from starvation by trading with the Indians for corn. 
He succeeded above all others in keeping the men at work and thus 
laid the foundations for future prosperity. Smith later explored 
Chesapeake Bay and its rivers and afterward the New England coast, 
and he made maps of them that are remarkable for their accuracy. 

Of Pocahontas it is known that although she was a rollicking, romp- 
ing girl who often visited Jamestown and amused the colonists with 
her pranks, she grew into stately womanhood and married one of the 
colonists, John Rolfe, a widower — that she accompanied her hus- 
band to England, where she was received with great favor, and that 
she died in England after giving birth to a son who afterward made 
Virginia his home and became the ancestor of several of the most 
prominent families of the state. 

Let us return to our colony. Life in the f'jrest bore heavily on 
the little band, and but thirty-eight of them we.e alive when, in Janu- 
ary, 1608, Captain Newport returned with food supplies and one 
hundred and twenty more colonists. Others came from time to time, 
and in 1609, when John Smith returned to England, the colony num- 
bered live hundred. The government had been placed, by the first 
charter, in the hands of a council of thirteen, resident in England, 
Virginia's ''^^'^^ appointed by the King, which should cooperate 
second with a local council. But a new charter was granted in 

charter. 1609 by which the council in England, originally dis- 

tinct from the company, now became a part of it,^ while the local 
council was abolished, being superseded by a governor. By this 
charter the bounds of the settlement were enlarged to four hundred 
miles along the coast, two hundred miles each way from Old Point 
Comfort, and extended ''up into the land throughout from sea to sea 
west and northwest." The company was also given much greater 
power than that granted by the charter of 1606. 

1 H. L. Osgood, in Political Science Quarterly, Vol. XI, p. 274. 



COLONIZATION — VIRGINIA 66 

Lord cie La Warr, or Delaware, was appointed governor of Vir- 
ginia under the charter of 1609. He embarked with nine ships and 
five hundred men and women for Virginia ; but encountering a terrible 
storm off the Bermuda Islands, he was delayed at those islands for 
many months — and woe to Virginia in consequence ! The " Starving 
Time " came. The Indians were now hostile and no food could be 
obtained from them. Men with blanched faces wan- 
dered about actually dying for food. The death rate ^ime^"^^^ 
was frightful. Of the five hundred left by Smith the 
fall before only sixty remained alive in the spring of 1610. These 
now decided to abandon A'irginia and embark in the four little 
pinnaces that were left them, hoping to reach dear old England. 
Early in June they gathered together their meager possessions, and 
with the funeral roll of drums left their cabins behind. Sadly they 
floated down the river to Mulberry Island where they 
spent the night. Next morning they received the glad ^'^J'^^^1 o^ 
news of the arrival of Lord Delaware, who was sweep- 
ing up the bay with three ships bearing a year's supply of food. 
They all now returned to Jamestown, and the colony of Virginia 
was born again. How slender the thread on which hung the infant 
life of the firstborn of the United States ! 

Delaware soon had the colony on its feet, but the next year he 
returned to England and sent Sir Thomas Dale to govern in his 
stead. Dale was a man of much ability and strength of character, 
and as Eiske aptly puts it, " Under his masterful guidance Virginia 
came out from the valley of the shadow of death." He introduced 
several radical reforms, the most important of which was the partial 
abolishing of communism. Before his coming the land and other 
possessions were held in common; no one owned private property; 
each man was a servant of the state, and the tendency 
of many was to do as little as possible. Dale gave each 
of the old settlers three acres of ground with the right of possessing 
private property. The effect was to stimulate industry, and from 
this time there was never a scarcity of food in Virginia. The new 
governor also established other settlements along the James, and 
although he was an austere man, ruled with a hand of iron, and was 
merciless in his punishment of criminals, his five years' stay wrought 
a great change for the better in Virginia. 

In 1612, during the incumbency of Dale, a third charter was 
granted to Virginia. This charter added the Bermuda Islands to 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



Virginia, empowered the company to raise money by means of lot- 
teries, and was far more liberal than either of its predecessors in 
granting governmental powers. It is interesting to note the first 
steps toward democratic government in America as shown by the 
rapidly succeeding charters of Virginia. King James, blindly 
devoted to the autocratic theory of government, refused to embody 
any democratic features in the first charter. The local council was 
subject to a superior council resident in England, and both were under 
the instructions of the king. The charter guaranteed the rights of 
Englishmen to the people, but gave them no voice in their own govern- 
ment. But the colony came to the verge of failure, and in the belief 
that a more liberal government would enhance the prospects of success, 
a second charter was applied for and granted. By this 
democracy" charter of 1609 all vacancies in the council, as also the 
executive office, were to be filled by the vote of the stock- 
holders. This gave the company the character of a body politic, the 
right of self-government. It was a great advance over the first one 
in the process of transplanting English government to American 
soil, a great step toward the more important charter of 1612. By 
this third charter all governmental power, including the making of 
their own laws and the choosing of all officials, was given into the 
hands of the stockholders. But the company did not immediately 
extend this right to the colonists j it placed local affairs in the 
hands of a governor of its own choosing. A few years later, how- 
ever, the liberal element, led by Sir Edwin Sandys, gained control of 
the company, and to attract new settlers, as well as to curb the 
power of a profligate or tyrannical governor, the company instructed 
its governor to call an assembly of the settlers and give them a share 
in the government. Hence came the House of Burgesses — the first 
representative body in America.^ 

Meantime the white and red races were united in Virginia by the 
marriage of Rolfe and the daughter of the Indian chief Powhatan.^ 
This secured peace with the Indians for eight years, until the death 
of Powhatan. About 1616 tobacco became the staple product of the 
colony. The English learned its use from the Indians, and marvel- 
ously soon after the discovery of the weed the use of it spread 

1 See Morey's " Genesis of a Written Constitution," Annals of American 
Academy, Vol. I, p. 529 sq. 

2 The name of this chief was Wahunsunakok. The name of the trihe was Pow- 
hatan and the English called the chief also by this name. 



COLONIZATION — VIRGINIA 67 

through every civilized laud. It was the one thing that found a 
ready sale in England. Every farmer raised tobacco, and it was 
grown in the streets of Jamestown ; it even became the money of the 
colony, and the minister and public ofl&cers were paid their salaries 
in tobacco.^ 

The colony, however, was, on the whole, a disappointment to the 
company that had founded it. One of their chief objects was the 
same that had lured Pizarro and De Soto — a desire for gold. They 
were not content with the sassafras roots and cedar logs that their 
ships kept bringing, nor even with the tobacco. When, therefore, 
the London Company, or Virginian Company, as named by the second 
charter, were convinced that gold could not be found in that part of 
America, their interest in the colony was greatly diminished, and to 
this fact was due much of the anarchy and disorder in Virginia. 

After the departure of Dale the colonists suffered severely for a 
few years at the hands of a wicked governor, Samuel Argall, who 
robbed and plundered them in every way in his power. But better 
times were at hand. About this time Sir Edwin Sandys gained the 
ascendency in the Virginia Company, and his energy and wisdom 
were soon felt in the colony. One of his first acts was to send the 
colony, in 1619, one of its best governors, Sir George Yeardley, who 
became the first to introduce popular government into America. 

The most memorable year in the early history of Virginia was 
1619. It was this year that witnessed the beginnings of two institu- 
tions, opposite in character, each of which was destined 
to play a great part in the future development of the new iQtJodTced 
nation that was now struggling to be born. The first was 
government by the people, and the second the institution of slavery ^ 
The first was to increase and expand until it developed into the 
greatest self-governing people in the world's history ; the secoUi^ 
was to fasten itself like a blight on the free institutions of the sam i 
people and in the end to bring about the sacrifice of tens of thou 
sands of human lives. In November of the preceding year the Vir- 
ginia Company had issued an order limiting the power 
of the governor of the colony and establishing a legisla- menf °^^'^"" 
ture of burgesses to be elected by the people. The first 

1 The tobacco sent to England in one year, 1704, exceeded 18,000,000 pounds. By 
1750 the yearly exports of Virginia and Maryland reached 85,000,000 pounds. 
Beer, "Commercial Policy of England," p. 51. 

2 A Dutch vessel brought twenty negroes and sold them to the colonists. Thus 
began a traffic in slaves that continued till after the Revolution. 



68 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

House of Burgesses, composed of twenty-two delegates, met in July, 
1619, soon after the coming of Yeardley, and erelong the people 
were living under laws of their own making, and a " government of 
the people, for the people, and by the people " thus gained its first 
foothold on American soil. This granting of a share in the govern- 
ment to the people attracted new settlers, who, from this time, came 
in ever increasing numbers. 

This same year of 1619 witnessed the coming of ninety young 
women to be wives of the colonists. To secure one of these prizes 
the bachelor planter was required to win the maiden's consent and 
to pay her passage across the sea (about one hundred and twenty 
pounds of tobacco), and as there were many more men than maidens, 
the courtship must have been very interesting. Other women were 
brought from time to time, and family life was soon firmly established 
in the new colony. Indeed, from this time forth life in Virginia had 
its attractions as well as its hardships. The lowing of the herds, the 
chattering of the fowls, the shouts of playing children, the sound of 
the builder's hammer, and of the woodman's ax ringing out from the 
depth of the forest, bespoke a happy and prosperous community. 

But colonial life still had its misfortunes. A great calamity be- 
fell the people of Virginia in 1622 in the form of an Indian massacre. 
The friendly chief Powhatan was dead, and his brother 
massacre Opekankano, who had never been friendly to the English, 

now reigned in his stead. This chief now instituted a 
massacre in which three hundred and forty-seven of the settlers were 
killed. The blow was a dreadful one ; but the whites, recovering 
from the shock, pursued the savages with merciless fury, putting to 
death a far greater number than they had lost. Twenty-two years 
later this same chief, now an aged man, made a second attack on the 
settlement, killing over two hundred, but his tribe was again put 
down with a firm hand and himself taken captive and put to death.^ 

In 1624 the Virginia Company, after a severe struggle with the 
Crown, was deprived of its charter. The chief cause of this was 
that the Puritan element, which formed the backbone 
charter °^ ^^® opposition in Parliament, had also gained the 

ascendency in the Virginia Company. Nor did James 
like the action of the company a few years before in extending repre- 
sentative government to the colonists. The result was the loss of 

1 He was killed while in captivity by one of liis own race, so some authorities 
claim. 



COLONIZATION — VIRGINIA 69 

the charter. Virginia became a royal colony and so it continued to 
the war of the Revolution. But the change had little effect on the 
colony, for Charles I, who soon came to the throne, was so occupied 
with troubles at home that he gave less attention to the government 
of Virginia than the company had done, and popular government 
continued to flourish. Of the six thousand people who had come 
from England before 1625 only one fifth now remained alive, but 
this number "was rapidly augmented by immigration. Governor 
Yeardley died in 1627, and John Harvey, a man of little ability or 
character, became governor. Harvey kept the Virginians in a tur- 
moil for some years, but the colony was now so firmly established 
that his evil influence did not greatly affect its prosperity. 

The longest rule of one man in our colonial history was that of 
Sir William Berkeley, who became governor of Virginia in 1642 and 
continued to hold the office till 1677, with the exception of a few 
years under the commonwealth. Berkeley was a rough, outspoken 
man with much common sense, but with a hot temper and a narrow 
mind.^ He Avas a Cavalier of the extreme type, and during the first 
period of his governorship he spent much of his energy in persecuting 
the Puritans, many of whom found refuge in Maryland. 

About the time Berkeley assumed the office a fierce religious war 
broke out in England between the Cavaliers and the Roundheads, or 
Puritans. The latter, led by Oliver Cromwell, one of the strongest 
personalities in British history, eventually triumphed over the 
Cavaliers and, in 1649, King Charles I was beheaded by his own 
subjects. Berkeley, with most of the Virginians, was loyal to the 
Crown, and he invited the young son of the executed monarch to 
come to America and become king of Virginia. But Parliament would 
suffer no opposition from the colony, and it sent a commission with a 
fleet to reduce the colony to allegiance. The Virginians 
were only mildly royalist and they yielded without a 
struggle; but they lost nothing by yielding, for the Commonwealth 
granted them greater freedom in self-government than they had ever 
before enjoyed. 

In two ways the brief period of the commonwealth in England 
had a marked effect on the history of Virginia. For the first and 
only time during the colonial period Virginia enjoyed absolute self- 
government. Not only the assembly, but the governor and council 
were elective for the time, and the people never forgot this taste of 

1 Doyle, Vol. I, p. 207. 



70 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

practical independence. The other respect in which the triumph of 
the Eoundheads in England affected Virginia was that it caused an 
exodus of Cavaliers from England to the colony, similar to the great 
Puritan migration to Massachusetts, caused by the triumph of the 
opposite party twenty years before. 

An anonymous pamphlet published in London in 1649 gives a 
glowing account of Virginia, a land where " there is nothing wanting," 
a land of 15,000 English and 300 negro slaves, 20,000 cattle, many 
kinds of wild animals, " above thirty sorts " of fish, farm products, 
fruits, and vegetables in great quantities, and the like. If this was 
intended to induce home seekers to migrate to Virginia, 
exodus, ^^ ^^^ ^^® desired effect. The Cavaliers came in large 

numbers ; and they were of a far better class than were 
those who had first settled the colony. Among them were the an- 
cestors of George Washington, James Madison, James Monroe, John 
Marshall, and of many others of the far-famed " First Eamilies of 
Virginia." By the year 1670 the population of the colony had in- 
creased to 38,000, 6000 of whom were indentured servants, while the 
African slaves had increased to 2000.^ 

The Eestoration of 1660 brought the exiled Stuart to the British 
throne as Charles II, and Berkeley again became governor of Virginia. 
Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England, had died in 1658, 
and Eichard, his son and successor, too weak to hold the reins of 
government, laid aside the heavy burden the next year and Charles 
soon afterward became king. Charles was not a religious enthusiast, 
as his father had been ; he was a worthless debauchee, who cared 
much for his own ease and little for the welfare of his subjects. 
The new sovereign was utterly without gratitude to the people of 
Virginia for their former loyalty, and indeed, it may be said that 
his accession marks the beginning of a long period of turmoil, dis- 
content, and political strife in Virginia. Charles immediately began 
to appoint to the offices of the colony a swarm of worthless place 
hunters, and some years later he gave away to his court favorites, 

jg„„ the Earl of Arlington and Lord Culpeper, nearly all 

the soil of Virginia, a large portion of which was well 
settled and under cultivation. The Navigation Law, enacted ten 
years before, was now, at the beginning of Charles's reign, reenacted 
with amendments and put in force. By this the colonists were for- 
bidden to export goods in other than English vessels, or elsewhere 

1 For indentured servants see post, p. 199. 



COLONIZATION — VIRGINIA 11 

than to England. Imports also were to be bronght from England 
only. The prices, therefore, of both exports and imports, were set 
in London, and the arrangement enabled the English 
merchants to grow rich at the expense of the colonists. ?awa^ ^'^ 
The result was a depreciation in the price of tobacco, the 
circulating medium, to such a degree as to impoverish many planters 
and almost to bring about insurrection. And now to add to the 
multiplying distresses of Virginia, Governor Berkeley, who had been 
fairly popular during his former ten-year governorship, seems to have 
changed decidedly for the worse. He was a Royalist to the core, and 
appeared to have lost whatever sympathy with the people he ever 
had. He was accused of conniving with custom-house officials in 
schemes of extortion and blackmail, and even of profiting by their 
maladministration. Popular government now suffered a long eclipse 
in Virginia. In 1661 Berkeley secured the election of a House of 
Burgesses to his liking, and he kept them in power for fifteen years, 
refusing to order another election. 

But the people, who had been long imbibing the spirit of liberty 
in their forest home, at last rose in rebellion against the tyranny of 
their cynical old governor. The uprising is known as Bacon's Rebel- 
lion. The general causes of this rebellion were political and eco- 
nomic tyranny, the immediate occasion was Berkeley's Indian policy. 
The Indians became hostile in 1675, and for many months the mas- 
sacre of men, women, and children in the outlying settlements was 
of almost daily occurrence. But Berkeley persistently refused to call 
out the militia, for the reason, it was believed, that he did not wish 
to disturb the fur trade, from which he was receiving a good income. 
In March, 1676, the assembly raised a force of five hundred men, 
but when they were ready to begin a campaign, Berkeley suddenly 
disbanded them. The people were now exasperated and ready for 
rebellion — and then rose Bacon. 

Nathaniel Bacon was a young lawyer of noble English birth, a 
collateral descendant of the great author and jurist of the same 
name; he was rich, eloquent, and popular. In defiance 
of the governor he raised a band of men and marched Bacon^^* 
against the Indians, inflicting on them a stinging defeat. 
Berkeley, greatly incensed at the young man's insubordination, 
started after him with a troop of horse ; but scarcely had he left 
Jamestown when word reached him that the whole lower peninsula had 
risen against him. Hastening back, he found that he must do some- 



72 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

thing to placate the people, and he dissolved the long assembly and 
ordered a new election. This was duly held, and Bacon was elected 
to the burgesses. This assembly passed a series of reform laws 
known as "Bacon's Laws." The old governor, deeply offended at this 
course, dissolved the assembly and proclaimed Bacon, who had again 
marched against the Indians, a traitor; whereupon Bacon, at the 
head of several hundred men, marched upon Jamestown and burned 
it to the ground. Berkeley fled before the armed invaders and took 
refuge on the eastern side of the Chesapeake. Bacon had now full 
control of Virginia's affairs, and he even contemplated resistance to 
the king's troops, that were said to . be on their way to the colony, 
when a deadlier foe than armed men — the swamp fever — ended his 
short, brilliant career, and Virginia was destined to spend another 
hundred years as a royal colony. 

Bacon was the life and soul of the insurrection, and after his 
death his followers scattered like frightened quail and Berkeley was 
soon again in possession. The vindictive old governor now wreaked 
his vengeance on the followers of Bacon until he had hanged more 
than a score, including the Rev. William Drummond, a Scotch Pres- 
byterian and one of the leading men in the colony.^ But the 
king was displeased with Berkeley's rancor. " The old fool has 
taken more lives in that naked country than I have taken for the 
murder of my father," said Charles. Berkeley was recalled. He 
sailed for England in the spring of 1677, leaving his family and evi- 
dently expecting to be reinstated. But the king refused to see him, 
and he died, broken-hearted, a few mouths later. 

The Bacon Rebellion, occurring at the same time with King 
Philip's War in New England, and exactly a century before that 
greater rebellion, so vastly different in its results, was one of the 
most important episodes in our colonial history. Bacon was a true 
reformer, talented in a high degree, but somewhat wanting in judg- 
ment. His intention no doubt, in case the king's forces came, 
was to hold them at bay until the grievances of the colonists, includ- 
ing the oppression of the Navigation Laws, should have been 
redressed. But in this he doubtless would have failed and would 
have paid the penalty of resistance with his life. His death was 
therefore opportune, and his influence on the future of the colony 
was probably greater than if his life had been prolonged. 

1 The king afterward granted aid to Mrs. Drummond, declaring that her husband 
bad been put to death contrary to the laws of the kingdom. 



COLONIZATION — VIRGINIA 78 

The speedy downfall of Berkeley, however, had little effect in 
rescuing- Virginia from the grasp of the Royalists. One of the court 
favorites to whom the soil of Virginia had been granted, Lord Cul' 
peper, came out as governor, and a rapacious tyrant he was. In 
1684 he was succeeded by Lord Howard of Effingham, who was not a 
whit better than Culpeper. Among the later governors were Nich- 
olson, who had had a notable career in New York, and Sir Edmund 
Andros, who had had a more notable career in New England. In 
each of these the colonists found a great improvement over such 
creatures as Culpeper and Effingham. But they fell short when 
compared with Alexander Spottswood (1710-1722), one of the ablest 
and best governors of colonial Virginia. The habit of govern- 
ing through lieutenants, the governor residing in England, became 
prevalent early in the eighteenth century. One man, Douglas, was 
nominal governor for forty years, drawing a large salary, though he 
never crossed the Atlantic Ocean. ^ 

In spite of the many drawbacks, of the unworthy governors and 
their frequent quarrels with the assembly and people, Virginia con- 
tinued to prosper, and by the end of the seventeenth century the 
population numbered a hundred thousand. The people up to this 
time were almost wholly English, but in 1700 several hundred 
Huguenots made their home in the colony. About 1730 the Scotch- 
Irish began to settle in large numbers in the Shenandoah Valley, and 
soon after these came the Germans. The frontier was moved gradu- 
ally westward from the tide-water counties until it had crossed the 
summit of the Alleghanies. The coming of these peoples infused 
new modes of life, new religious customs, new democratic ideas 
into Virginian society ; and in the course of the next half century 
many vital changes were brought about, as the abolition of primo- 
geniture and entail, the separation of Church and State, and reli- 
gious toleration. 2 Thus the various nationalities, blending slowly 
into one people, spent the remainder of the colonial period 
hewing away the forests and laying the foundations of a great 
state.^ 

1 Spottswood and many other real governors were called " lieutenant governors," 
the "governor" residing in England. 

2 See Fiske's " Old Virginia," Vol. II, p. 396. 

' The limits of this volume will not admit a full history of the several colonies. 
This must be sought in tbR various state histories and in such works as those of 
Doyle and Fiske. A short account of the domestic and political institutions of tht 
thirteen colonies will be given in a later chapter. 



74 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



NOTES 

William and Mary College. — The second college founded in America was 
William and Mary, Harvard alone preceding it. The father of this college was 
the Rev. Dr. James Blair, and the object was to train young men for the min- 
istry. Blair was sent to England in 1691 to secure funds. He met with fair 
success until he approached Sir Edward Seymour, the treasury commissioner. 
When Blair declared that the people of Virginia had souls to_save as well as the 
"people of England, Seymour exclaimed : " Souls ! damn your souls. Grow 
tobacco ! " The good doctor, however, succeeded. He returned in 1693 with 
the charter, became the first president of the college, and held the position for 
fifty years. The college was located at Williamsburg. Next to Blair its best 
friend was Governor Nicholson. 

Two Virginia Love Stories. — Governor Francis Nicholson was one of the 
best governors Virginia had ; but on one occasion he lost his dignity. He fell 
madly in love with a daughter of Major Burwell near Williamsburg, but the 
young lady refused him. Nicholson raved about the matter in public and 
declared that if any one else married the girl, he would "cut the throats of 
three men : the bridegroom, the minister, and the justice who issued the license." 
Suspecting that a brother of Dr. Blair was the favored one, he threatened ven- 
geance on the whole family of Blairs. In fact the governor made such a fool 
of himself that he was called to Englaud (1705) at the instance of Dr. Blair. 
(Fiske's " Old Virginia," Vol. II, p. 122.) 

The other love story ended more happily. The Rev. Professor Camm, the 
last president of William and Mary before the Revolution, was a middle-aged 
bachelor. He had a young friend who was desperately in love with a Miss 
Betsey Hansford. But his wooing was fruitless. He then begged Professor 
Camm to intercede for him. Camm did so ; he bombarded Betsey with Scripture 
texts to prove that matrimony is a duty, but without avail. At length the 
young woman suggested that the professor go home and look up II Samuel xii. 7. 
He did so and found the text " Thou art the man," — and, well, Camm himself 
married Betsey. {Ihid. p. 127.) 

Governor Berkeley's Report to the Commissioners of Plantations (1671). 
Extracts. 

15. What number of planters, servants, and slaves ? 

Ansioer. — We suppose, and I am very sure we do not much miscount, that 
there is in Virginia above forty thousand persons, men, women, and children, 
and of which there are two thousand black slaves, six thousand Christian ser- 
vants, for a short time, the rest are born in the country or have come in to 
settle and seat, in bettering their condition in a growing country. 

17. What number of people have yearly died within your plantation and 
government for these seven years last past, both whites and blacks ? 

Answer. — All new plantations are, for an age or two, unhealthy, until they 
are thoroughly cleared of wood ; but unless we had a particular register office, 
for the denoting of all that died, I cannot give a particular answer to this query, 
only this I can say, that there is not often unseasoned hands (as we term them) 
that die now, whereas heretofore not one of fire escaped the first year. 



COLONIZATION — MARYLAND 76 



23. What course is taken about instructing the people within your govern- 
ment in the Christian religion ? 

Ansiver. — The same course that is taken in England out of towns; every 
man according to his ability instructing his children. We have forty-eight 
parishes, and our ministers are well paid, and by my consent should be better if 
they would pray oftener and preach less. 

But of all other commodities, so of this, the worst are sent us, and we had 
few that we could boast of, since the persecution in Cromwell's tyranny drove 
divers worthy men hither. But, I thank God, there are no free schools nor 
printing, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years; for learning has 
brought disobedience and heresy and sects into the world, and printing has 
divulged them, and libels against the best government. God keep from both ! 



MARYLAND 

The founding of Maryland marks the beginning of a new plan 
in colony building in North America. The tentative experiments 
of Gilbert and Raleigh had for their object mainly the establishing 
of trading posts, from which a search for gold and for a northwest 
passage to the Indies might be carried on.^ Close upon these fol- 
lowed the founding of the earliest permanent colonies by chartered 
companies, the chief objects being to bring commercial advantage 
to the companies, and to make good by actual occupation English 
claims to the soil. With the founding of Maryland came the first 
permanent proprietary government of America, that is, a govern- 
ment by a lord proprietor, who, holding his authority by virtue of 
a royal charter, nevertheless exercised that authority almost as an 
independent sovereign. 

As shown on a preceding page, the idea of colony planting in 
America by means of a corporation was borrowed from existing 
corporations common in England at the time. It is interesting here 
to note the proprietary form of government, — its origin, the trans- 
planting of the institution to America, and its gradual democratiz- 
ing. It is well knoAvn that the Maryland charter was borrowed in 
great part from the Palatinate of Durham; but this needs a word 
of explanation. In mediaeval times it was customary in Continental 
Europe for a sovereign to grant almost regal powers of government 
to the feudal lords of his border districts, so as to prevent foreign 
invasion. These districts or manors were often called palatinates 
or counties palatine, because the lord dwelled in a palace, or witlded 

1 See also other motives mentioned on p. 57. 



76 HISTORY OF T3IE UNITED STATES 

the power of the king in his palace. His power was regal in kind, 
but inferior in degree to that of the king.^ William the Conqueror, 
soon after the battle of Hastings, adopted this plan in case of a few 
counties, one of which was Durham on the borders of Scotland, and 
this one alone remained at the time of Charles I. The English 
landlord was as familiar with the palatinate form of government, 
as Osgood says, as was the English merchant with the corporation. 
It was most natural, therefore, that the proprietary form of govern- 
ment be adopted in the work of colonizing America, and it was 
equally natural that the palatine of Durham be made the model. 

The charter of Maryland granted in express terms *' as ample 
rights, jurisdictions, privileges, prerogatives, . . . royal rights . . . 
as used and enjoyed . . . within the bishopric or county palatine 
of Durham." This was one of the many instances of planting Eng- 
lish institutions in America ; it was an attempt to introduce a limited 
feudalism on American soil. And it is a notable fact that all the 
English colonies founded in America a-fter Maryland were of the 
palatinate type, except those founded spontaneously by the people 
m New England.^ 

It will be noticed that this form of government was monarchial; 
but monarchial government did not flourish in America. In a new 
country where all men were obliged to work for a living the con- 
ditions for building up an order of nobility were wanting. The 
great distance from the motherland tended to lessen the feeling of 
reverence for the sovereign, and men soon absorbed that wild spirit 
of freedom so characteristic of life in the forest. The result was 
that democracy gained an early foothold in every colony, and it 
continued to increase in power all through the colonial period. 

The father of Maryland was George Calvert, the actual founder 
was his son, Cecilius Calvert. George Calvert was a man of broad 
views and stanch character. About the time of the accession to the 
throne of Charles I, Calvert resigned his seat as British secretary of 
state and turned his attention to colonization in the New World. 
King James had raised him to an Irish peerage with 
Calvert ^^® *^*^® °^ Lord Baltimore. Eeceiving a grant of land 

in Newfoundland, which he named Avalon, he removed 
thither and planted a colony; but after a brief sojourn he deter- 
mined, owing to the severity of the climate and the hostility of the 

1 Osgood, in American Historical Beview, July, 1897, p. 644. 
aFiske, "Old Virginia," Vol. I, p. 280. 



COLONIZATION — MAE YLAND 77 

French, to abandon the place. He sailed for Virginia, in which he 
had already been interested as a member of the original London 
Company and later of the governing council. But Baltimore, hav- 
ing espoused the Roman Catholic faith, found the Virginians inhos- 
pitable, owing to the spirit of religious intoleration of the times. 
Returning to England he obtained the jjromise of a charter for a 
large tract of land north of the Potomac River, and King Charles in 
granting it named the place Maryland in honor of his queen, Henri- 
etta Maria. The object of the lord proprietor, as Baltimore was now 
called, was twofold. He wished to found a state and become its 
ruler, for he was truly a man of the world ; he loved power and he 
loved wealth. Second, he wished to furnish a refuge for the op- 
pressed of his own faith ; for the Roman Catholics, as well as the 
Puritans, were objects of persecution in England. 

But before he could carry his purpose into execution, and before 
the Great Seal was placed upon his charter, George Calvert died. 
The charter was then issued to his son, Cecilius, and the son, who 
became the second Lord Baltimore, was faithful in carrying out the 
project of his father. 

The new colony as set forth in the charter was bounded on the 
north by the fortieth parallel, and on the south by the southern 
bank of the Potomac, while the western boundary was to be the 
meridian passing through the source of that river. From this line 
the colony extended eastward to the Atlantic Ocean 
and included all of the present state of Delaware and M^yiand 
portions of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In after 
years these boimdary lines, as marked out by the charter, led to 
serious complications between Maryland and her neighbors. 

Never before had an English sovereign conferred such power 
upon a subject as that now granted to Lord Baltimore. He was 
required by the charter to send the king two Indian arrows each 
year, as a token of allegiance to the Crown, and if any gold and 
silver were mined in Maryland, one fifth of it was to be paid to the 
king. But aside from this the proprietor was invested with almost 
kingly power. He could not tax his people without their consent, 
but he could coin money, make war and peace, pardon criminals, 
establish courts, and grant titles of nobility. The government of 
the colony was very similar to that of the feudal estates of the 
Middle Ages. 

But this " miniature kingdom of a semi-feudal type " was affected 



78 HISTORY OF TPIE UNITED STATES 

by the leaven of democracy from the beginning. The charter, aa 
stated, defined the relations of the proprietor to tliie king; it also 
defined his relations to the colonists. It provided that the laws be 
made by the proprietor and the freemen. Here was the entering 
wedge ; the people could not be taxed without their own consent, 
and they were soon making their own laws. They won the right to 
initiate legislation in their first contest, a slight one, in 1635. At 
first the assembly consisted of the governor, council, and all the 
freemen ; but as the people increased in numbers, the proxy system 
supplanted this. The proxy system, however, proved unsatisfactory 
and it soon gave way to the delegate system. By the middle of the 
century both the representative system and a bicameral legislature 
were firmly established in Maryland.^ 

Aside from the fact that Maryland was the first of the proprie- 
tary governments, the colony is especially remembered in American 
history as the first in which religious toleration had a place. This 
condition came about in the most natural vray. Baltimore, as an 
honest adherent of the Catholic faith, could not have excluded his 
fellow-Catholics from his new dominions. Such a course would have 
proved him untrue to his own avowed principles, and defeated one 
of his objects in founding the colony ; namely, to furnish a home 
for oppressed Catholics who were shamefully treated in England at 
that time. 

It was equally impossible for him to have excluded Protestants, 
being the subject of a Protestant king who ruled over a Protestant 
nation. Had he done this, he would have raised a storm in England 
which would have proved fatal to the colony. He did therefore the 
only wise thing to be done, — he left the matter open, 
ft'eelom^ inviting Catholics and Protestants alike to join his col- 
ony. The spirit of the age was an intolerant spirit, and 
while Baltimore cannot be said to have been moved by any advanced 
views of religious toleration, nor was his primary object in founding 
a colony a desire to furnish a home for the oppressed in conscience, 
it is certain that he rose above the intolerance of the times, as shown 
by his subsequent invitation to the Piiritans of Virginia and New 
England to make their home in Maryland. Thus for the first time 
in colonial history we have a state in which a man could worship 
God with freedom of conscience and without being oppressed by 
intolsrant laws. Baltimore proved a wise and just governor His 

1 Mereness's "Maryland," p. 196. 



COLONIZATION — MARYLAND 79 

treatment of the Indians was not surpassed by that of William 
Penn. Indeed, one might search in vain through all our colonial 
history for a ruler superior to Cecilius Calvert. 

The first settlers, about three hundred in number, reached Mary- 
land in March, 1634. Leonard Calvert, a brother of the proprietor, 
led the colony and became its first acting governor. They settled 
on a small island in the mouth of the Potomac, paying the Indians 
for the land in axes, hoes, and cloth. Here they planted the cross 
and founded a town which they named St. Mary's. The colony was 
happily founded, and it advanced more in the first six months than 
Virginia had done in as many years. 

Maryland was singularly free from Indian massacres as also for 
many years from maladministration; but there was one source of 
constant irritation that annoyed the colony for a generation, and that 
was the jealousy of the Virginians. The second charter of Virginia 
had included all the territory that afterward became Maryland, and 
the people of Virginia disputed the right of Baltimore to plant this 
colony there; but their objections could not hold good from the fact 
that the Virginia charter had been canceled in 1624 and the province 
had reverted to the Crown. But there were two other causes of an 
unfriendly feeling from the elder colony: first, her northern neighbor 
was under Catholic control and this was irritating to the intolerant 
Virginians; and, second, Maryland enjoyed free trade in foreign 
markets which Virginia did not. This unfriendly spirit between the 
two reached its acute stage through the action of one man, whose 
name fills a conspicuous page in the early history of Maryland, and 
that man was William Clayborne. 

Clayborne was a Virginia surveyor, a member of the council and 
also a tradesman. The year before the charter of Maryland was 
issued to Calvert, Clayborne had established a trading 
post on Kent Island in the Chesapeake without any title ciavborne 
to the land. Soon after the settlement at St. Mary's had 
been made Baltimore informed Clayborne that Kent Island must hence- 
forth be under the government of Maryland ; but the latter, encouraged 
by the governor of Virginia, resisted, whereupon Baltimore ordered 
that he be arrested and held prisoner if he did not yield. Soon 
after this a party from St. Mary's seized a pinnace belonging to 
Clayborne, who, retaliating, sent a vessel against his enemy and in a 
skirmish, in which several men were killed, the Marylanders made 
captives of the Virginians. This occurred in 1635 and two year? 



80 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

later Clayborne repaired to England to lay his case before the king. 
He met with little success and during his absence the enemy seized 
and occupied Kent Island. Clayborne returned to Virginia and for 
more than ten years longer we lind him a disturbing element to the 
peace of Maryland. In 1645, aided by a piratical sea captain named 
Ingle, he again gained control of his favorite island and indeed of 
the government of Maryland, Leonard Calvert being forced to take 
refuge in Virginia. But Clayborne's reign was of short duration, and 
the coveted island eventually passed permanently under the control 
of Maryland. 

In spite of internal disturbance the colony increased in numbers 
and prosperity year by year. The political and social condition of 
the people swayed to and fro with the great events that were taking 
place in England, and when at last the Puritan party under Crom- 
well triumphed over the Cavaliers, Baltimore, who had favored the 
royal party, would doubtless have lost his title to Maryland but for 
the tact he exercised in appointing a Protestant governor, William 
Stone, to rule over it. 

The year 1649 — that eventful year in British history in which 

King Charles I was put to death — witnessed the 

A t ^649^ famous Toleration Act in Maryland. By this act 

the toleration of all Christian sects — a privilege that 

the people had enjoyed in practice since the founding of the colony 

— was recognized by law.^ 

The Toleration Act was very liberal for that period, but it would 
not be so considered in our times. For example, it did not " tolerate " 
one who did not believe in the Trinity, the penalty for this offense 
being death. Any one speaking reproachfully concerning the Virgin 
Mary or any of the Apostles or Evangelists was to be punished by a 
fine, or, in default of payment, by a public whipping and imprison- 
ment.' The calling of any one a heretic, Puritan, Independent, 
Popish priest, Baptist, Lutheran, Calvinist, and the like, in a 
" reproachful manner," was punished by a light fine, half of which 
was to be paid to the person or persons offended, or by a public 
whipping and imprisonment until apology be made to the offended. 
This act was drawn up under the directions of Cecilius Calvert him- 
self ; it was probably a compromise between the Catholic party and 
the Puritans, who, driven from Virginia by Berkeley, had arrived in 

^Except Unitarians-, not till 1826— one hundred and seventy-seven years aftei 
ttds — did Jews and Unitarians gain full political rights in Maryland. 



COLONIZATION — MARYLAND 81 

Maryland in large numbers. This Avas the first law of its kind 
enacted in America, and it was in force, with brief intervals of 
•suspense, for many years. 

On the fall of Charles I a commission sent by Parliament, a 
member of which was Maryland's old enemy. Clay borne, came to 
receive the surrender of the colony, and Governor Stone, who 
though a Protestant was not a Puritan, was degraded from his 
office. This was in 1652 and three years later Stone, having raised 
a small army, met the Puritans at Providence, now Annapolis, and a 
pitched battle was fought, known as the battle of the Severn. Many 
were killed. Stone was defeated and made prisoner. The Puritans 
now had full control. Before this battle occurred they 
had suspended the Toleration Act in defiance of the t^umnh 
proprietor and passed one of their own shutting out 
"popery, prelacy, and licentiousness of opinion." Baptists and 
Quakers, as well as Catholics and Episcopalians, were denied religious 
liberty. As Fiske puts it, they tolerated " everybody except Catholics, 
Episcopalians, and anybody else who disagreed with them." But 
this was going too far, even for Oliver Cromwell, who sided with 
Calvert ; and at the word of that powerful dictator the Toleration 
Act was restored and the Puritan domination was ended. 

In 1661, soon after the Restoration in England, Lord Baltimore 
sent his only son, Charles Calvert, to be governor of his colony. 
Charles was an excellent governor. He served fourteen years when 
in 1675 his father, Cecilius, died and he became the lord proprietor.^ 
For the first time now the Marylanders had the proprietor living 
among them. Cecilius, the founder of the colony and its proprietor 
for over forty years, devoted his life to Maryland ; but he resided 
in London and never crossed the Atlantic Ocean. 

This period, from the Restoration to the English Revolution in 
1688, was one of unusual quiet in Maryland. It is true that the 
people were on the verge of rebellion in 1676 — an echo of the Bacon 
Rebellion in Virginia — and that the government after the death of 
Cecilius was for a time similar to that of Berkeley in Virginia, tend- 
ing toward aristocracy and nepotism, restriction of the suffrage, and 
the like ; but on the whole the inhabitants were happy and industri- 
ous and were rapidly increasing in numbers. During this time the 
Quakers, the Dutch, the Germans, and the Huguenots were in con- 
siderable numbers finding their way to Maryland. 

1 The population at this time was about twenty-five thousand. 
a 



82 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Meantime the boundaiy dispute between Maryland and Pennsyl 
vania, to cover over three quarters of a century, had begun. This 
will be treated in the account of Pennsylvania. Charles II and his 
brother James, disregarding the grant of their father to Lord Balti- 
more, conveyed to William Penn a large portion of his territory, 
which afterward became Delaware ; and James, after he became king, 
was about to deprive Baltimore of his charter altogether when, in 
1688, he was driven from the British throne, in what is known as the 
glorious Revolution. William and Mary became the sovereigns of 
England, and Baltimore promptly dispatched a messenger to pro- 
claim to his colony their accession to the throne. But the messenger 
died at sea, the message was not delivered, and while the other 
colonies in quick succession proclaimed the new sovereigns, Mary- 
Maryland ^SiTid hesitated. The delay was fatal to Baltimore's 
becomes a charter, and in 1691 Maryland became a royal province. 
royal colony. Baltimore, however, was still permitted to receive the 
revenues in the form of quitrents and excises from his sometime 
colony. Maryland remained a royal colony till 1715 when it passed 
back into the hands of the Cal verts. The royal governors, among 
whom we find the ubiquitous Nicholson and Andros, were all men of 
commendable worth. 

When Maryland became a royal colony one of the first acts of its 
legislature was to pass a law establishing the Church of England ^ 
and persecuting the Catholics and to some extent the Puritans. 
Alas, for the dreams of the Calverts ! They had founded the colony 
as an asylum for the oppressed in conscience, especially for those 
of their own faith ; but now in less than sixty years after its found- 
ing the Catholics constitute but one twelfth of the population and 
these, though among the best citizens of Maryland, are rigorously 
proscribed by law ; and to further exasperate them the capital was 
now moved from St. Mary's, the Catholic center, to Providence, alias 
" Anne Arundel Town," now Annapolis. 

In 1715 Charles Calvert died and his son Benedict became the 
fourth Lord Baltimore. He had become a Protestant, and the gov- 
ernment of Maryland was now restored to him. The colony re- 

1 The annual tax for the support of the church was forty pounds of tobacco for 
each " poll," rich or poor. But the law did not specify the kind of tobacco, and many 
paid the minister with the most unsalable stuff that they raised. The clergy sent 
over were generally a bad lot, gamblers and winebibbers. A common trick with 
them was to stop in the middle of a marriage service and exact a good round fee 
before finishing the ceremony. 



COLONIZATION — NORTH CAROLINA 83 

mained from this time in the hands of the Calverts to the war of 
the Revolution. Benedict died but six weeks after the death of his 
father, and his son Charles, a boy of sixteen years, became the pro- 
prietor of Maryland.^ During the remainder of the colonial era 
frequent quarrels between the governor and the assembly resulted, 
as in all the royal and proprietary colonies, in a steady gain of 
power for the people. 

It would be interesting to follow the fortunes of this colony 
through the half century preceding the Revolution, the so-called 
" neglected period " of colonial history; but the limits of this volume 
forbid a further treatment, except in a general way with the rest in 
future chapters on " Colonial Wars " and " Colonial Life." 

NORTH CAROLINA 

Nortli Carolina came near being the first of the permanent Eng- 
lish, colonies in America. Five voyages were made under the 
Raleigh charter of 1584 with the view of planting a permanent 
colony on the soil that became North Carolina ; but the effort ended 
in failure, and almost a century passed when other hands carried 
into effect the noble ambition of Raleigh. Again, the people who 
founded Virginia had intended to settle in the vicinity of Roanoke 
Island, but a storm changed their course, and the first colony was 
planted in the valley of the James. 

The first settlements in North Carolina that were destined to live 
were made by Virginians, in 1653, on the banks of the Chowan and 
Roanoke rivers, in a district called Albemarle from the Duke of 
Albemarle. A few years later men from New England made a 
settlement, which they soon abandoned, on the Cape Fear River. In 
1665 Sir John Yeamans, an English nobleman of broken fortunes, 
came from the Barbadoes with a company of planters and joined the 
few New Englanders who had remained on the Cape Fear River. 
This district was called Clarendon. Meantime Charles II had 
issued a charter, in 1663, granting to eight of his favorites the vast 
territory ^ south of Virginia, and two years later the charter was 
enlarged and the boundaries defined and made to extend from twenty- 
nine degrees north latitude to thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, 

1 The population was now 40,700 whites and 9500 negroes. Chalmers, " Anieri. 
can Colonies," II, 7. 

2 A charter for the same tract had been granted to Sir Robert Heath in 1629, but 
this had lapsed for want of use. It was repealed in 1664. 



H4 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

the soucheru boundary of Virginia, and from the Atlantic Ocean 
on the east to the " South Sea," or Pacific Ocean, on the west. The 
grant embraced nearly all the southern portion of the present 
United States, and the government it created Avas, like that of 
Maryland, modeled after the palatinate of Durham. Of the eight 
men to whom the grant was made the leading spirit was Lord Ashley 
Cooper,^ afterward the Earl of Shaftesbury, whose name is still borne 
by the Ashley and Cooper rivers of South Carolina. 

The new country had been named Cai'olina a hundred years 
before by Eibault, the Huguenot, in honor of Charles IX of 
France,- and the name was now retained in honor of Charles II 
of England. 

An accoimt of the first attempt to govern this colony fills a curi- 
ous page in American history. Shaftesbury, who was unmatched as 
a theoretical politician, conceived a plan of government that seems 
ludicrous to the American reader of to-day. The plan was supposed 
to have been drawn up by John Locke, the philosopher, and was 
known as the Fundamental Constitutions, or the '' Grand Model," ^ 
which proved to be grand only as a grand failure and a 

Kie "Grand j^Qj^ei onh- to be shunned bv the libertv-loving Ameri- 
Model. '' . . o 

can of the future. By this plan the essence of mon- 
archy, of aristocratic rule in the extreme, was to be transplanted to 
America. It divided the land into counties, and for each county 
there was to be an earl and two barons who should own one fifth of 
the land while the proprietors retained another fifth. The remaining 
three fifths were reserved for the people as tenants, who were to be 
practically reduced to serfdom and denied the right of self-govern- 
ment. Its one good feature was its guarantee of religious liberty, 
though the Church of England was established by law. 

But the settlers in North Carolina had found even the colonial 
governments too oppressive and had migrated deeper into the wilder- 
ness for the purpose of gaining a larger amount of freedom. Could 
they now accept such a government as proposed by Shaftesbury ? 
Certainly not willingly ; nor was it possible to enforce it. and after 

1 The other seven were the Earl of Clarendon, the Duke of Albemarle, Lord 
Craven, Lord John Berkeley, Sir George Carteret, Sir William Berkeley, and Sir John 
Colleton. 

3 It is claimed by some that the name Carolina was not used by Ribault; but it 
is known to have been used when Charles I was king of England. / 

8 This singular document is given iu full in Ben: Perley Poore's " Charters and 
Constitutions." 



COLOXIZATION— NORTH CAROLINA 8i 

twenty odd years of futile attempts to do so the whole plan was 
abandoned. 

Sir William Berkeley, one of the proprietors and governor of 
Virginia, had appointed as governor of Albemarle, the northern por- 
tion of Carolina. William Drummond, a Scotch Presbyterian clergy- 
man, whom he afterward put to death for following Bacon. Samuel 
Stephens, suc^^eeding Drummond in 1667, called an assembly to 
frame laws and erelong the settlement was in a steadily growing 
condition. A law was passed with a view of attracting settlers. It 
exempted all newcomers from paying taxes for a year, outlawed 
any debts they may have contracted elsewhere, and provided that 
for five 3-ears no one could be sued for any cause that might have 
arisen outside the colony. This plan had the effect of attracting 
many of a worthless class, so that the Albemarle settlement came to 
be known in Virginia as '* Rogues' Harbor." Governor Stephens 
and his successor made strenuous but fruitless efforts to put the 
Fundamental Constitutions in force. 

The Navigation Laws were later put into operation, and they 
greatly interfered with a lucrative trade with New England. The 
people were heavily taxed and at length, in 1678, they broke out in 
an insurrection led by John Culpeper, who seized the government 
and held it for two years. This followed in the train of the Bacon 
Rebellion in Virginia. 

The proprietor's next sent Seth Sothel, now a member of the 
company, to govern the colony. Sothel proved to be a knave ; he 
plundered the proprietors and the people most shame- 
lessly, and after five years of turbulent misrule he was 
driven into exile — the same year that witnessed the Revolution in 
England and the exile of James II. 

Owing to incompetent and thieving governors, appointed through 
favoritism and not fitness for the office, and to abortive attempts to 
introduce the Fundamental Constitutions on an unwilling people, 
the Albemarle colony did not prosper, and in 1693 the population 
was but half what it had been fifteen years before, while the Claren- 
don colony planted by Yeamans on the Cape Fear had been wholly 
abandoned. ^Meantime another colony had been planted at the 
mouths of the Ashley and Cooper rivers (as will be noticed under 
South Carolina). These two surviving colonies, several hundred 
miles apart, now began to be called North and South Carolina. 
Their governments were combined into one, and better times were 



86 HISTOEY OF THE UNITED STATES 

now at hand. In 1695 John Archdale, i good Quaker, became gov- 
ernor of both Carolinas, and from this time the settlements wer« 
much more prosperous than before. 

After 1704, however, North Carolma was again in turmoil, the 
causes being bad governors and continued attempts to establish the 
Church of England at the expense of the Dissenters, more than half of 
whom were Quakers. During this first decade of the eighteenth cen- 
tvLvj, settlers came in increased numbers. Huguenots came from France 
and settled at Bath near Pamlico Sound ; Germans from the Rhine 
founded New Berne at the junction of the Trent and Neuse rivers. The 
white population was now about five thousand; Albemarle settlement 
had extended many miles into the forest; this involved encroachment 
on the soil of the native red man — and it brought its troubles. 

In the autumn of 1711 a terrible Indian massacre took place in 
North Carolina. Hundreds of settlers fell victims of the merciless 
tomahawk. The chief sufferers Avere the inoffensive Germans at 
New Berne, where one hundred and thirty people were slaughtered 
within two hours after the signal for the massacre was given.^ 
Various tribes, led by the Tuscaroras, engaged in the 
Indian massacre. But the people rallied, and, receiving aid 

from South Carolina, they, led by Colonels John Barn- 
well and James Moore, hunted the red men from place to place and 
in a great battle near the Neuse destroyed four hundred of their 
warriors. At length the Tuscaroras, whose ancestors had come 
from New York, resolved to abandon their southern home and return 
to the land of their fathers. They removed in 1714 and joined the 
Iroquois or Five Nations of New York, and that confederation was 
afterward known as the Six Nations. 

The people of North Carolina were, in the main, honest and well 
meaning, and when not goaded by profligate rulers and unjust laws, 
quiet and peaceable. It is true there were many who had fled from 
other colonies to escape debts or the hand of the law ; but a large 
portion of society was composed of sturdy. Christian men and 
women. Religion soon found a footing here as in the other colonies, 
though there was no resident clergyman in the colony before 1703. 
The Church of England was supported by taxation, but the Dis- 
senters were in the majority. The Quakers especially became 
numerous, George Fox himself, the founder of the sect, having 
visited the place and made many converts. 

1 Fiske, " Old Virginia," Vol. II, p. 302. 



COLONIZATION — NOKTH CAROLINA 87 

In 1714 the lords proprietors sent out Charles Eden for governor, 
and he was the best and ablest governor the colony ever had. But 
on his death, eight years later, the colony again fell into - t' f 

unworthy hands. A period of great turbulence followed North and 
when, in 1729, all the proprietors save one having sold South Caro- 
their interests to the Crown, North Carolina and South ^^^^' ^^^^' 
Carolina were separated and each was henceforth a royal colony.^ 

Of the royal governors sent out after this date several were 
tyrannical or worthless ; but the people increased rapidly in num- 
bers. There was for many years a steady inflow of Germans from the 
Ehine by way of Pennsylvania, and, beginning about 1719, a still 
larger stream of Scotch-Irish from Ulster. During the first sixty- 
six years — the entire proprietary period — the people of North 
Carolina clung to the seaboard. But now the easterii slope of the 
Alleghanies was rapidly peopled, chiefly by Scotch-Irish and Ger- 
mans, with a large sprinkling of shiftless "poor whites" irom 
Virginia. The settlement of the region of the " back counties " 
had little connection with those of an earlier date on the coast, and 
the colony was practically divided into two distinct settlements with 
a broad belt of forest between them. The conditions of life were 
very different in the two. The back country was non-slaveholding, 
and the economic conditions were very similar to those of the north- 
ern colonies ; while the coast settlements were slaveholding and were 
marked by all the characteristics of southern life, except the aristo- 
cratic feature. 

The products of the colony were at first tobacco along the Vir- 
ginia border, rice on the Cape Fear Kiver, and grain, cattle, and 
especially swine in both these sections. But at length the great 
pine forests began to yield their wealth, and before the Revolution ■ 
tar, turpentine, and lumber became the chief products of North 
Carolina. 

Of all the thirteen colonies North Carolina was the least com- 
mercial, the most provincial, the farthest removed from European 
influences, and its wild forest life the most unrestrained. Every 
colony had its frontier, its borderland between civilization and 
savagery; but North Carolina was composed entirely of frontier. 
The people were impatient of legal restraints and averse to paying 

^ The price paid was about £50,000. Carteret had declined to sell. He was later 
granted for his share a strip of laud just south of Virginia, sixty-six miles wide 
" from sea to sea." 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



taxes ; but their moral and religious standard was not below that of 
other colonies. Their freedom was the freedom of the ludian, or 
of the wild animal, not that of the criminal and the outlaw. Here 
truly was life in the primeval forest, at the core of Nature's heart. 
There were no cities, scarcely villages. The people were farmers or 
woodmen ; they lived apart, scattered through the wilderness ; their 
highways were the rivers and bays, and their homes were connected 
by narrow trails winding among the trees. Yet the people were 
happy in their freedom and contented with their lonely isolation. 

SOUTH CAROLINA 

North Carolina and South Carolina were twin-born. Though 
settled at different times by different peoples, both were included in 
the famous charter of 1663, both were intended to be governed by 
the Grand Model, and as they were not separated politically until 
1729, their histories run parallel for many years, and much that we 
have said of the one will apply to her twin sister to the south.^ 

It was the shores of South Carolina that Eibault, under the 
direction of the great Coligny, had attempted to settle with a col- 
ony of Frenchmen, but failed, and now, after a hundred years had 
passed, it was left for the English to lay the permanent foundations 
for a commonwealth. The first English settlement was made in 
1670, when William Sayle sailed up the Ashley Eiver with three 
shiploads of English emigrants from the Barbados, and they pitched 
their tents on its banks and built a town, which has since wholly 
disappeared. In 1671 Sir John Yeamans, whom we have met in 
North Carolina, joined the colony, bringing with him about two hun- 
dred African slaves, and ere this year had closed two ships bearing 
Dutch emigrants arrived from New York. Ten years after the first 
settlers arrived, a more favorable site for the chief town being 
desired, a point between the Cooper and Ashley rivers was chosen, 
and here Charleston was founded in 1680. 

South Carolina differs from most of the colonies in not having 
had to battle against impending dissolution during its first years 
of existence, and from all the others in depending largely on slave 
labor from the beginning. 

Popular government found a footing in South Carolina from the 
first. Scarcely had the first immigrants landed when a popular 

1 The original plan was to found but one colony. The terms North and South 
Carolina first began to be used about 1690. 



COLONIZATION — SOUTH CAROLINA 8» 

assembly began to frame laws on the basis of liberty. Sayle was 
their leader and first governor, bat he soon died and was succeeded 
by Yeamaus, Avho ruled for four years, when he was dismissed for 
having enriched himself at the expense of the people. Early govem- 
Yeamans was followed by John West, an able and hon- ors of South 
orable man, who' held the office for nine years. In Carolina. 
1690 the notorious Sothel, who had been driven from North Caro- 
lina, came to South Carolina, usurped the government, and began 
his career of plunder ; but the people soon rose against him and he 
was forced to flee. After this several of the governors were com- 
mon to both North and South Carolina. 

No attempt was made during the early years of the colony to 
introduce the Fundamental Constitutions ; but when, about 1687, a 
vigorous effort was made to do so, the people resisted it, basing their 
rights on the clause in the charter which conferred the right of 
making laws on the proprietors only " by and with the advice, assent^ 
and approbation of the freemen." The people were determined in 
their resistance ; they refused to be trampled by the heel of tyranny ; 
their very breath had been the pure air of liberty. The contest 
covered several years, and the people won. That abortive " model " 
of government was at last set aside and no attempt was ever again 
made to enforce it in America.^ 

Prosperity now began to dawn on the twin colonies as it had not 
done before. About this time came the wise Archdale as governor, 
and he was followed by Joseph Blake, a man of like integrity and 
wisdom, a nephew of the great admiral of that name. The close of 
the century was marked by the coming of the Huguenots to South 
Carolina. In 1598 the sovereign of France, " King Henry of 
Navarre," had issued the " Edict of Nantes," granting toleration to 
the Protestants or Huguenots of his kingdom. This Huo-uenots 
edict was revoked in 1685 by Louis XIV, and the come to 
Huguenots were not only forbidden to worship God in South Caro- 
their own way, but also forbidden to leave their country 
on pain of death. Many, however, probably half a million, escaped 
from the land of their cruel king and settled in various parts of 
the world. They were a noble and intelligent people, who " had the 
virtues of the English Puritans without their bigotry," and their 

1 Except in IfiOS when a fifth set of the Constitutions was drawn up and the pro- 
prietors instructed the governors to enforce it as far as they were able, but they had 
little success. MacDonald's " Documents," p. 150. 



90 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

coming to America infused into colonial life another element of 
stanchness of character that was felt all through colonial days. 
Among their descendants we find such men as Paul Ilevere, Peter 
Faneuil, and John Jay. These jjeople were at first coldly received 
on the shores of South Carolina, but in time they came to be regarded 
as a substantial portion of the population. It was Governor Blake 
that first recognized the worth of the Huguenot immigrants, and he 
secured for them full political rights. 

Governor Blake died in 1700, and South Carolina entered upon a 
long season of turbulence and strife. Sir Nathaniel Johnson be- 
came governor in 1703, and the trouble began. His first act was to 
have a law passed by sharp practice excluding all Dissenters, who 
composed two thirds of the population, from the assembly. The 
people discovered the trick, and the next assembly voted by a large 
majority to repeal the law. But Johnson refused to sign their act. 
The assembly then appealed to the proprietors, but they sustained 
the bigoted governor. The people then appealed to the House of 
Lords and won their case, as they always will when they stand 
together. The proprietors yielded when the act of their governor 
met a royal veto from Queen Anne and when threatened with the 
loss of their charter, and the Dissenters were restored to their share 
in the government. The Church of England, however, was made 
the state church and so it continued to the time of the Revolution. 
The colony was divided into parishes, which became political, as 
well as ecclesiastical, divisions. 

Hard upon this trouble followed an attack by a French and 
Spanish fleet of five ships and some eight hundred men upon 
Charleston ; but the colonists were awake to their danger. They 
defended their city, and the fleet was driven away after losing its 
best ship and probably one third of its men. This was an echo of 
the war of the Spanish Succession, or Queen Anne's War, to be 
noticed in a later chapter. 

The most distressing calamity that befell South Caroliiia in its 
youth was the Indian War of 1715. . The Yamassee tribe, which had 
aided the whites against the Tuscaroras in North Carolina, now 
joined with other tribes and turned upon their former friends, and 
a disastrous war followed. The cause was chiefly an intrigue with 
the Spaniards of St. Augustine, who, in spite of the Treaty of 
Utrecht, by which the long war between Spain and England had 
come to an end, did all in their power to destroy the English settle- 



COLONIZATION — SOUTH CAROLINA 91 

meiit. Another cause was that many Indians were indebted to the 
English traders, and they sought to avoid payment, and still another 
was that the remembrance still rankled in the red 
man's breast that many of his race had been kidnaped ifjT ^^ 
by the whites and sold into slavery. The war began in 
the usual way : the Indians fell upon the unsuspecting farmers with 
relentless fury, and nearly a hundred perished the first day. But 
the settlers were quick to fly to arms. The war lasted ten months. 
Four hundred whites perished ; but the Indians were utterly defeated 
and the survivors driven from their homes into Florida. To meet 
the heavy expenses of the war the assembly issued bills of credit, or 
paper money, as North Carolina had done after its Indian war, and 
this brought further distress to the colony. At the time of this war 
Chairles Craven was governor and he was one of the wisest and ablest 
governors of the period. 

Another convulsion, ending in a bloodless revolution, came next in 
the programme of South Carolina. The cost of the war had been so 
great that the people called upon the lords proprietors, who had de- 
rived a large income from the colony in quitrents, to aid in bearing 
the expenses. But the proprietors in their greed refused, and they 
refused to permit the assembly to raise money by import „ 
duties, or by selling vacated Yamassee lands. They 
also refused the rural freemen the right to vote in their own dis- 
tricts, requiring them to go to Charleston to vote. The people were 
exasperated ; they rose in rebellion and appealed to the king to 
make South Carolina a royal province. Their request v/as granted ; 
the charter was forfeited on the ground that the proprietors were 
unable to govern the colony, and in 1719 South Carolina became a 
royal colony ; but, as related in our account of North Carolina, ten 
years yet elapsed before the proprietors sold out to the Crown and 
the two colonies were separated. The king first sent out the pro- 
fessional governor, Francis Nicholson, of New York, of Virginia, of 
Maryland. 3\xt we would cast no reflection on Nicholson ; he was 
one of the best governors of the colonial era. Where others enriched 
themselves at the expense of the people, he reached into his own 
pocket for funds to foster education and to relieve the distressed. 

From the time that South C'arolina became a roj^al province its 
growth was ra[)id and substantial, and so it continued through the 
remaining half century of the colonial era. But the people did not 
show any great surfeit of gratitude to the king for relieving them 



92 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

of proprietary rule. They contended with the royal governors, en- 
croaching steadily on the royal power. In 1748 Governor Glen 
wrote the authorities in England that " the assembly disposed of 
almost all the places of office or trust," and the people, through the 
assembly, " had the whole of the administration in their hands, and 
the governor, and thereby the Crown, is stripped of its power." ^ 

In 1740 the colony suffered from a slave insurrection led by one 
Cato, but it was soon put down. The city of Charleston was burned 
this same year ; but a new city, far more beautiful, rose from the 
ashes of the old. Indeed, Charleston was one of the most delight 
ful of cities, even in the earlier times, as testified by Governor 
Archdale and other writers. The society resembled the cavalier 
society in England. " Hospitality, refinement, and literary culture 
distinguished the higher class of gentlemen."^ 

The earliest important product of South Carolina was rice, 
though it required a hundred years to bring the industry to perfec- 
tion ; to determine the best kind of soil and labor, and to invent 
the machinery for harvesting, threshing, and husking.^ 
Wild rice was native in the South, but this was iuferior 
to the cultivated rice introduced from Madagascar about 1693 by a 
sea captain, who gave a bag of seed to a South Carolina planter. 
Not many years passed till the Carolinas rivaled Egypt and Lom- 
bardy in furnishing rice for Southern Europe. 

By the middle of the eighteenth century indigo became a strong 
rival of rice in South Carolina. Its culture is said to have begun 
through the experiments of a planter's daughter, a 
young girl named Eliza Lucas, who set out the plants 
on her father's farm. Many other products, as grain, furs, cattle, 
and the products of the forest, were exported from South Carolina, 
but not until a later generation was cotton enthroned as king. 

Rice grows best in marshy groiind and swamps, and its cultiva- 
tion is peculiarly destructive to human life. The same is in a great 
measure true of indigo. These facts had much to do in shaping the 
economic and social condition of South Carolina. They made it the 
chief slaveholding community in America. No white man could 
long endure the malarial atmosphere of the rice swamps. Even 
among the blacks the death rate was very high, and their ranks had 
to be refilled constantly from Africa. But slaves were cheap. A 

1 Winsor, Vol. V, p. 334. 2 j;,;,?., p. 317. 

• Schaper, in American Historical Association Reports, 1900, Vol. I, p. 286. 



COLONIZATION — GEORGIA 93 

strong black man conld be purchased for forty pounds and, as he 
could earn near that amount in a year, the planter found it more 
profitable to work him to death than to take care of him.^ Almost 
from the beginning the slaves in South Carolina outnumbered the 
whites ; slavery became the cornerstone in the political system and 
so it continued to the time of the Civil War. 

The people of South Carolina clung to the seaboard even longer 
than did those of their sister colony to the north. In 1715 some five 
hundred Irish came and occupied lands vacated by the Yamassees near 
Port Royal. But the back country was held by the Cherokees until 
1755 when they made a treaty ceding this territory to the Crown. 
Soon after this a notable movement of the population began. Emi- 
grants from Pennsylvania^ from Virginia, and from North Carolina 
poured into this region in large numbers. The population in 1760 
was estimated at one hundred and fifty thousand, three fourths of 
whom were slaves. 

The character of society in the two Carolinas, except in the back 
counties, differed widely, from two causes : first, from a difference 
in the character of the settlers, but chiefly from the fact that one 
possessed a seaport, a metropolis, while the other did co + a t f o 
not. Many of the South Carolinians were men who had ciety in North 
fled from religious persecution at home, as the Hugne- and South 
nots ; while the class of restless men who always seek ^^^' 

frontier life, because ill at ease in organized society, was much 
smaller than in North Carolina. But, as stated, the main difference 
arose from the fact that North Carolina had no important seaport, and 
therefore little direct communication with Europe or New England. 
Charleston, on the other hand, through its commodious harbor, carried 
on a brisk foreign trade. Here came ships from many lands — 
from Europe, the West Indies, and from New England — bringing the 
commodities and luxuries of civilized life. Here lived the wealthy 
planter, visiting but seldom his plantation where herds of black 
men toiled under the lash of the overseer. Most naturally the 
conditions in Charleston fostered the growth of aristocracy, while in 
culture and refinement the city came to rival Philadelphia and Boston. 

GEORGIA 

The last, as well as the first, of the English colonies planted in 
North America belongs to the southern group. Seventy-five years 
» Fiske's " Old Virginia," Vol. II, p. 326. 



94 HISTORY OF THE UKITED STATES 

had elapsed between tlie founding of Virginia and Pennsylvania, and 
twelve English colonies were now flourishiug on the soil of North 
America. Then came a lapse of fifty years at the end of which 
Georgia, the last of the famous thirteen, came into existence. 

The founder of Georgia was James Oglethorpe, who alone of all 
the colony planters lived till after the Revolution and saw the 
thirteen colonies become an independent nation. Ogle- 
thorpe is remembered in history chiefly as the founder 
of Georgia, but aside from this he was a man of much prominence. 
While still a youth he served in the European wars under Marl- 
borough and Prince Eugene and witnessed the battle of Blenheim 
and the siege of Belgrade. Eeturning to England, he became a 
member of Parliament and took a high stand among his fellows, as 
he had done in the army. While in Parliament his attention was 
drawn to the miserable condition of the debtor's prisons, lately 
replenished by the bursting of the South Sea Bubble, and he devised 
the plan to transplant the unfortunate inmates tr the wilderness of 
America. 

A charter was granted for twenty-one years to a board of trustees 
for the land between the Savannah and Altamaha rivers and west- 
ward to the " South Sea." The new country was named Georgia, 
from George II who had granted the charter. The liberties of Eng- 
lishmen were guaranteed to the colonists, and freedom in religion to 
all except Catholics. The object in founding the colony was three- 
fold : to afford an opportunity to the unfortunate poor to begin life 
over again, to offer a refuge to persecuted Protestants of Europe, 
and to erect a military barrier between the Carolinas and Spanish 
Florida. Oglethorpe was chosen governor and with thirty-five 
First landing families he sailed from England, reaching the mouth 
in Georgia, of the Savannah in the spring of 1733, and here on a 
^T^^- bluff overlooking the river and the sea he founded 

a city and called it by the name of the river. The character of 
Oglethorpe's company was better than that of the men who had 
founded Jamestown a hundred and twenty-five years before, but 
inferior to the character of the first settlers of Maryland or of South 
Carolina. The year after the founding of Savannah a shipload of 
Salzburgers, Protestant refugees, a deeply religious people, sailed 
into the mouth of the Savannah and, led by Oglethorpe, they founded 
the town of Ebenezer. This same year the governor sailed for Eng- 
land and soon returned with more immigrants, among whom were 



COLONIZATION — GEORGIA 96 

John Wesley, the great founder of Methodism, who came as a 
inissiouary, and his brother Charles, who came as secretary to Ogle- 
thorpe. Scotch Highlanders soon came in considerable numbers and 
settled nearest the Spanish border. George Whitfield, the most elo- 
quent preacher of his times, also came to Georgia and founded an 
orphan school in Savannah. 

Georgia was the only colony of the thirteen that received finan- 
cial aid by a vote of Parliament — the only one in the planting of 
which the British government, as such, took a part. The colony 
differed from all others also in prohibiting slavery and the importa- 
tion of intoxicating liquors. The settlers were to have their land 
free of rent for ten years, but they could take no part in the govern- 
ment. The trustees made all the laws; but this arrangement was 
not intended to be permanent ; at the close of the proprietary period 
the colony was to pass to the control of the Crown. 

Oglethorpe's military wisdom was soon apparent. In the wai 
between England and Spain, beginning in 1739, the Spaniards 
became troublesome and the governor, this same year, made an 
expedition against St. Augustine with an army of over two thou- 
sand men, half of whom were Indians. The city was well fortified 
and he failed to capture it ; but three years later when the Spaniards 
made an attack on the colony Oglethorpe, by the most skillful strat- 
egy, repulsed the enemy and drove him away. 

Oglethorpe was governor of Georgia for twelve years when he 
returned to England. In four respects the settlers were greatly 
dissatisfied. They wanted rum, they wanted slaves, 
they greatly desired to take a hand in their own gov- ■"^^ ^^^^ 
ernment, and they were not content with the land sys- 
tem, which gave each settler but a small farm that must descend in 
the male line. In all these points the people won. On account of 
these restrictions the colony grew but slowly and at the end of eigh- 
teen years scarcely a thousand families had settled in Georgia. The 
people claimed that the prohibition of liquors drove the West India 
trade away from them and at length the prohibition was withdrawn. 
As to slavery, it still had its opponents — the Salzburgers, the 
Scotch Highlanders, the Wesley brothers. But the great majority 
favored its introduction on the plea that slave labor was necessary to 
the development of the colony. On this side we find the great preacher, 
Whitfield, who went so far as to purchase a plantation in South 
Carolina, stock it with slaves, and use the proceeds for his orphan 



96 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

house in Savannah. His claim was that the negroes were better off 
in slavery than in their native heathenism. Parliament finally 
relented and in 1749 Georgia became a slave colony ; but only under 
strict laws for the humane treatment of slaves. 

In the matter of governing without a voice from the people, the 
trustees found it as impracticable as the promoters of the Grand 
Georffia be- Model had done in the Carolinas. Before their twenty- 
comes a royal one years had expired they threw the matter up in 
colony, 1752. discouragement, and in 1752 Georgia became a royal 
colony. The people now elected an assembly and the king appointed 
the governor. The right to vote was extended to Protestant freemen, 
with certain property restrictions. But the colony in one respect 
showed itself still benighted, as were all its twelve sisters, by deny- 
ing the franchise to Roman Catholics. 

After this change of government Georgia grew very rapidly, and 
by the time of the Revolution numbered some fifty thousand souls, 
about half of whom were slaves. Georgia in its later career presents 
no striking features differing from those of the other southern colo- 
nies. The English church was made the state church, but religious 
freedom was extended to all Protestants. The chief products were 
rice, indigo, and lumber, and there was a very lucrative fur trade 
carried on with the Indians. It was believed at first that the pro- 
duction of silk v/ould become the leading industry, as the mulberry 
tree, which furnishes the natural food of the silkworm, grew wild 
in Georgia; but after a trial of several years the business was 
abandoned. 

The social condition of Georgia resembled that of North Carolina. 
There were no schools, and the mails seldom or never reached the 
inland settlements. The people were mostly small farmers, with 
here and there a rich planter. There was little town life. Savan- 
nah was the only town of importance, and it was still a wooden vil- 
lage at the time of the Revolution. The roads were mere Indian 
trails, and the settlers saw little of one another. To the end of the 
colonial era Georgia was essentially the southern frontier of South 
Carolina, as North Carolina was of Virginia.^ 

NOTE 

The Pirates. — In our own age of international order it is difficult to realize 
what sway was held on the seas by the pirates two hundred years ago. These 

1 Fiske, Vol. II, p. 336. 



COLONIZATION — GEORGIA 9< 

pirates, called also buccaneers and filibusters, infested the American coast and 
the West Indies especially between 1650 and 1720 and they often numbered 
thousands. Many of these men were utterly without a redeeming feature of 
character. Oue of these fiends named Olonnois, having captured a Spanish 
crew of ninety men, beheaded them to the last man with his own hand. (Fiske, 
"Old Virginia," II, p. 310.) The most notSrious, and one of the most desperate 
of the pirates was Henry Morgan who was at the height of his career about 1670. 
He captured whole towns on the Spanish-American coast and put the inhab- 
itants to the sword. Many towns, however, purchased immunity from the 
buccaneers by paying them from time to time. Others welcomed them because 
they brought much gold and spent it lavishly. There was scarcely an American 
colony whose officials were not at one time or another in connivance with the 
pirates. But at the beginning of the eighteenth century there was a crusade 
against them. South Carolina took the lead and sometimes half a score were 
hanged in a day at Charleston. One of the most famous of the pii'ates was 
Captain William Kidd. The Earl of BeUomont, governor of Massachusetts, 
sent Kidd, hitherto an honest mei'chant, against the pirates in 1696. Reports 
soon came in that Kidd had turned pirate, and when he returned to Boston he 
was arrested and sent to London for trial. Kidd claimed that his crew had 
overpowered him and become pirates against his consent. It is believed, how- 
ever, that he was guilty ; but his trial was a very unfair one, his conviction rest- 
ing on the testimony of two of his pals, who had turned king's evidence. The 
charge of the judge was strongly against him. He was hanged in London in 
1701. \Jyclopedia of American Biography. 



CHAPTER V 

COLONIZATION — NEW ENGLAND 

When North America was first settled by the English race the 
blessings of religious freedom had not yet fully dawned upon man- 
kind. For a century the Christian world had struggled with the 
intolerant spirit of the Middle Ages. Much, indeed, had been ac- 
complished, but the evolution was slow, and another century must 
elapse before one could stand in the broad daylight of religious 
liberty. 

No people were more enlightened during this period than the 
English, yet England furnishes a striking example of religious 
persecution. The English Reformation is commonly dated from 
Henry VIII, but that monarch did little more than transfer to him- 
self the power before wielded by the Pope. The seeds for such a 
revolt had been sown long before by John Wyclif. It was the 
leaven of Lollardism that brought about in the English heart the 
conditions which now made the work of Henry vastly easier than it 
otherwise could have been. After the death of Henry the religious 
mind of England swayed to and fro for a hundred years and more 
with the caprice of the sovereign and the ever changing condition of 
politics. At length, however, the country settled down to the main- 
tenance by law of an Established Church; but there were many whose 
consciences could not be bound. There were many who attempted 
to purify the Church of England and were called Puritans, and 
some of these separated from it and were called Separatists. 

These Dissenters, or Nonconformists, as they were often called, 
were very numerous during the reign of James I. James was a 
narrow-minded pedant, and probably without any very deep reli- 
gious convictions. Bred in the Presbyterian faith, he despised 
Presbyterianism because incompatible with his ideas of monarchy. 
Of the Puritans he said, " I will make them conform, or I will harry 
them out of the land." They refused to conform, and the cruel 
monarch did the latter — he harried them out of the land. 

98 



COLONIZATION — NEW ENGLAND 99 

THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

The Separatists ^ were less numerous by far than other classes of 
IS onconformists, yet they formed the advance guard of the great 
Puritan exodus from the mother country to the shores of New Eng- 
land. The town of Scrooby in Nottinghamshire was the center of 
a scattered congregation of Separatists whose minister was John 
Robinson and whose ruling elder was William Brewster, the village 
postmaster. After enduring many persecvitious this little band of 
Christians, who now became " Pilgrims," escaped with difficulty 
from their native land to Amsterdam, Holland, whence a year later 
they removed to Ley den. Here they dwelt for eleven years, exiles 
for conscience' sake, earning their bread by the labor of their hands. 

But the Pilgrims felt that Holland was not their home; they 
could not endure the thought of giving up their language and 
customs for those of the Dutch, nor were they willing ^he Pilgrims 
to return to their native England, where religious perse- in Holland, 
cution had not abated. They had heard of the colony 1608-1620. 
of Virginia, and their thoughts were directed to the wilderness of 
the New World. Through the friendship and aid of Sir Edwin 
Sandys, and others, they secured a little money and purchased a 
little vessel, the SpeediceU, hired another, the 3IayJloiver, and deter- 
mined to cross the wide waters to America, where they might 
worship God in their own way and still be Englishmen. Having 
secured a grant from the Virginia Company to settle in the Hudson 
Valley, and a promise from the king that he would not interfere 
with them, and having mortgaged themselves to a company of 
London merchants, they set forth with brave hearts to encounter 
the unknown perils of the sea and of the wilderness. The Speed- 
well proved unfit for the sea, and the little band reembarked from 
Plymouth, England, in the 3fayfloiver alone. Their minister Robin- 
sou had remained in Ley den, and Brewster was the leader. He 
and John Carver were well advanced in years, but most of the 
company were in the prime of life. William Bradford was thirty 
and Edward W^inslow but twenty-five. Before leaving Plymouth 
they were joined by Miles Standish, a sturdy soldier of thirty-six, 
who was in sympathy with the movement though not r member 
of the congregation. 

1 The Separatists were often called Browniste, from Robert Broime, th» reputed 
founder of the sect. The sect, however, had its origin before Browne'i time. See 
Eggleston's " Beginners of a Nation," p. liG. 



100 HISTORY OP THE UNITED STATES 

The " Pilgrim Fathers " with their "wives and children, as borne 
by the Mayflower, numbered one hundred and two ; one died on the 
Yoyage and one was born. After a perilous voyage of many weeks 
they anchored off the coast of New England, far from the point at 
which they had aimed, and here they were obliged to remain.^ 
Being north of the bounds of the company that had granted them a 
patent, they occupied a country to which they had no legal right. 
Before landing they drew up a compact for the government of the 
colony and chose John Carver governor for the first year. This 
compact, the " first written constitution in the world," was an agree- 
ment by which they pledged themselves " solemnly and mutually, in 
the presence of God and of one another,'' to form a body politic, to 
frame such laws as they might need, to which they promised " all 
due submission and obedience." 

The compact was signed by all the adult males, forty-one in 
number, on the 11th of November, the day on Avhich the Mayfloioer 
entered Cape Cod harbor.^ An exploring party went ashore, and 
they found the country bleak and uninviting in the extreme. The 
snow was half a foot deep, and the fierce wind blew the spray of the 
sea upon them where it froze until their " clothes looked like coats 
of iron." But the Pilgrims had not sought ease and comfort ; they 
expected hardships and discouragements. They chose Plymouth 
harbor as a landing place, and on December 16, one hundred and 
two days after leaving Plymouth, England, they made a landing in 
the face of a wintry storm, on a barren rock since known as 
Plymouth Rock. Next they " fell vpon their knees and blessed y* 
God of heaven, who had brought them ouer y*" vast and furious ocean." ^ 

In a few days the men were busily engaged in building cabins, 
returning each night to the ship; but ere they were finished the 

1 There had been earlier attempts to colonize the New England coast. Gosnold 
had sailed into Buzzards Bay in 1G02, but the would-be colonists who came with him 
went back in his ship to England. In Win George Popham, with a party, undertook 
to colonize the coast of Maine, but after the experience of one severe winter they all 
returned to England. Without attempting to plant a colony, Martin Pring had 
sailed into Plymouth harbor in 1603, and George Weymouth visited the coast of 
Maine in 1605. 

In 1615 Captain John Smith with a company of sixteen men explored a portion 
of the New England coast, and it was he and not the Pilgrims, as is commonly stated, 
who gave the name " Plymouth " to the landing-place of the latter. 

2 New style, November 21. 

3 The tradition of the famous " Landing on Plymouth Rock " should be revised, 
as the women and children remained in the ship for many weeks longer. See Ames's 
" The Mayflower, Her Log," p. 278. Atlantic J^Ionthly, November, 1881, p. 612. 



COLONIZATION — NEW ENGLAND 101 

wintry blasts had planted the seeds of consumption in many of the 
little band, and before the coming of spring more than forty of them, 
including the Avives of Bradford, Winslow, and Standish, had been 
laid in the grave. And yet when the 3IayJiower sailed for England 
in the early spring, not one of the survivors returned with her, and 
it is a singular fact that nearly all who survived that dreadful 
winter at Plymouth lived to a good old age. Among those who 
died the first year was Governor Carver, and William Bradford, the 
historian of the colony, was chosen to fill the office, and he held the 
position for thirty-one years. 

The coast at this point was unusually free from Indians, owing 
to a pestilence that had swept them away a few years before. Dur- 
ing the winter they saw but few natives; but they found many 
Indian graves and here and there hidden baskets of corn. One day 
in March the people were astonished at the bold approach of an 
Indian who entered their village crying, " Welcome, 
Englishmen." This Indian, whose name was Samoset, ^°^°^® • 
of the Wampanoag tribe, had learned a little English from fisher- 
men on the coast of Maine. He went away and returned in a few 
days Avith another of his people named Squanto, who was to become 
a benefactor to the infant colony of white men. Squanto had been 
kidnaped some years before by traders and sold into slavery in 
Spain, but he was rescued and sent back to his own home by an 
Englishman, and from this time he was an unswerving friend to the 
English. He taught the Plymouth people many things 
about fishing and raising corn, and a few years later, ^ 
when dying, he begged them to pray that he might go to the Eng- 
lishman's God in heaven. He could now speak the English language 
fairly well, and he informed the settlers that his great chief Massa- 
soit desired to make a treaty of peace and friendship with them. 
The treaty was soon made and it was faithfully kept by both sides 
for more than fifty years. One object of Massasoit in making this 
treaty was to protect his tribe from his enemy Canoni- 
cus, the chief of the powerful Narragansett trilje. Soon Massasoit 
after this Canonicus, wishing to show his hostility 
toward the new friends of his old enemy, sent Governor Bradford a 
challenge in the form of a snake skin filled with arrows, but when 
the skin was returned filled with powder and shot, the forest king 
decided that it were better to make friends of the white men and 
did so. With the exception of a little skirmish in defense of a 



102 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

party of traders at Weymouth, the Plymouth people were free from 
Indian wars till the rise of King Philip — more than a half century 
after the landing of the Mayflower. 

The government of Plymouth was a pure democracy, all the 
freemen assembling in town meetings to choose their officers, make 
laws, and render judicial decisions. So it continued for eighteen 
years, when the growth of the colon}'- rendered the meeting of all 
voters impossible and they established a representative government, 
each settlement sending two representatives ; but the people re- 
tained, for twenty years longer, the Referendum — the power to 
repeal any law that their assembly might enact. 

The colony of the Pilgrim Fathers had much to contend with 
and it increased but slowly. At the end of ten years' existence it 
contained scarcely more than three hundred people. They had to 
grapple with the most serious obstacles, — the severe climate, the 
unproductive soil, and the want of means to carry out what was 
necessary to be done. To these was added a lack of educational 
facilities to attract other settlers and a feeling in England against 
the Separatists, even among Puritans, who refused to join or sympa- 
thize with a body of men that had entirely severed their relations 
with the Church of England. These things had much to do with 
retarding the growth of Plymouth ;. but there was another drawback 
still more serious during the first six years. 

The Pilgrims had, before leaving England, virtually mortgaged 
themselves to a company of " merchant adventurers " of London by 
forming with them a stock company. In this company every 
colonist above sixteen years of age engaged to serve the colony seven 
years, at the end of which each would receive the profits of one share 
of stock.^ This arrangement necessitated a communistic mode of 
living at Plymouth, and Governor Bradford soon saw that the system 
was sapping the life of the colony.- At length he sent Miles Stan- 
dish to England to have the contract canceled if possible ; but in this 
he failed, and in 1627 the colonists purchased their freedom for a 
large sum which required seven years for them to pay. At this time 
the communal system was for the most part broken up, and each 
household was granted twenty acres as a private allotment. 

The American people of to-day look back with pride to the sturdy 

1 Soma contributed money, in addition to personal serrice, and received thereby 
a greater amount of stocli. See Bradford's " History of Plvmoutli Plantation," 
(Boston, 1898), p. 57. 2 ji,id., pp. 162-163. 



COLONIZATION — MASSACHUSETTS BAY 103 

Christian character of the founders of our nation ; and of the various 
rivulets of eniigratiou that resulted in the earliest settlements, it is 
certain that the one holding the highest place of honor in the great 
American heart is the little band of Pilgrims who settled at 
Plymouth in 1620. With all their narrowness we must admire 
them. No state was ever founded by a more heroic people, 
and no people were ever moved by nobler motives. The colony 
continued to live its humble life in the forest in its own way until 
many years later it was merged into another, and finally became a 
part of the great state of Massachusetts. 

MASSACHUSETTS BAY 

Puritanism increased mightily in England during the later years 
of James I and the reign of his son Charles, notwithstanding the 
cruel persecutions. If the Dissenters hoped for better things by the 
change of monarchs, they were doomed to disappointment; for if 
James had chastised them with whips, Charles chastised them with 
scorpions. But King Charles with all his bigotry was not the mov- 
ing spirit during his reign in persecuting Dissenters ; for this we 
must look to his more bigoted courtier, William Laud, the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury.^ Laud was a man of remarkable energy. He 
was an extreme lover of law and order and a powerful supporter of 
the royal prerogative. In religion he clung with unyielding tenacity 
to the letter of the law, but had little conception of its spirit. How 
a man could, on principle and for conscience' sake, dissent from the 
Established Church was wholly beyond the comprehension of Laud, 
nor could he respect the one who did it. It was Laud above all 
men who visited bitter persecutions upon the Puritans in the reign 
of Charles, and it was Laud who, all unconsciously, did a great ser- 
vice for humanity — he caused the building of a powerful Puritan 
commonwealth in the New World. The great migration set in with 
the ascendency of Laud ; " it waned as he declined and ceased for- 
ever with his fall." ^ 

It will be remembered that Puritan and Pilgrim were not synony- 
mous terms. The Puritans, as stated before, were those who sought 
to purify the English Church and to modify its forms, while remain- 
ing within it. The word " Pilgrim," while it has acquired a religious 

1 Laud did not become archbishop until 1633, though he had long been an intimate 
adviser of the king. 

* Eggleston, " Beginners of a Nation," p. 196. 



104 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

meaning, was not an ecclesiastical term. It was applied only to the 
Separatists or Independents who settled at Plymouth 
Pu^an because of their migration, first to Holland and later to 

America. But eventually the Puritans became Indepen- 
dents, not only in America, but also in England, and from them have 
grown the great religious denominations of the English-speaking 
world — the Congregationalist, the Baptist, the Methodist,^ and to a 
great extent the Presbyterian. 

During the ten years following the coming of the Pilgrims in 
1620 there were numerous conflicting land-grants made in eastern 
New England, and various scattered settlements sprang up in the 
neighborhood of Plymouth. An enumeration of these would only be 
confusing to the reader. 

We have noticed, in our account of Virginia, that King James in 
1606 chartered two companies, the London and the Plymouth com- 
panies. The former succeeded in founding Jamestown ; the latter, 
after various sporadic attempts, had in 1620 done nothing. Mean- 
time, John Smith of Virginia fame had explored the coast of northern 
Virginia, as it was then called, made a map of the coast, and named 
the country New England. In 1620 the old Plymouth company 
Council for secured a charter and was henceforth known as the Council 
New Eng- for New England. Sir Eerdinando Gorges was its lead- 
^*^^- ing member. This charter was for the vast territory 

between the fortieth and forty-eighth degrees of latitude, the name 
New England being substituted for northern Virginia. This new com- 
pany, in its effort to found colonies, made many land grants, one of 
which, in 1628, was to six men, of whom John Endicott was the 
chief. This same year Endicott, who was to play a leading part 
in the early history of Massachusetts, came out with a following of 
sixty and settled at a place called Salem, joining a small settlement 
already there. But the great Puritan exodus was yet to begin, and 
as a large number of Puritans were now ready to join the colony, it 
was deemed far more satisfactory to have a royal charter than a mere 
land grant. A charter was therefore secured from Charles I in March, 
Massacliu- 1629, confirming the land grant of 1628, namely, from 
setts charter, three miles south of the Charles River to a point three 
^^^^ miles north of the Merrimac, extending westward to the 

Pacific Ocean which was believed to be much nearer than it is. 

1 The Methodist church rose at a later date ; hut it had its origiu in the same 
spirit that actuated the Puritans. 



COLONIZATION — MASSACHUSETTS BAY 105 

This new company was styled the Governor and Company of Massa- 
chusetts Bay in ISTew England. The government was to be placed 
in the hands of a governor, deputy governor, and eighteen assistants, 
to be elected annually by the company.^ 

This charter was very similar to the third charter of Virginia 
of 1G12. But there was one remarkable point of difference : it did 
not provide, as did the Virginia charter, that the seat of government 
must remain in England. This omission led to the most important 
results in the building of New England. The year of the granting 
of the charter was the same in which the despotic king of Englanrl 
dismissed his Parliament and began his autocratic rule of eleven 
years without one. The political situation, therefore, as well as reli- 
gious persecution, rendered the Puritan party extremely uncomfort- 
able in England. Consequently, a small party of leading Puritans 
met at Cambridge in August of this year and adopted the " Cam- 
bridge Agreement," to migrate to Massachusetts, on condition that 
the charter and seat of government be transferred thither. To this 
the Massachusetts Bay Company agreed, and John Winthrop, a gen- 
tleman of wealth and education, one of the strongest and most ad- 
mirable characters in the pioneer history of America, Avas chosen 
governor. Thomas Dudley was chosen deputy governor. A party 
of three hundred had been sent to join Endicott at Salem, and in 
April of the next year, 1630, Winthrop himself embarked, with a 
large company, for the New World. 

The Pilgrims of 1620 were men of great zeal, but of little knowl- 
edge ; many of the Puritans of 1630, however, were men of educa- 
tion and fortune,^ members of Parliament, or clergymen of the most 
liberal education. Led by such men, the movement created a pro- 
found impression in England, and thousands now pre- 
pared to cross the western ocean and take up their titration 
abode in the forests of New England. More than a 
thousand came in 1630, and as the policy of the king and Laud 
became more intolerable, the tide increased in volume. The people 
came, not singly, nor as families merely, but frequently as con- 
gregations, led by their pastor. 

Winthrop had brought with him the charter, and this was the 
first step in a very important process — the process of fusing the 

1 Provision was also made for '* one great, general and solemn assembly " to meet 
four times a year. 

2 Chalmers's " Introduction," Vol. I, p. 58. 



m HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

company and the colonists into one body. The second step, which 
soon followed, was the admitting of the colonists, or "freemen," to 
membership in the company. By this the company ceased to be a 
private trading company conducted for commercial gain ; it became 
a body politic, a self-governing community. The condition of free- 
manship was made, not a property or educational test, but a religious 
qualitication. The company was conservative and the process was 
slow. When there were 3000 settlers there were but 350 freemen, 
but the beginning of popular government was at hand. The osten- 
sible object of the company, when it secured the charter, was to 
profit by trade ; the real object was to establish a religious commu- 
nity with freedom of conscience, not for all, but for those only who 
were in religious accord with them. And the religious test for free- 
nuxnship became the safeguard by which they secured for the future 
the end for which they had sacrificed so much. The matter of 
popular government, however, did not come without sonae friction, 
as we shall soon notice. 

Some time after landing, Winthrop found a clear spring of water 
on a peninsula called Shawmut, and there he took up his abode, 
founded a town, and called it Boston. Newtown, now Cambridge, 
was the first capital, but Boston was soon chosen as the seat of 
government. Meantime, Roxbury, Charlestown, Watertown, Dor- 
chester, and other towns were founded. 

The various Puritan settlements were soon in friendly relations with 
the Pilgrims at PlyuKmth. They had formerly professed to despise 
the Separatists, but scarcely had the shores of England receded from 
their view when they felt a sense of freedom as never before,' and this 
feeling took a deeper hold on them until they found themselves no 
longer Puritans in the original sense, but Separatists pure and simple. 
Their churches were organized on the Plymouth plan, and were never 
connected in any way with the Established Church of England. 

In the matter of local government, the old parish system of Eng- 
land, half ecclesiastical and half political, was reproduced in the 
town or township. But it soon lost its religious functions and be- 
came the political unit, with absolute control of local 
me°nt ^°^^'^'^" government ; while in Virginia, where the old name was 
retained, the opposite ensued — the parish became a 
religious division, while the comity became the political unit. This 
subject will be treated more fully in our chapter on Colonial Life. 

1 Eggleston, p. 213. 



COLONIZATION — MASSACHUSETTS BAY 107 

The general government was at first conducted by the governor, 
deputy governor, and the assistants. This caused discontent among 
the freemen and when, in 1G31, a tax was assessed for public works, 
the peoj^le of Watertown protested with the argument that it was 
taxation without representation. The Watertown protest was heeded 
and the freemen, who had delegated their right of electing the gov- 
ernor to the assistants, now resumed that right, and to punish Win- 
throp for his aristocratic tendencies, they dropped him and elected 
Dudley governor. Thus, in New England, as well as in the South, the 
democratic tendency was apparent almost from the beginning. But 
the freemen soon found it inconvenient for all to meet 
in General Court, and they established the representa- e °me t^**^" 
tive system. Each town sent two delegates^ and these, 
with the governor and assistants, formed the General Court, which 
had legislative and judicial power. The freemen, however, continued 
to meet at Boston once a year to choose a governor and other officials ; 
but as this practice became inconvenient, the proxy system was intro- 
duced, and this developed into the system of written ballots and sealed 
returns.^ In 1641, the General Court adopted a code of laws known 
as the '' Body of Liberties." Prior to this they had been governed 
by the common law of England and the precepts of the Bible. 

The settlers of the Bay colony had their hardships, — the long, 
harsh winters, the unfertile soil, the lurking red man, often hostile, 
and other obstacles common to pioneer life, — but the growth of the 
colony was phenomenal. The great Puritan exodus continued for 
ten years, and by 1640 more than twenty thousand home seekers 
had sailed into the harbors of Massachusetts Bay. Such a move- 
ment of population had not been known since the Crusades of the 
Middle Ages. Strong houses soon took the place of the early built 
cabins ; herds of cattle, goats, and swine covered the countryside, 
and ships were soon carrying loads of lumber, salt fish, and furs to 
the mother country. 

No one was more astonished at the growing prosperity of the 
Puritan commonwealth than was the despotic king who had granted 
the charter. From the ignoblest of motives, therefore, though osten- 
sibly because of complaints that had reached his ears from a few mal- 
contents, who had been sent back to England by the Puritans, King 
Charles determined (1635) to annul the charter. A writ of qxco 

1 After 1636 the delegates were from one to three according to population. 
• Bishop's " History of Elections," p. 123 sq. 



108 ■ HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

warranto was issued, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, an uncompromising 
enemy of the Puritans, was to be made ruler of New England. But 
suddenly the opposition to the king became so threatening in Eng- 
land that he dropped the matter, and the charter was left unharmed. 
The people of Massachusetts had meantime shown a spirit of defiance 
similar to that by which their posterity, a hundred and forty years 
later, drew the attention of the world. They sent a messenger, in 
the person of Edward Winslow of Plymouth, to London to plead their 
cause, but at the same time they fortified their coast towns, collected 
arms, and trained militia. When, however, the king abandoned his 
designs against the charter, Massachusetts became practically an inde- 
pendent colony. In 1643 even the oath of allegiance to the Crown 
was dropped, and for a long period the colony was wholly without 
interference from royal authority. During the Civil War in England, 
and even during the period of the commonwealth under Cromwell, 
Massachusetts followed the same independent course as before. 

The governorship, during the early years of the Bay colony, alter- 
nated between AVinthrop and Dudley. But in 1636 Harry Vane, a 
young man who had arrived the year before, the son and heir of a high 
official in England, was chosen to fill the office. Vane was not a bad 
man, but he was radical, and his selection at a time when the wisest 
heads were needed to guide the ship of state proved to be unwise. 

It was at this early period that two notable events mark the his- 
tory of Massachusetts, and they were brought about by two notable 
persons, — Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson. Williams was a 
young English clergyman of great strength of character and irrepres- 
sible enthusiasm. In his own land he found no rest, on account of 
his religious teachings, and in 1631 made his way with 
Wiirams ^^^'^ jo^ng wife to New England. Scarcely had he 
landed when his troubles began anew. He seemed like 
an Ishmael — his hand against every man and every man's hand 
against him. He stirred up opposition at Boston, at Plymouth, and 
at Salem. He refused to take the oath of fidelity ; he denied the 
right of the magistrate to punish for violations of the first table of 
the Decalogue ; he denied the right of compelling one to take an 
oath; he denounced the union of Church and State, and pronounced 
the king's patent void, as the Indians were the true owners of the 
land. The discontent caused by Williams's doctrines became so seri- 
ous that the General Court took hold of the matter and, after a second 
offense, ordered him to leave the colony within six weeks. He still 



COLONIZATION — MASSACHUSETTS BAY 109 

kept up the disturbance and it was decided to send him directly to 

England. Williams, hearing of this decision, made his escape into 

the forest and wandered about for fourteen weeks, 

spending his nights with the Indians, or in hollow 

trees, until eventually he settled in one spot and became the builder 

of a city and the founder of a state. 

Roger Williams has been looked upon as an apostle of religious 
liberty, and so he was. His ideas were far in advance of his age, 
and some of them have since spread throughout the Christian world. 
We admire Williams for his sincerity, his adherence to principles. 
But he was impractical and wanting in tact. He was mainly right 
in the abstract, but wrong in his methods of application. He was 
wrong in preaching revolutionary doctrines, and iirging them on a 
people who were not ready for them. Had the colonists followed 
him in declaring the royal charter valueless, their independence 
would soon have come to an end. The people of Massachusetts 
were proud of their theocratic government ; they had labored and 
sacrificed much to obtain it, and probably it was the very best for 
them at the time. They cannot, therefore, be blamed for dealing 
with Williams as they did. 

Scarcely had the affair of Eoger Williams been settled when the 
colonists found it necessary to deal with another religious enthusi- 
ast. The men were in the habit of holding meetings, to which the 
women were not admitted, to discuss public and religious questions. 
Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, a woman of talent and elo- 
quence, resented this insult to her sex, as she called TTutchinson 
it, and began to hold meetings at her own house. Here 
they discussed theological questions and put forth views at variance 
with those of the ministers and the magistrates, asserting that the 
latter were under a covenant of works while she and her followers 
were under a covenant of grace. The whole colony became agitated 
with the subject. John Winthrop and most of the magistrates and 
ministers opposed the new doctrines, while the young Governor 
Vane and others favored them. At length, after Winthrop had been 
reelected governor and Vane had sailed for England, Mrs. Hutchin- 
son was exiled from the colony. She made her way to a new anti- 
nomian settlement near that of Roger Williams, whence, after a 
sojourn of several years, she removed farther westward and was 
captured and murdered by the Indians. 

About twenty years after the Hutchinson episode another and 



no HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

more serious affair disturbed the peace of Massachusetts. The 
Quakers, a religious sect newly founded in England, began coming 
to Massachusetts in 1656. They refused to take an oath and many 
thought them Jesuits in disguise. Keports of their extreme fanati- 
cism had reached the colonists, and the first arrivals were sent back. 
Laws were then enacted to prohibit their coming, but they came in 
defiance of the laws. At length a law was passed (there was but 
one majority in the lower house) pronouncing the death sentence 
upon any Quaker who, having been once banished, should return to 
the colony. To the astonishment of all, a few of the banished ones 
returned and demanded the repeal of the cruel law. Their fanati- 
cism increased with the persecution ; they walked the streets and 
Execution of entered the churches in a nude condition,^ denouncing 
Quakers, the laws and the Puritan form of worship. The author- 

1656. i^ieg were perplexed. They had not expected to have 

occasion to enforce their harsh law ; they had only meant to keep 
out a people whom they despised. But now they must actually put 
these people to death or yield to their demand and repeal the law. 
They met in solemn conclave and again decided by one majority to 
enforce the law. Four of the Quakers were hanged. 

But public opinion did not sustain the magistrates and the law 
was repealed. Thus the Quakers, by sacrificing a few lives, Avon a 
victory, and they eventually settled down and became quiet, useful citi- 
zens, devoting much of their energy to the conversion of the Indians. 

Another popular delusion, still more serious in its results, was 
what is known as the Salem Witchcraft. This we notice here 
though it belongs to a later period. The witchcraft 
1692 '^^ craze began on this wise. Some young girls who were 
in the habit of reading witch stories imagined themselves 
bewitched, and began to accuse an old Indian woman and others of 
bewitching them. The tale was believed, and the excitement it 
caused spread like an epidemic. Hundreds of people, accused of 
being witches, were thrown into prison ; nineteen were hanged, one, 
an aged man, was pressed to death, and two died in prison before 
the crazy superstition had spent its force. 

It was not long until the people awoke to the horror of their 
delusion, and then they bitterly repented their folly — as a drunkard, 
in his sober moments, mourns over the deeds of his delirmm. It is 
unjust for later generations to make this delusion a ground of re- 

1 But there are no known instances of their having .lone this before the executions. 



COLONIZATION — MASSACHUSETTS BAY 111 

proach upon the people of New England. Be it remembered that 
witchcraft was believed in at this time in every part of the civilized 
world, and thousands had been put to death in Europe for the same 
cause.^ When it is remembered, further, that the religion of the 
Puritans was austere and somber, that the people were given to 
the morbid habit of introspection, that they ever had to battle with 
the dark, frowning forest and the wily Indian, and further that the 
age was a superstitious age — remembering all these things, we can 
only wonder that our forefathers were not more frequently the vic- 
tims of some delusive craze than they were. 

Massachusetts grew and prospered greatly, and by the time of 
the Restoration in England, in 1660, the colony had become a power- 
ful commonwealth. The independence of the colony was largely 
due to the internal strife and frequent changes of government 
in England, which left little time and opportunity to deal with 
matters beyond the sea. But soon after Charles II became king he 
began to look with jealous eye upon the increasing im- j^^gg ^^ j^^^g, 
portance of Massachusetts Bay. He accused the colo- sachusetts 
nists of assuming powers not warranted in the charter and f^}^^^' 
of violating the Navigation Acts, and he ceased not to 
harass them in various ways until the last year of his life, when he suc- 
ceeded, on a writ of quo warranto, in having the charter pronounced 
void by the high court of chancery, and the liberties of the great 
Puritan commonwealth were temporarily at an end. Other matters 
of importance, as the New England Confederacy, King Philip's War, 
the career of Sir Edmund Andros, and the like, belong rather to the 
history of New England as a whole than to that of one colony, and 
will be treated in a later chapter. 

CONNECTICUT 

The other New England colonies were founded and built up by 
the same class of people that had settled Massachusetts, and they 
were actuated by much the same motives and ambitions. The history 
of the one as given is therefore in substance the history of the others. 
A brief notice, however, of the interior settlements is here in place. 

The people of Massachusetts were not long in casting their eyes 
westward from their own barren coast to the fertile valley of the 
Connecticut River, which Adrian Block, the Dutchman, had discov- 

1 The law In England imposing death for witchcraft was not repealed for fortj 
years after this Salem delusion, 



112 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

ered some years before ; and the result was that a new colony was 
soon flourishing on its banks. The father of Connecticut was Thomas 
Hooker, who had been driven from his native land by the persecut- 
ing Laud. He had arrived at Boston, in 1632, in the same ship which 
bore that other noted divine, John Cotton. Cotton became 
Thomas ^j^g Puritan pastor at Boston, and Hooker at the ad- 

joining village of Kewtown, now Cambridge. Hooker 
was not only a preacher of great power ; he possessed the elements 
of statesmanship of the most modern type. Governor Winthrop, 
with all his admirable qualities, was an aristocrat to the core. He 
believed in the government of the many by the few, and it was he 
that influenced the Bay colony to create freemen out of the citizens 
but slowly, and to limit the suffrage to members of the 
Winthro^^*^ Church. To this Hooker could not agree. A sharp 
controversy ensued between him and the governor of 
Massachusetts. To Winthrop he wrote that, " In matters which con- 
cern the common good, a general council chosen by all, to transact 
business which concern all, I conceive most suitable to rule and most 
safe for relief of the whole." 

This was modern democracy at its best, nor was the sentiment 
ever surpassed by the writer of the Declaration of Independence. 
It was this disagreement with the powers of Massachusetts that led 
Hooker to dreams of pressing farther into the wilderness and found- 
ing another colony. Another cause for this desire, as some think, 
was that he was disturbed by the fact that his rival, John Cotton, 
had surpassed him in winning public attention. Cotton, the pastor 
at Boston, was the leading clergyman, the religious oracle of the 
colony; while Hooker, conscious of equal power and eloquence, 
believed that the insignificance of the town in which he was located, 
away from the harbor, in the midst of an unfertile region, had much 
to do with curbing his influence. But Hooker was a man of spotless 
character, and his ambition to extend his influence was an ambition 
to do good. 

In the balmy days of June, 1636, the famous year of the found- 
ing of Providence and of Harvard College, Hooker and his entire 
Founding of congregation migrated on foot to the Connecticut Val- 
Connecticut, ley, driving their cattle before them. Here they found 
1636. 2i post of Plymouth men and Dutch traders from the 

Hudson striving for the mastery ; but Hooker ignored both, began 
the town of Hartford, and thus laid the foundations of a new com- 



COLONIZATION — CONNECTICUT 113 

monwealth. Other congregations, from Dorchester and Watertown, 
soon followed and founded the towns of Windsor and Wethersfield. 
Within a year eight hundred people had found their way into the valley. 

The government was a provisional one under a commission from 
Massachusetts, for a year, when the three towns, with the scattered 
settlers around, banded together and formed a little independent 
republic ; and here, in a rude legislative hall, with no flare of trum- 
pets, occurred one of the great events of early American annals — the 
production of the first written constitution in history that really 
created a government.^ This constitution, known as the Funda- 
mental Orders, brought forth little that was new; it modeled a 
government after that of Massachusetts, the chief First written 
departures being that a governor could not serve two constitution, 
successive terms and especially that no religious test be ^^3^- 
required for citizenship. It created a General Court with legisla- 
tive, judicial, and administrative powers, while local town govern- 
ment had already been transplanted from the mother colony. It 
provided for a representative government ; but sixty years passed 
before Connecticut had a bicameral legislature. No mention what- 
ever was made by the Fundamental Orders of the British govern- 
ment or of any allegiance to the king. Here on the banks of the 
Connecticut was one of the birthplaces of modern democracy, with 
the needful elements of a nationality ; here was a federal govern- 
ment, a prototype in miniature of the present government of the 
United States, which is to-day, as Mr. Fiske says, " in lineal descent 
more nearly related to that of Connecticut than to that of any of the 
other thirteen colonies." 

This constitution, with some alterations, was in force for one 
hundred and eighty years. John Haynes became the first governor 
of Connecticut. Springfield, founded about the same time, remained 
a part of Massachusetts, 

Meanwhile John Winthrop, son of the Massachusetts governor, 
built a fort at the mouth of the Connecticut River, which was named 
Saybrook, after Lord Say and Lord Brook, under whose -^^^ Haven 
authority he acted. Of more importance was the found- founded, 
ing of the New Haven colony, in 1638. Rev. John ^^^8- 
Davenport and Theophilus Eaton, a wealthy merchant from London, 

1 Neither the Mayflower compact, nor the agreements of the Narragansett com- 
munities had created a form of government. Osgood, in Political Science Quarterbj. 
XIV, p. 261. 



114 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

led a company of emigrants, mostly from Massachusetts, and pitched 
their tents on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. Here under 
a great oak Davenport expounded the Scriptures, saying that the 
people, like the Son of Man, were led forth into the wilderness to be 
tempted •, and here they set up their government with the Mosaic 
law as their code adapted to their conditions, and with the closest 
union of Church and State. Eaton was made governor and was 
reelected annually for many years. Other towns, Milford, Guilford, 
and Stamford, soon came into existence, and these united with New 
Haven, all taking the name of the New Haven Colony. 
Thus the river valley and the northern shore of the 
sound gradually became peopled with Puritan settlers. These two 
newborn colonies came near being strangled in their infancy. Their 
dangers were twofold — from the Dutch and from the Indians. 
The Dutch of New Amsterdam claimed the Connecticut Valley, and 
for many years there was desultory strife between them and the 
English settlers, when at length the latter succeeded in driving out 
the former. 

But the greatest menace came from the Indians, and scarcely 
had these infant settlements been made when the people had to pass 
through an Indian war, the first in New England's history, and 
known as the Pequot War. The Pequot Indians had murdered a 
Virginia trader on the Connecticut River, and John Endicott 
marched against them with a body of soldiers. The Indians refused 
to give up the guilty ones, and Endicott burned two of their towns 
and destroyed their crops. The next spring the storm broke forth 
in earnest. The Pequots, who had been murdering 
war 1637 settlers during the winter, made every effort to enlist 
the powerful Narragansetts ; but the alliance was pre- 
vented by Roger Williams. A company of about eighty white men, 
accompanied by about three hundred Indian allies of the Narragan- 
sett and Mohegan tribes, surprised the enemy in their fort at day- 
break one morning in May, and slew more than six hundred, but 
seven making their escape. A few months later another battle was 
fought, and the Pequot power was utterly broken. The chief, Sas- 
sacus, escaped to New York with a few followers, and was afterward 
murdered by one of his own subjects. Thus the whole tribe was 
practically exterminated, and for forty years afterward New Eng- 
land was free from Indian wars. 

The people of Connecticut occupied their land for many years 



COLONIZATION — RHODE ISLAND 115 

without any title to it except what they had from the Indians. But 
in 1662 the younger Winthrop secured a royal charter for Connecti- 
cut from Charles II, the most liberal that had yet been given. The 
only restriction was that the laws should not conflict with the laws 
of England. This charter, creating a corporation on the place, was 
similar to that of Massachusetts, to which the king objected. One 
object in granting it, as in the case of Rhode Island, was to encour- 
age rivalries to Massachusetts. The charter included the New 
Haven Colony; but that colony sternly resisted, and at length con- 
sented to become a part of Connecticut only when there was danger 
of its being absorbed by New York. But mau}^ of the New Haven 
people emigrated to northern New Jersey rather than come under 
the rule of Connecticut. John Winthrop now became the leading 
man in the colony, as his father had been in Massachusetts, and he 
held the office of governor for many years. After the serious 
trouble with King James II and with Andros, Connecticut, still 
retaining its liberal charter, was free from royal interference, and 
for a long period this " Land of Steady Habits " was the most peace- 
ful and happy of all the English colonies in America. 

RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS 

We have noticed the flight of Roger Williams from Salem, and 
his wandering tlirough the forest in search of a place to rest his 
head. He visited the good old chief Massasoit, who received him 
with great kindness, and Canonicus, who gave him a tract of land at 
the head of Narragausett Bay; and here on the banks of a little 
river he, with five followers, laid out a town and called it Providence. 
Soon after this William Coddington and John Clark, with a small 
following, settled on the little isla,nd of Rhode Island, then called 
Aquednok, which they purchased from the Indians, and founded 
the town of Portsmouth. These settlers were but twenty in number, 
but they adopted an agreement, chose Coddington governor, and put 
into motion the machinery of government. The Providence people 
had adopted a similar agreement, and thus they had two miniature 
independent commonwealths. These little settlements soon attracted 
people from Massachusetts. Mrs. Hutchinson came, and joined 
the Coddington settlement; but as she and Coddington could not 
agree, the latter left the place in 1639 and founded Newport on the 
same island. Newport and Portsmouth were united the next year, 



116 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

and Coddington was made governor. These communities were 
founded on the principle of absolute freedom of conscience. Most 
of the settlers were of the type of the founders, antinomians and 
malcontents — men who could not endure the rigors of Puritan the- 
ology, law, and custom. In fact, their spirit of freedom was extreme, 
and it went wild. They could not agree among themselves, and for 
many years Rhode Island was the most turbulent of all the New 
England colonies.^ 

Their '• soul liberty," as Roger Williams termed it, did not ex- 
tend to civil matters. In Providence only heads of families could 
vote, all unmarried men being denied the right of suffrage. Later 
the suffrage was restricted to owners of land. The settlements, being 
without title to their land, sent Williams in 1643 to England to secure 
a charter. The king and Parliament being then at variance, he ob- 
tained his charter from a committee of the latter, and on his return 
was received with great enthusiasm. The charter was issued to the 
" Incorporation of Providence Plantations in the ISTarragansett Bay 
in New England." It gave the people power to govern them- 
selves, but was simply a charter of incorporation and contained no 
land grant.^ The town of Warwick had now been founded, and the 
four towns were united under the new charter. But the union was 
short-lived. Coddington, in 1648, obtained a separate charter for 
Portsmouth and Newport. But this action was not satisfactory, and 
after a bitter quarrel of several years the four towns were again 
united under the charter secured by Williams. 

After the Restoration, however, this charter granted by Parliament 
was not considered valid, and in 1663 Rhode Island secured from 
Charles II a second charter for " Rhode Island and Providence Plan- 
tations," which confirmed the privileges granted by the first, made a 
land grant, and provided that no one be molested " for any difference 
in opinion in matters of religion." ^ Here was the spirit of Roger 
Williams embodied in constitutional law, and it grew and expanded 
until it covered all Christendom. But with sublime inconsistency 
the legislature of the colonj'', some time after the charter was granted, 
declared that " Roman Catholics shall not enjoy the rights of free- 
men." So liberal was this charter and so devoted to it were the 
people that it remained in force until after the Dorr Rebellion of 
1842. Connecticut and Rhode Island enjoyed greater freedom of 

1 Winsor, Vol. Ill, p. 337 ; Lodge, p. 389. 
8 See Poore, Vol. II, pp. 15-94. 



COLONIZATION — NEW HAMPSHIRE 111 

government than any other of the American colonies. They were 
called ''two little republics embosomed within a great empire."^ 

The colony of Ehode Island was never popular among its neigh- 
bors. As Doyle says, "Rhode Island was to New England what 
New England as a whole was to the mother country " — an outcast 
child that in the end brought glory to the parent state. The colony 
was excluded from the confederacy of 1643, and, moreover, it w^as 
harassed for years by the claims upon its territory by Massachusetts 
and Connecticut. But the people were plucky and the}^ successfully 
defended their rights, and in spite of external encroachments and 
internal dissensions the colony grew in strength and importance, and 
its trade extended in every direction. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE 

The territory that afterward became New Hampshire was included 
in a grant of land in 1622 by the Council for New England to Sir 
Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason, both of whom had been inter- 
ested in New England affairs from the beginning. The grant 
extended from the Merrimac River to the Kennebec.^ The first set- 
tlement was made in 1623 by a Scotchman named Thomson, at the 
mouth of the Piscataqua River, and was called Little Harbor. A 
few years later Edward Hilton, a London fish merchant, founded 
Dover six miles up the river. He was soon joined by his brother 
William and several families, and later by others from Massa- 
chusetts. 

A company called the Laconia Company w^as formed in England in 
1629, and the next year it sent a vessel to the mouth of the Piscataqua, 
bearing a colony of settlers with Captain Neal as governor. Ports- 
mouth, first called Strawberry Bank, was settled, and Governor Neal 
spent several years exploring the forest. He brought back a dis 
couraging report to his company, and the settlement was left to shift 
for itself. 

In 1638 a settlement was made at Exeter between the Piscataqua 

1 Chalmers's " Introduction," Vol. I, p. 109. 

2 A second patent to New Hampshire was granted to Mason November 7, 1629, 
and the name New Hampshire was used ; ten days later another to Gorges and Mason 
for " Laconia," and two years later still another to the same for the land near the 
mouth of the Piscataqua. It would be confusing to the reader to attempt to 
r^smember all the land grants and patents in addition to the royal charters of those 
times. Many of the charters and grants conflict, and many make grants of lands 
whose bounds were unknown. 



118 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

and Merrimac rivers by John Wheelwright, the brother-in-law of 

Mrs. Hutchinson, who had been banished from Massachnsetts, 

These little towns had come into existence, each independent of 

the others. None of them had a stable government, and there was 

constant discord and turbulence. In 1639 the towns formed an agree- 

., „ ment to unite, but as Massachusetts claimed this terri- 

New Hamp- , ' i , t i i 

shire joins tory, the towns at length agreed to come under her 

Massachu- jurisdiction. The union was formed in 1641, the people 

^^**^' of the settlements retaining liberty to manage their 

" town affairs," and each town was permitted to send a deputy to the 

General Court at Boston. 

New Hampshire continued a part of Massachusetts until 1679, 
when the king separated them. He joined tfiem again in 1686 ; but 
they were finally separated in 1691, and New Hampshire again be- 
came a royal province, the president and council being appointed by 
the Crown and the assembly elected by the people. Until 1741, how- 
ever, the governor was but a lieutenant under the supervision of the 
governor of Massachusetts. 

New Hampshire grew very slowly for many years. The chief 
cause of this was the fact that the heirs of Mason claimed the right 
to the land, and their infinite disputes and litigations with the settlers 
concerning the land titles repelled home-seekers. At last, after a 
hundred years of controversy, the Mason heirs were satisfied (1749) 
by the purchase of their claims. 

In 1719 a colony of Scotch-Irish immigrants settled in New Hamp- 
shire and founded the town of Londonderry, so named from the city 
in Ireland from which they came. These people were thrifty, and 
they soon began an industry which they had learned in Ireland — 
the raising -of flax and manufacturing of linen goods. The goods 
made by means of the old spinning-wheel in these humble cabins in 
the forests became famous over all New England, and even in the 
mother country. 

After the middle of the eighteenth century a bitter dispute arose 
between New Hampshire and New York concerning the territory 
lying west of the Connecticut River, both colonies claiming it. One 
of New Hampshire's governors had laid out about one hundred and 
_ forty townships in this disputed region. These wer« 

called the "New Hampshire Grants." But in 1765 
the king decided the contest in favor of New York, and when 
the governor of that colony ordered the settlers, now several thou- 



COLONIZATION — NEW HAMPSHIRE 119 

•and in number, to repurchase their lands, tliey rose in rebellion. 
Led by Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, both afterward famous in the 
War of the Ee volution, the " Green Mountain Boys" fought off the 
New York officers, and in 1777 they declared the "New Hampshire 
Grants " an independent state under the name of Vermont. Four- 
teen years later Vermont became the first of the states, aside from 
the original thirteen, to enter the Union. 

The two proprietors of Laconia had, in 1629, divided their pos- 
sessions, Mason receiving the portion that became New Hampshire,^ 
and Gorges the eastern portion, •which was called Maine. It will be 
remembered that the Laconia patent was simply a grant of land from 
the Council for New England and not a royal charter. In 1639, 
however, Gorges received from Charles I a royal charter for Maine, 
from the Piscataqua to the Kennebec and one hundred „ . 
and twenty miles inland. This charter was similar to that 
of Maryland, erecting a county palatine and proprietary province. 
But in 1677 the heirs of Gorges sold their rights to Massachusetts. 
The territory was now called the District of Maine, and under this 
name it was governed by the elder colony for nearly one hundred and 
fifty years, when, in 1820, Maine was admitted into the Union as a 
state. 

We have now six important colonial settlements in New England, 
besides many smaller ones that are not usually accorded the dignity 
of separate colonies. Two of these six, Hartford and New Haven, 
had united and become one, and a similar union was to be effected 
between two others, Massachusetts Bay ^ and Plymouth, thus reduc- 
ing the number to four.^ These four, Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, were among the thirteen states, 
the other two New England states, Vermont and Maine, as we have 
seen, coming into the Union after the Revolution. 

Having followed the settlements of the various New England 
colonies, let us now take a brief survey of matters that affected all 
these colonies, during what may be termed the second period of 
their existence. 

1 Mason spoke of it as New Hampshire in his will of 1635, after Hampshire in 
England, where he had held an important office ; hnt the colony was not so called 
t>y the settlers before the restoration of Charles II. For a hundred years and more 
after the colony was settled the heirs of Mason made the settlers much trouble by 
•laiming their lauds. 

2 Massachusetts was called Massachusetts Bay for about a hundred and fifu 
years after its founding. 

8 The union of Massachusetts and New Hampshire being temporary. 



CHAPTER VI 

NEW ENGLAND AFFAIRS 

Immediately after the close of the war with the Pequot Indians, 
there came a proposition from Connecticut for a union of the New 
England colonies, for the purpose of protection against their com- 
mon enemies. After several years of negotiation, this proposition 
resulted in 

THE NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERATION (1643-1684) 

This vinion, the prototype of our present national Union, had its 
origin in the same town that gave to the world its first written con- 
stitution, and the same that, nearly two centuries later, became the 
seat of the famous Hartford Convention. 

The articles were drawn up at Boston in May, 1643, by the lead- 
ing men of New England. Among the representatives we find 
Haynes, governor of Hartford, Eaton, governor of New Haven, and 
from Plymouth and Massachusetts, Winslow and Winthrop. Four 
colonies only entered into the compact — Massachusetts (including 
New Hampshire), Hartford, New Haven, and Plymouth — no invi- 
tation to join the union being extended to Phode Island, or to the 
scattered settlers of Maine. Rhode Island was left out for obvious 
reasons, and Maine, chiefly because most of the settlers were of the 
Established Church. 

The name adopted was " The United Colonies of New England " ; 
the union was a loose confederation, each colony retaining its home 
government as before. The main object in uniting was to protect 
themselves the better from their common enemies — from the In- 
dians about them, from the Dutch on the west, the French on the 
north, and even from possible dangers from the mother country, 
which was, at that moment, in the throes of civil war. The union 
was merely a business arrangement; it did not conduce to arouse any 
particular attachments or patriotism The business of the confed- 

120 



NEW ENGLAND AFFAIRS 121 

eration was to be transacted by a commission of eight men, two from 
each colony ; a vote of six was required to carry a measure, and their 
vote was final. The expenses as well as the spoils of war were to be 
divided among the colonies, in proportion to their respective male 
populations between the ages of sixteen and threescore years. The 
articles provided for the delivering up of the runaway slaves and of 
fugitives from justice. This feature was the prototype of the Fugi- 
tive Slave Law of a later generation. Provision was made for the 
admission of other colonies, and that the union should be perpetual. 
The coalition was unfair to Massachusetts, whose people, exceed- 
ing in nuinbers the population of the other three combined, could 
thus be drawn into war without their own consent. The only rem- 
edy lay in violating the compact, and this Massachusetts did ten 
years after it was made, by refusing to engage in a war with the 
Dutch, nor was there any power to coerce her. The union was very 
weak after 1662, when New Haven was joined to Connecticut; it 
continued, however, until 1684, when it was dissolved, after an ex- 
istence of forty -one years. The coalition had been very useful to the 
people ; it had given weight to their dealings with the Dutch, and 
it carried them through the most dangerous Indian conflict of colo- 
nial times. It also furnished a precedent for colonial union in later 
times. 

KING PHILIP^ S WAR 

The relations of the colonists to the Indians were threefold: 
they traded with the Indians, they fought with them, and they 
preached the gospel to them. The early settlers carried on trade 
with the natives, because it was profitable, and because it was often 
necessary, in keeping the colonists from starvation. They sought 
from pure and honest motives to convert the red men to Christianity. 
The people of Massachusetts were foremost in this laudable ambition. 
The Reverend John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians, labored for 
many years to give them the gospel, and translated the Bible into 
their language.^ Eliot was assisted by many others, and many of 
the dusky inhabitants of the forest learned to bow down to the 
Christian's God. Nevertheless, conflict between the white men and 
the Indians was at times inevitable. The Indian could not under- 
stand the perpetual obligations of a treaty, nor could he discriminate 
between the honest settler who sought only to do him good, and the 

1 This translation is now a great literary curiosity. No man can read it, the 
language having perished with the people that used it. 



122 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

conscienceless trader who defrauded liim. Hence the two races were 
embroiled in wars from time to time, until the stronger race finally 
triumphed over the weaker, and took sole possession of the land. 
No other result, indeed, was possible. The two races were so unlike 
in their aspirations and their capacity for civilization that they 
could not dwell together, and barbarism fell before the onmarch 
of civilization. 

Philip was the son of Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags, who 
had made a treaty of friendship with the Pilgrims of Plymouth 
soon after their landing. This treaty had been faithfully kept for 
fifty years, but soon after the death of the aged chief, Philip and his 
tribe became estranged from the white settlers and began to prepare 
for war. No particular cause for the war that ensued is known. It 
was apparently a spontaneous outburst, rather than the result of a 
conspiracy of the Indians. It is supposed tliat the Indians, seeing 
the gradual encroachment of the white men upon the lands of their 
fathers, determined to drive the intruders from the country. 

The war began with an Indian attack on the town of Swansea, in 
which several men, women, and children were killed. The cry of 
alarm instantly spread throughout the colonies and the effect was im- 
mediate. Three hours after the messenger had reached 
Sv?-ansea'^ Boston a body of men was on the march from that city 
toward the Indian country. Other towns responded 
with equal vigor, and ere many days the New England forest rang 
with the crack of the musket and the war whoop of the savage. Had 
the Indians met their civilized foe in open battle they would soon 
have been annihilated ; but their method was to attack the lonely 
farmhouse, the unprotected settlement, or to creep by stealth at dead 
of night upon the sleeping hamlet and with fiendish yells to fall 
upon their victims with the tomahawk. 

Philip was a bold and powerful leader. He succeeded in enlist- 
ing the aid of the Narragansetts ; but many of the Indians, especially 
those converted by Eliot, assisted the colonies. In the summer of 
1675 the towns of Brookfield, Deerfield, and Northfield were burned 
by the savages, and many of the inhabitants perished. A band of 
soldiers led by Captain Beers was ambushed near Deerfield and 
almost all were killed. The Indians then attacked Had- 
ley, and while the villagers were fighting desperately it 
is said that an aged man with flowing white hair and beard appeared 
and took command of the battle, and the savages were soon driven 



NEW ENGLAND AFFAIRS 123 

off. Many thought him an angel sent from heaven for their deliver- 
ance. It proved to be Goffe, the regicide, who had long been hiding 
in the town.^ 

The following winter a thousand of the best men of New England 
marched against the savage foe ; they surprised the Narragansett fort 
and put to death probably seven hundred people in a night. By the 
spring of 1676 the Indians were on the defensive. Philip became a 
fugitive and escaped his pursuers from place to place. 
At length he was overtaken in a swamp in Rhode 5?^,*.^°^ 
Island by Captain Ben Church of Plymouth and was 
shot dead by one of his own race. The war soon ended ; the Indians 
had lost three thousand men, their power was utterly broken, and 
never again was there a war of the races in southern New England. 
But the cost to the colonies was terrible. Thirteen towns had been 
laid in ashes ; the wilderness was marked on every side with deso- 
late farms and ruined homes. A thousand of the brave young men 
had fallen, and there was scarcely a fireside that was not a place of 
mourning. The public debt had risen to an enormous figure, falling 
most heavily on Plymouth, in proportion to population. In this 
colony alone the debt reached was £-15,000, more, it was said, than 
the entire property valuation of the colony — but this debt was paid 
to the last shilling. 

EDMUND ANDROS 

Scarcely had this disastrous war come to an end when New Eng- 
land was called upon to face a new danger, and one from an altogether 
different source. The new foe was the British monarch. But this 
was not the beginning of the trouble. Fifteen years before, soon 
after Charles II had come to the throne, he became embittered 
toward the people of New England for refusing to give up the regi- 
cides, Whalley and Goffe, who had assisted in the putting to death 
of his father. This feeling of the king was heightened by the 
Massachusetts Declaration of Rights of 1661, which, while profess- 
ing allegiance to the king, was regarded by him as an encroachment 
on his authority. This declaration is one of the memorable docu- 
ments of the colonial era. By it the General Court declared any 
imposition contrary to their own just laws, not repugnant to the 
laws of England, " to be an infringement " of their rights. This was 

^ Goffe and his father-in-law, Whalley, had signed the death warrant of King 
Charles I, and after the Restoration they fled to America and lived in hiding till 
their death. 



124 -HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

aimed, for the most part, at the Navigation Acts. It has the true 
American ring. Doyle, the British histoi-ian, declares that it seems 
to take us forward a hundred years, and that the '* men of 1776 had 
nothing to add to or take from the words of their ancestors." 

Commissioners were sent to the colony in 1664, and a long and 
fruitless controversy concerning violations of the Navigation Acts and 
other matters resulted. Massachusetts would probably have lost her 
charter at this period but for the war between England and Holland. 
A Dutch fleet had entered the Thames and was threatening London. 
This enlisted the full energy of the mother country, and New Eng- 
land's liberties continued for some years longer. 

But the resentment of Charles against the colonies only slumbered ; 
it was not dead. His hands being again free, he opened the old 
quarrel. Massachusetts was the chief object of his wrath, nor was 
it difficult for him to find grounds of accusation against the colony : 
Massachu- ■^^®^' disregard of the Navigation Acts, her refusal to 
setts offends allow the English Church within the colony, her pur- 
the king. chase of the territory of Maine ; ^ and even the inde- 

pendent way in which the New England colonies had managed the 
Indian war was offensive to the Crown. It must be added, how- 
ever, that there was a deep-laid scheme in England to destroy the 
separate colonial governments, and unite all New England, New 
York, and New Jersey under one government, so as to curb the 
growing spirit of liberty and to resist more effectually the Erench 
aggressions from Canada. 

In 1676 Edward Randolph, an officer of King Charles, and an 
enemy of the colony, arrived in Boston. His complaints to the king 
of the neglect of the people of the colony to observe the Navigation 
Acts added fuel to the flame of the monarch's wrath. Eandolph 
set about to build up a more liberal party, with Tory leanings, in 
Massachusetts ; and it must be added, he was to some extent success- 
ful. Times had changed somewhat in Massachusetts Bay. The 
rigid Puritan rule of the preceding generation had softened. The 
Puritan party in England had waned, and no longer was it able to 
fight the political battles of its American offspring. Moreover, as 
men in the colony advanced in wealth and engaged in commerce on 

1 It was about this time that the heirs of Mason and Gorges laid claim to New 
Hampshire and Maine, repudiating the dominion of Massachusetts. They won their 
suit ; New Hampshire became a royal province, but Massachusetts purchased Maine 
of Gorges's heirs for £1250. This act of independence greatly incensed the king. 



NEW ENGLAND AFFAIRS 125 



the high seas, they were unwilling to incur the displeasure of Eng- 
land. From these causes and through the eiforts of Randolph a 
moderate party grew up in Church and State, a party that preferred 
a moderate course, rather than one of open defiance to the king. 
The attitude of this party made it easier for the king in his charter- 
breaking campaign than it would have been had the people of the 
Bay been a unit in their opposition. But the great majority of the 
people were not with this new party. The colony as a whole re- 
sisted the royal encroachments at every step ; but after a long legal 
struggle of nearly eight years she was forced to give up Loss of the 
that noble charter which Winthrop had brought from Eng- charter, 
land fifty-four years before, and which, as the guardian l^^*- 
of their liberties, had imbedded itself deeply in the hearts of the people. 
With the charter went the independent government of Massachusetts, 
to return no more for a hundred years,^ when a later generation was 
to rise in successful rebellion against the mother country. 

In the year following this triumph of the Crown King Charles 
died, and his brother, James II, more tyrannical than himself, 
began his short and turbulent reign. He sent Sir Edmund Andros, 
who had made a record as governor of New York and New Jersey, 
to govern New England and also New York and New 
Jersey. Andros arrived late in 1686, and made his seat at^tos 
in Boston. The people knew and despised him, nor 
did his brief administration do aught to redeem his reputation. As 
a royal officer he was faithful, but he had little respect for the peo- 
ple. Instructed to make laws and levy taxes without a legislative 
body, by the aid of a council only, he was not slow in carrying out 
his instructions. He abolished the legislature and laid taxes at his 
pleasure ; he even took from the local town meeting its power of tax- 
ing; he sent innocent men to jail and curbed the liberty of the press. 
This was exasperating in tlie extreme, but the acme was reached 
when the despotic governor attacked the titles to the land, pro- 
nounced many of them void, and exacted quitrents from the owners. 

Andros demanded the charter of Rhode Island, and while the 
charter itself was placed beyond his reach,^ the colony yielded readily 
to his sway. In Connecticut he was strongly opposed, 
but, appearing in person at Hartford, he demanded the A^^ ^^' 
charter. The assembly was in session and Andros pres- 
ent. The session was prolonged till late in the night, when suddenly 

1 Except for two years, 1689-1691. « Winsor, Vol. Ill, p. 339. 



126 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

the lights were put out, as tradition informs us, and Captain Wads« 
worth -seized the precious charter, escaped in the darkness, and hid it 
in the hollow of an oak tree, ever after known as the Charter Oak. 

Andros's reign in New England was that of a despot. As Doyle 
says, " All those devices of tyranny which England had resisted, 
even where they were rare and exceptional, were now adopted as 
part of the regular machinery of government." ^ But there were 
breakers ahead. The spirit of liberty, fostered by a half century of 
self-government, could not be crushed in the New England heart. 
The people waited, and the opportunity came. While Andros was at 
the height of his power a copy of the declaration of the Prince of 
Orange to the English people reached the colony. Andros arrested 
the messenger that brought it, but he could not arrest 
^" ' ■ the wild shout of joy that rang from one settlement to 
another, from the ocean shore to the river valley. Next came the 
news of the prince's landing on British soil, and this became the 
signal for the people to rise in rebellion against their oppressor. 
Andros was seized and sent a prisoner to England, and the people 
again breathed the air of liberty. 

Soon after this the old charters of Rhode Island and Connecticut 
were declared restored, and they continued in operation till long 
Second Mas- after the Revolution. Massachusetts failed to recover 
sachusetts her old charter, but was granted a new one. By this 
charter, 1691. ^-j^q territory of the colony was greatly extended through 
the addition of Plymouth, Maine, and Nova Scotia. But the ancient 
independence Avas gone. The laws were again to be made and the 
taxes levied by a legislature elected by the people; but every act 
must henceforth be sent to England for the royal approval, and 
henceforth the governor, his deputy and secretary were to be 
appointments of the Crown. The new charter also opened the door 
of citizenship, requiring a property test, but no longer a religious 
test. This feature destroyed forever that intimate union of Church 
and State that had characterized the first generation in Massachu- 
setts Bay. The Church and State were still united, but the Puritan 
hierarchy had full control of the government no longer. One feature 
of this charter — the provision that the council be elected by the 
retiring council and the assembly — rendered it unlike any other 
American charter. From this cause Massachusetts is often placed 
in a class by itself as a semi-royal colony. 

1 " English Colonies," Vol. II, p. 305. 



NEW ENGLAND AFFAIRS 127 

Regretfully we take final leave of Plymouth as a separate 
organization — Plymouth, the oldest of the New England colonies 
and destined in future ages to be held in memory the most sacred 
of them all. For seventy-one years the colony had sailed its little 
boat through storm and sunshine, but from this time its identity 
must be lost in that of Massachusetts. Of the original band of 
Pilgrims who had left England in the Mayfloiver, but two remained 
alive.^ 

PURITAN LAWS AND CHARACTER 

During the seventeenth century the combined New England 
colonies formed practically, if we except Rhode Island, one great 
Puritan commonwealth. They were under separate governments; 
but their aims and hopes, their laws, for the most part, and their 
past history were the same. 

The people as a whole were liberty-loving in the extreme, but 
the individual was restrained at every step by laws that no free 
people of to-day would tolerate for an hour. Paternalism in gov- 
ernment was the rule in the other colonies and in Europe, but 
nowhere was it carried to such an extreme as in New England. 
Here the civil law laid its hand upon the citizen in his business and 
social relations ; it regulated his religious affairs, it dictated his 
dress, and even invaded the home circle and directed his family 
relations. One law forbade the wearing of lace, another of " slashed 
cloaths other than one slash in each sleeve and another E^rlv New 
in the back." The length and width of a lady's sleeve England 
was solemnly decided by law. It was a penal offense laws, 
for a man to wear long hair, or to smoke in the street, or for a youth to 
court a maid without the consent of her parents. A man was not per- 
mitted to kiss his wife in public. Captain Kimble, returning from a 
three-years' ocean voyage, kissed his wife on his own doorstep and 
spent two hours in the stocks for his *' lewed and unseemly behavior." 

In the matter of education the Puritans stood in the forefront. 
Many of the clergy were men of classical education, and through 
their efforts Harvard College was founded but six j-oundine of 
years after the great exodus began. Before the middle Harvard, 
of the century Massachusetts required every township 1636. 
of fifty families to employ a teacher to educate the young in reading 

^ The two survivors were John Cooke, who died in 1695, and Mary Cushman, 
who lived seventy-nine years after the famoua voyage, dying in 1699. Mary Cush- 
man, however, was survived by Peregrine White, the child born on the Mayflower. 



128 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

and writing, while every township of one hundred families must 
maintain a grammar school. The other colonies soon followed with 
similar requirements. 

But the most striking feature in the life of New England is found 
in its religion. The State was founded on religion, and religion was 
its life. The entire political, social, and industrial fabric was built 
on religion. Puritanism was painfully stern and somber; it was 
founded on the strictest, unmollified Calvinism ; it breathed the air 
of legalism rather than of free grace, and received its 
^laws"" inspiration from the Old Testament rather than the 
ISTew.^ There was a gleam of truth in the charge of 
Mrs. Hutchinson that the Puritans lived under a covenant of works. 
This was because they had not yet fully grasped the whole truth 
of divine revelation. No further proof of the legalistic tendencies 
of Puritan worship is needed than a glance at their own laws. A 
man, for example, was fined, imprisoned, or whipped for non- 
attendance at church services. He was dealt with still more harshly 
if he spoke against religion or denied the divine origin of any book 
of the Bible. ^ Laws were made that tended to force the conscience, 
to curb the freedom of the will, and to suppress the natural exuber- 
ance of youth — laws that could not have been enacted and enforced 
by a people who comprehended the full meaning of Gospel liberty, 
or had caught that keynote of religious freedom sounded by the 
ancient prophet and resounded by St. Paul and Luther, "The just 
shall live by faith." 

Nevertheless there is no more admirable character in history 
than the New England Puritan of the seventeenth century. His 
unswerving devotion to duty, his unlimited courage based on the 
fear of God, his love of liberty and hatred of tyranny — these are 
the qualities that have enthroned him in the memory of the Ameri- 
can people. We deplore the narrowness and intolerance of the 
Puritans ; but they were less narrow and intolerant than the Eng- 
lish and most of the Europeans of that day. They committed errors, 
but they were willing to confess them when they saw them. They 
banished Eoger Williams as a disturber of the peace, not for his 

^ The Puritan conscience was painfully overwrought. Nathan Mather wrote 
that in his youth he went astray from God and did dreadful things, such as whittling 
behind the door on Sunday. Sometimes a child would weep and wail in the fear that 
it was not one of the elect and would go to hell. 

2 But such laws were not peculiar to New England. See the Toleration Act of 
Maryland, supra, p. 80. 



' NEW ENGLAND AFFAIRS 129 

opinions; but they bore witness to his spotless character. They 
executed a few Quakers, but confessed their error by repealing their 
own law. They fell into the witchcraft delusion, which was preva- 
lent throughout Christendom at the time ; but they were first to see 
the dreadful blunder they had made and they were not too proud to 
publicly confess it. Judge Sewall made, before a large congrega- 
tion, a confession of his error as only a hero could have done ; and 
he begged the people to pray " that God might not visit his sin upon 
him, his family, or upon the land," Such was a trait of the Puritan 
character that leads us to forget his faults and to admire rather than 
censure him. 

New England developed steadily throughout the colonial era. 
The people were chiefly of the stanch yeomanry, the great middle 
class, of England. Many of them were men of fortune and standing 
in their native land. The people of Massachusetts were slow in 
reaching out from the seaboard ; not till about 1725 did they begin 
to colonize the Berkshire Hills. The Connecticut Valley was more 
productive than any other part of New England, and the people of 
Connecticut were more purely agricultural in their pursuits than 
were those of any other portion, except New Hampshire. The chief 
industry of Rhode Island was trade, while Massachusetts was di- 
vided, agriculture and commerce holding about equal sway. Six 
hundred vessels plied between Boston and foreign ports, while the 
number of coasting vessels was still greater. 

Manufacturing was carried on, but not on any great scale. Saw- 
mills and gristmills were numerous along the rivers, and they did 
a large business in preparing timber and grain for Development 
transportation. Hats and paper and other commodities of New Eng- 
were made on a small scale ; but the most extensive l3,nd. 
manufacturing was carried on by the farmers and their families, who 
made many of the utensils for their own home use, as will be noticed 
in a subsequent chapter. 

The stern Puritan customs were gradually softened, more rapidly 
in Massachusetts than in Connecticut, owing to the many CroAvn offi- 
cers residing in Boston. The first attempts to introduce the Episcopal 
form of religion were sternly resisted, but at length it found a footing, 
though not in Connecticut till well into the eighteenth century. About 
1734 a religious revival, started by Jonathan Edwards and carried on 
by George Whitefield, the evangelist, spread over parts of New Eng- 
land, and to some extent revived the waning Puritan religious fervor. 



130 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

The population at the opening of the Kevolution reached nearly 
700,000, about 300,000 of which was in Massachusetts, including 
Maine. Connecticut contained about 200,000 people, New Hamp- 
shire some 75,000, and Rhode Island some 50,000.^ All the colonies 
had negro slaves, but very few in comparison with the southern 
colonies. Probably there were not more than 15,000 slaves in all 
New England, of whom Massachusetts and Connecticut had the 
majority. 'Indented servants were slow in coming to New England, 
and when they came, their rights were guarded by salutary laws. 

1 See Lodge, p. 408. 



CHAPTER VII 

COLONIZATION— THE MIDDLE COLONIES 

The nine colonies whose early history we have traced were all 
established by Englishmen; but we have now to notice one, des- 
tined in future to be the most populous and wealthy community of 
them all, which was founded and controlled for forty years by a 
different people — the Dutch. The people of Holland,^ after a long 
and terrible war with Spain, had won religious and political inde- 
pendence. With the fall of the Spanish Armada the naval power 
of the Dutch began to rise, and by the coming of peace in 1609, the 
Briton alone could rival the Hollander upon the sea. 

The Dutch had taken possession of the Molucca Islands and had 
seized from Portugal the control of the Indian Ocean. Their navi- 
gators were unsurpassed in daring adventure. They traded with the 
Mongolian of the Orient and introduced the use of tea and coffee 
into Europe; they sailed around South America and gave Cape 
Horn its name, around the Cape of Good Hope and planted a colony 
in South Africa ; they discovered, in 1606, the far-away 
continent of Australia, and later the islands of New „ators°^^^" 
Zealand and Tasmania. In their effort to find a north- 
east passage to China they sailed between Nova Zembla and the 
North Pole and reached a higher latitude than had ever before been 
reached by man. Their vessels also plowed the icy waters of the 
Antarctic seas, where they discovered dreary, unpeopled lands where 
human feet had never been. 

As early as 1597 the Dutch made voyages to the West Indies, 
but it was left for an Englishman in the employ of the Netherlands 
to make the one and only discovery in the New World by which 
that nation is remembered. The Dutch East India Company, a 
great organization trading with the Orient, was exceedingly anxious 
to find a shorter passage to the China seas. It sent Henry Hudson 
in search of a northeast passage, but Hudson, after a vain attempt 

1 Holland was the most important state of the Netherlands, and the term is often 
used for the whole country. 

131 



132 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

covering several months, turned his little vessel to the waters of 
the West. The continental character of southern North 
Hudson's America was known throus^h the discoveries of De Soto, 
Coronado, and De Vaca ; but the northern portion of that 
continent was still believed to be an open sea through which a pas- 
sage to the Orient would yet be found, and it was this delusion of 
a hundred years that brought Hudson to the western world. He 
carried with him a letter from his friend, John Smith, with whose 
exploits in Virginia every reader is familiar. Smith informed Hud- 
son of his exploring the Chesapeake the year before and of his 
belief that the coveted passage might be found a little farther 
northward. Hudson now sailed down the New England coast, and 
in September, 1609, he entered the broad and beautiful river that 
bears his name. He sailed up the river to the site of Albany, and 
the impressions he received from the majestic beauty of the pali- 
sades, the kindly treatment of the natives, and the many-colored 
forest, robed in its autumnal foliage, led him to write that it was 
" as fair a land as was ever trodden by the foot of man." ^ 

Hudson had also sailed into Delaware Bay, and in consequence of 
his discoveries Holland laid claim to the valleys of the Hudson and the 
Delaware, then called the North and South rivers, and the country be- 
tween them was named New Netherland. Trading posts were soon 
established on Manhattan Island and up the Hudson, but nothing was 
done at this time toward planting a permanent colony.- The Dutch 
West India Company was chartered by the States-General of the 

1 But Hudson was not the first white man to enter the New York Bay. The bay 
and river had been discovered by Giovanni Verrazauo, a Florentine in tlie employ 
of the French king, as early as 1524, and again the following year by th'e Spaniai'd, 
Estevau Gomez. After that French vessels frequently ascended the Hudson as far 
as Albany, trading with the Indians, but their voyages had ceased and were well-nigh 
forgotten when Hudson rediscovered tlie river. (See Fiske's "Dutch and Quaker 
Colonies," Vol. I, p. 68 sq.) While Hudson was exploring the Hudson River, Cham- 
plain was not far away, exploring the lake that bears his name, and John Smith was 
Ijartering with the Indians in the wilderness of Virginia {ibid., p. 96). Hudson, 
returning, was detained in England by King James, who determined that so great 
an English voyager should no longer be employed by foreigners. The next year 
(1610) Hudson set forth in an English ship, and while in the great bay, afterward 
called by his name, his mutinous crew set him adrift, with his son and a few others, 
in an open boat, while they returned to England. On arriving, the crew were sent 
to jail and an expedition sent to search for Hudson, but the great navigator was 
never again seen nor heard of. 

2 In 1614 Hendrick Christiansen built Fort Orange near the site of Albany. 
Adrian Block explored Long Island Sound, and Cornelius May sailed into the Dela- 
ware Bay. At the same time a few traders had settled on Manhattan Island. 



COLONIZATION — THE MIDDLE COLONIES 133 

Netherlands in 1621. It was a gigantic monopoly (successor to a short- 
lived company called the New Netherland Company) to which was 
given control of all Dutch navigation on the coasts of Africa and 
America. This company was given very extensive commercial and 
governmental powers, but it was answerable to the home government. 

It was three years after the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at 
Plymouth that this company sent a small Dutch vessel, with some 
thirty families, chiefly Walloons (Dutch word for strangers), Protes- 
tant refugees from Belgium, to the mouth of the Hudson. A few of 
them debarked at Manhattan, but the majority sailed up the Hudson 
and settled at Fort Nassau, later called Fort Orange, now Albany. 
Almost simultaneously with this the Dutch built Fort Nassau on 
the Delaware, just below the present city of Camden, a few Dutch 
families settled on Long Island, and some Dutch traders established 
a post on the Connecticut River at the site of Hartford. The Dutch 
had laid claim to the entire vast region between Chesapeake Bay and 
Cape Cod, through the discoveries of Hudson and Block, and by 
these settlements they were making good their claim. 

The English also claimed this whole territory ; but as the Thirty 
Years' War was raging in Germany, and the Spanish war cloud was 
darkening over the British Isles, it was thought best not to make an 
enemy of Holland. On the other hand, the Dutch and British 
entered into a defensive alliance against Spain. This continued for 
several years, during which the Dutch on the Hudson were safe 
fi'om English interference. At the end of this period came the great 
internal conflict in England — the strife between Charles I and the 
Puritans, the Civil War, the execution of the king, the dictator- 
ship of Cromwell — covering in all nearly forty years ; and during 
these forty years the Dutch were left in control of the Hudson Val- 
ley ; then came the reckoning, as we shall see on a later page. 

The first director of the Dutch colonies was Cornelius May ; but in 
1626 Peter Minuit was appointed to this office, and, arriving at Man- 
hattan, he purchased the entire island of the Indians, some twenty-two 
thousand acres, for twenty-four dollars' worth of beads and ribbons. 
Perhaps no other equal area in the world is now worth so vast a sum 
of money as Manhattan Island. Minuit built a fort at the southern 
point and called it 

NEW AMSTERDAM 

Thus began the great metropolis of the New World, now Ne^v 
York City. The government of the new colony was carried on bj* 



[34 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Governor, or "Director General," Minuit and a council of five 
appointed by the company in Holland. It was very similar to the 
government of Virginia before the first House of Burgesses was 
elected. The people had no voice whatever in their own govern- 
ment. Because of this and of the fact that in Holland the people 
enjoyed peace and religious liberty the migration was slow, and at 
the end of five years but three hundred people lived on Manhattan 
Island. The company thereupon offered great inducements to attract 
colonists. It issued its charter of "privileges and exemptions" 
(1629), by which the patroon system was established. Under this 
system any member of the West India Company who would bring or 
send at least fifty settlers fifteen years of age or over, was granted 
an estate of sixteen miles frontage on one side of a river or bay, or 
eight miles on each side of a river, and as far inland " as the situa- 
tion of the occupiers will admit." The Hudson Valley was soon 
dotted with these estates, and thus was planted in America a feudal 
system very similar to those of the Old World.^ The patroon was 
bound to provide a farm ready stocked for each of his tenants, and 
to provide a schoolmaster and minister of the gospel for each settle- 
ment. He had full control of the government and courts. The 
tenants were temporarily serfs, as they were obliged to remain on 
the land for ten years. They were also obliged to sell their produce 
to the patroon, to grind their corn at his mill, and, after a certain 
time, to pay him a small annual rent. The most noted of the 
patroons became the founders of the great families, afterward so 
Van Twiller prominent in New York — the Van Rensselaers, the 
succeeds Schuylers, the Livingstons, and others.^ The company 

Minuit, 1632. ^^^^^ patroons were soon quarreling, and the dispute was 
carried to the States-General. One result was the recall of Minuit, 
who was accused of favoring the patroons. He was succeeded by 
Wouter van Twiller, who, after five years of misrule, in which he 
enriched himself and wasted the company's money, was recalled. 
William Kieft then became governor. 

Up to this time New Netherland had not attracted the home 

1 The patroons also made settlements on the Delaware, hut these did not flourish 
and were short-lived. 

2 These great estates, transmitted from generation to generation, were held in 
the same families for more than two centuries. On the death, in 1839, of Stephen 
van Rensselaer, one of the greatest huidhoMers. his tenants refused to pay rent to 
his successor, and hence arose the anti-rent riots in New York. The courts decided 
in favor of the tenants in 1852. 



COLONIZATION — NEW AMSTERDAM 135 

seeker. The best land had been occupied by the patroons, and 
the settlers Avere scarcely more than servants. The company had 
held, or attempted to hold, the monopoly of the fur trade. But 
now the trade, as also the cultivation of the soil, was thrown open 
to all, while the patroon privileges were greatly restricted. The 
effect was magical. People came from New England; Redemp- 
tioners^ from Maryland and Virginia; peasant farmers from con- 
tinental Europe ; the rich and the educated, as well as the poor, 
from various parts of the world came, though not in large num- 
bers, to the valley of the Hudson, and made it their permanent 
home. It is said that in 1643 no less than eighteen languages 
were spoken in New Amsterdam — and the great city into which 
it has grown has never since lost its cosmopolitan character. 

Kief t was a bustling, energetic man, but he was an autocrat and a 
tyrant. He was governor for about ten years and they were years of 
storm and disorder. He quarj-eled with the Swedes on ^^^^ 
• the Delaware, with the English on the Connecticut, and 
with the Indians on all sides. Before his time the Dutch had lived 
at peace with the Indians and had profited greatly by the fur trade ; 
but Kieft was wanting in discretion and capacity, and disastrous 
Indian wars marked his governorship. 

When about to engage in an Indian war this autocratic ruler 
found it necessary to consult the people. He thereupon called 
an assembly of the heads of families, and these chose a board of 
Twelve Men, with De Vries, one of the best men in the colony, as its 
chairman, to advise with the governor. This improvised Parliament 
authorized the raising of money for the war and demanded that the 
people be permitted to elect the governor's council. 
Kieft agreed reluctantly, but soon forgot his promise jj^^ 
and resumed his despotic rule. His treacherous policy 
with the Indians caused a general uprising of the Algonquin tribes 
and many were the bloody massacres in the country around. Among 
the victims was Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, who had been driven from 
Massachusetts, with all her large family, except a little grand- 
daughter who was made captive. The very existence of the Dutch 
colony now hung in the balance, and it might have been annihilated 
but for the coming of an Englishman from Massachusetts — John 

1 Rederaptioners were persons who were sold into service for a certain number 
of years as payment for their passage across the sea. Many of these, on gaining 
their freedom, preferred to remove to another colony, away from the scenes of theit 
servitude. 



136 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Underhill, hero of the Pequot War. Underbill, with an army of one 
hundred and fifty brave Dutchmen, fell at midnight on the Indian 
stronghold in the mountains north of Stamford, and put seven hun- 
dred warriors to the sword before daybreak. This broke the Indian 
power, brought peace, and saved the colony of New Netherland. 

But peace did not come to the hot-headed governor. Again he 
was obliged to call an assembly — Eight Men this time. But no 
more could he agree with them than formerly with the Twelve Men. 
When they protested against his methods of taxation, he lost his 
temper. " In this country I am my own master and may do as I 
please," said the irate Kieft. But the people were exasperated and 
in tlieir behalf the Eight Men appealed to the States-General. They 
blamed Kieft for the pitiful condition of the colony, begged that a 
new governor be sent them and that the people be given some voice 
in the government, or that they be permitted to return with their 
wives and children to their dear fatherland. This petition had some 
effect. Governor Kieft was dismissed by the company, and Peter 
Stuyvesant, the last and most famous of the Dutch governors, became 
his successor. Kieft sailed for Holland, but the vessel was wrecked- 
at sea, and the fallen governor was among the lost. 

Stuyvesant was a sturdy, self-willed, obstinate old fellow, with 
little culture and much strength of character. He was a man of 
great energy and no doubt his intentions were honorable ; but he 
Peter ^^^ ^ born autocrat, had no sympathy with democracy 

Stuyvesant, and no power to read public opinion. He was an ex- 
1647-1664. perienced soldier and had lost a leg in battle. With all 
his faults he was a vast improvement over Van Twiller and Kieft. 
But he was never popular, and on one occasion the people demanded 
his recall, but the company refused to grant their request. 

The government of New Netherland had been thus far almost a 
despotism, and its chief object in existing was to enrich a company 
of traders. But the settlers now determined to demand their rights 
— a share in their own government. The more were they urged to 
this step when they compared their own condition to that of the 
self-governing English colonies about them. The haughty governor 
was forced to yield, and he chose Nine Men as his 
1647-T651^^' counselors, from a larger number selected by the 
people. These men protested against the high taxes 
and the heavy export duties, and they petitioned the home govern- 
ment to cancel the company's charter and grant the colony a repre* 



COLONIZATION — NEW AMSTERDAM 137 

seiitative government similar to that enjoyed by the people in 
Holland. The petition for popular government was reluctantly 
granted by the company ; but so skillfully did the imperious old 
governor manage the election that he succeeded in retaining almost 
the entire governing power in his own hands. When the iron- 
willed governor at length permitted an assembly of delegates from 
a number of the towns to convene, he sat with them in the legisla- 
tive hall, where the loud stamping of his wooden leg on the floor 
warned them when matters were not going as he desired. After a 
session of but four days he dissolved the assembly, and for ten years 
(1G53-1663) there was no meeting of the representatives of the people. 

The population of New Netherland increased slowly till 1653, 
when there were two thousand residents, eight hundred of whom 
belonged to New Amsterdam, which had been incorporated that 
year. About this time a book describing the colony wa,s published 
in Holland, and it created a great interest among all classes. From 
this time a stream of emigration poured into the Hudson Valley, 
and by 16G4 the population reached ten thousand, having increased 
fivefold in eleven years. 

Governor Stuyvesant, however, is remembered more on account 
of his relations to the English and the Swedes than for his domestic 
affairs. After two or three years' dispute with the people of New 
England, he agreed with them to fix the western boundary of Con- 
necticut about where it now is, and the Dutch from this time ceased 
to disturb the peace of the Connecticut Valley. But of greater impor- 
tance was Stuy vesant's dealings with the Swedes who had settled on the 
Delaware about the time that Kieft became governor of New Nether- 
land. Both banks of the Delaware were claimed by conquest of 
the Dutch, and Stuyvesant received authority from Hoi- New Sweden, 
land to take possession of the Swedish settlement. In 1655. 
1655 he entered the Delaware with six hundred men in seven ships. 
The Swedes had no power to resist such a force ; they yielded 
readily, and New Sweden passed into the hands of the Dutch. 

The governor, returning home, found his people engaged in an 
Indian war, brought about by a Manhattan Dutchman, who shot a 
squaw for stealing peaches from his orchard. He soon brought it to 
an end, but the Indians were restless, and in 1658 the war again broke 
out and continued at intervals for five years. 

Meantime Stuyvesant turned his attention to religious matters ; 
he determined to enforce uniformity of worship according to the 



138 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Dutch Keformed Church. He persecuted Lutherans, Baptists, and 
Quakers without mercy, until public opinion, supported by the 
company, called a halt and forced him to desist. Seventeen years 
had passed since the self-willed governor had begun his reign ; but 
the time of reckoning was at hand, and Dutch rule in America was 
drawing to a close. 

NEW YORK 

For more than three centuries England and Holland had been 
the closest of friends ; but now, at the close of the long and bloody 
Thirty Years' War, which ended with the Treaty of Westphalia in 
1648, the power of Spain was crushed, and the Dutch, no longer hav- 
ing anything to fear from his Catholic Majesty, rose to dispute with 
the English the dominion of the seas. This brought about an un- 
friendly rivalry between the two nations, and the unfriendliness was 
increased by the fact that the Dutch of New Ketherland traded 
freely with the English colonies. They carried great quantities of 
Virginia tobacco to Holland, and thus at least £10,000 a year was 
lost in customs duties to the British government. The first Navi- 
gation Law, 1651, was aimed largely at the Dutch trader, but the 
wily Dutchman ignored the law and continued as before. This was 
one cause that determined the English on the conquest of New 
Amsterdam. Another, and probably the chief one, was that the 
Dutch colony on the Hudson separated New England from the other 
English colonies and threatened British dominion in North America. 

The English claimed New Nether] and on the ground of the 
Cabot discoveries ; and Charles II now, 1664, coolly gave the en- 
tire country, from the Connecticut to the Delaware, to his brother 
James, Duke of York, ignoring the claims of the Dutch colony, and 
even disregarding his own charter of two years before to the younger 
Winthrop. Richard Nicolls of the royal navy set out with a small 
fleet and about five hundred of the king's veterans. Reaching New 
England, he was joined by several hundred of the militia of Con- 
necticut and Long Island, and he sailed for the mouth of the Hudson. 

Stuyvesant had heard of the fleet's arrival at Boston, but he was 
made to believe that its object was to enforce the Episcopal service 
upon the Puritans of New England, and so unsuspecting was he that 
he went far up the river, to Eort Orange, to quell an Indian disturb- 
ance. Here he was when informed that Nicolls was moving toward 
New Amsterdam. Stuyvesant hastened down the river with all speed, 



COLONIZATION — NEW YORK 139 

arriving at New Amsterdam but one day before the English fleet 
hove into view. Nicolls demanded the surrender of the fort. 
Stuyvesant refused ; he fumed and fretted and swore and stamped 
his wooden leg. He tore to bits a conciliatory letter sent him by 
Nicolls. He mustered his forces for defense. But the people were 
not with him ; they were weary of his tyrannical government in 
which they had no part, weary of enriching a company at their own 
expense, and the choleric old governor had to yield, surrender of 
The fort was surrendered without bloodshed ; New New Amster- 
Amsterdam became New York, after the Duke of York ; ^^^' 1664. 
the upper Hudson also yielded, and Fort Orange became Albany, 
after another of the duke's titles, and all New Netherland, including 
the Delaware Valley, passed under English control. 

By what right Charles II seized New Netherland is probably 
known to kings and rulers, but not to the humble historian. Queen 
Elizabeth had laid down the postulate that mere discovery, without 
occupation, did not constitute a right to new lands. This was a 
good rule when applied to Spain to refute her claims to North 
America; it was another story when applied to the English con- 
cerning the Hudson Valley. But the English deftly evaded the 
difficulty, to their own satisfaction, by claiming that the Hudson 
Valley was part of Virginia as given by James I, in 1606, to two 
companies. This tract had been settled at both ends, — on the 
James Kiver and the New England coast, — and why should a 
foreign power claim the central portion because not yet occupied ? 
Thus argued the English, and their argument won because sustained 
by force of arms. And yet, the providential hand may easily be 
seen. The conquest of New Netherland was scarcely less impor- 
tant than was the conquest of New France, a century later, on the 
Plains of Abraham. It all belonged to the preparation — not for 
British dominion in North America, but for the dominion of future 
generations that were to occupy the land. Before their power Eng- 
land was yet to go down, as New Netherland and New France first 
went down before hers. Thus England, all unwittingly, became the 
instrument in preparing the way and fighting the battles for a nation 
that was yet to be born. 

It is interesting to note the later career of Peter Stuyvesant. 
After a journey to the fatherland to vindicate his course, he returned 
to New York and made it the home of his old age. Here on his 
farm, or " bowery," now bounded by Fourth Avenue and the East 



140 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



River, by Sixth and Seventeenth streets, New York City, amid the 
scenes of his former strife and turmoil, he spent a few quiet, happy 
years. A venerable figure was the aged Dutchman, and many who 
had hated him before now learned to love him. He 
Old age of ^^^ Governor Nicolls became warm friends, and many 
uyvesa . ^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ drank wine and told stories at 

each others tables. In 1G72 this last of the Dutch governors died 
at the ripe age of eighty years, and his body was laid to rest at the 
little country church near his home — at a spot now in the heart 
of the vast metropolis, whose population is ten times greater than 
that of all the North American colonies of that day. 

A short war between England and Holland followed the conquest 
of Nicolls, and the Dutch sailed up the Thames River and visited 
fearful punishment on the English, though they did not win back 
New York. But nine years after the Nicolls victory, we may say 
by anticipation, the two nations were agaiu at war, and a Dutch fleet 
reconquered New York and took possession of the Hudson Valley ; 
but by the treaty of peace the next year the country was ceded back 
to the English, and Dutch rule ceased forever in North America. 

At the time of the Nicolls conquest the little city at the south- 
ern point of Manhattan contained some fifteen hundred people, and 
the whole province about ten thousand, one third of whom were 
English. The colony now became a proprietary colony, but as the 
proprietor afterward became king of England, it was transferred 
to the list of royal colonies. Nicolls became the first governor. 
He was able and conscientious. The rights of property, of citizen- 
ship, and of religious liberty had been guaranteed in the terms of 
capitulation. To these were added at a later date equal taxation 
and trial by jury. In one year the tact and energy of Nicolls had 
transformed the province practically into an English colony. After 

Nicolls ^°^^^ years of successful rule Nicolls returned to Eng- 
land — and a few years later, as he stood by the side 
of his master, the Duke of York, at the battle of Solebay, his body 
was torn to pieces by a cannon ball. 

The English inhabitants of New York had gladly welcomed the 
change of government, and even the Dutch had made little resist- 
ance, as they were tired of the tyrannical rule of the company. 
If there was any bitterness against English rule remaining, it was 
wholly removed in 1677 by an event of great importance to both 
hemispheres — the marriage of the leading Hollander of his times, the 



COLONIZATION — NEW YORK 14i 

Prince of Orange, to the daughter of the Duke of York, the two after- 
ward to become joint sovereigns of England as William and Mary. 

It is interestiug to uote here the transition in this colony from 
Dutch to English rule. It has been claimed by a few writers that 
our institutions are derived from Dutch more than from English 
sources; but a little study into this subject will easily prove the 
contrary. The people over whom Nicolls became governor in 1664 
were composed of tliree separate communities, each different from 
the others in its government: the Dutch settlers on the Hudson, 
the settlements on the Delaware, and the English towns that had 
grown up under Dutch rule on Long Island. Now these English 
towns during the period of the Dutch supremacy enjoyed far more 
liberal local government than did the Dutch towns on the Hudson. 
And in this one respect Kieft, v/ho encouraged popular government 
among the English towns, was wiser than Stuyvesant, who opposed 
it,-' These English towns held their popular meetings, chose their 
officials, and transacted other business after the manner of the New 
England towns; while in the Dutch towns there were 
no town meetings, no popular elections, the ruling ofiEi- Irnme^t^" 
cials forming a kind of close corporation with power to 
fill all vacancies and choose their own successors. As to which of 
these types came nearer being the model for our local government 
of to-day, no reader need be informed. 

When Nicolls became governor he made little immediate change 
in the general or local government except to adopt English titles 
for the public officers. To understand this two things must be 
remembered. First, the charter for New York, true to the Stuart 
instinct, made the Duke of York absolute master, and it made no 
provision for the people to take any part in their own government ; 
second, it was practically such a government that Nicolls already 
found in New Amsterdam. With a ready-made machine at hand, 
why should he take the trouble to make a new one ? He proceeded, 
however, to frame a code of laws known as " The Duke's Laws." 
These were intended at first for the English settlers only, but were 
later extended to all. This code was borrowed largely from the 
laws of New England, with the two important omissions that there 
was no provision for the people to take any part in the government, 
and that there was no religious test for citizenship. It retained 
many Dutch features, and introduced a few new features. To the 
1 See McKinley, in Americari Historical Review, Vol. VI, p. 18. 



142 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



Court of Assizes, consisting of governor and council, sheriff and 
justice, was assigned the legislative and judicial power; but as the 
sheriif and justices were appointees of the governor, there was no 
popular government in the plan. 

But this plan did not prove permanent. The English portion 
of the colony clamored for representative government. The agita- 
tion continued until 1681, Edmund Andros being then governor, 
when the English population was ready to break into open rebellion, 
unless their demand for an assembly be granted. Accordingly the 
next year the duke promised the people an assembly, and the 
first one was elected in 1683, while Thomas Dongan was governor. 
This assembly, composed of eighteen men elected by the people, now 
proceeded to adopt a declaration of rights known as the 
L"be t'es* " Charter of Libei'ties," by which it declared the repre- 
sentatives of the people coordinate with the governor 
and council, and that no taxes could be laid without their consent. 
It also provided that all laws be subject to the duke's approval. 

What might have been the fate of this charter under normal 
conditions we know not, as the conditions were suddenly changed. 
The duke's royal brother was suddenly carried off by a stroke of 
apoplexy, and the duke became king of England as James II. 
New York now became a royal colony, and the new king, who at 
heart despised popular government, refused to sign the Charter of 
Liberties, abolished the New York assembly, and sent Andros to 
govern the colony as consolidated with New England and New 
Jersey. Andros, with a council of seven men, was to govern nine 
colonies as a conquered province. We have noticed his career in 
Boston and need not repeat it here. The fall of his master from the 
British throne occasioned the immediate fall of Andros ; but this 
did not bring immediate peace to New Yoi'k. The colony was now 
about to pass through another exciting experience. 

But first, a further word is here in place concerning the sources 

of our present governmental system. Mr. Douglas Campbell, in two 

large volumes entitled "The Puritan in England, Hol- 

^^^tut'o s*'^ land, and America," has taken great pains to show that 

we are indebted far more to Dutch than to English 

sources for our system, and his attempt to prove too much leads 

the critical reader to believe too little. 

It is true that the English race is more nearly related to the 
Dutch than to any other, and the English language resembles the 



COLONIZATION — NEW YORK 143 

Dutch language more than any other. It is also true that the Nether- 
lands preceded England in securing religious liberty and in establish- 
ing free public schools ; that the manufacturing of textile fabrics 
developed in Flanders earlier than in the island kingdom across the 
channel, where it grew up later largely through the migration of 
skilled workmen from the Netherlands; that many thousands of 
Dutchmen and Flemings, driven from their country by religious 
wars, made their permanent home in England. From these facts 
it will be seen that the influence of Netherlands institutions on Eng- 
lish civilization must have been great; and it was probably still 
greater on American civilization, because the Dutch immigrants to 
England nearly all became Puritans, and there is no doubt that 
Dutch blood coursed in the veins of a large per cent of the New 
England Puritans.^ No doubt also the Pilgrim Fathers absorbed 
something from the Dutch during their sojourn in Leyden. 

But when all is said on this side it must be added, on the other, 
that in the seventeenth century English popular self-government was 
ages in advance of the same in the Netherlands. No better proof 
of this is needed than a glance at the colony of New York. It was 
the English towns, even under Dutch jurisdiction, that demanded 
and received a large measure of self-government ; it was the first 
English governor that extended that great bulwark of Anglo-Saxon 
liberty, the jury system, to the Dutch settlers, who at first shunned 
it as a thing to be feared ; it was the English population of the 
colony that clamored for their birthright — an assembly and the 
power of taxation. During all this period the Dutch settlers in 
the main were passive in matters of popular government, and but for 
the coming of the English and the overthrow of Stuyvesaut and his 
nation. New Netherland might have remained as despotic a govern- 
ment as was New France. Moreover, the New England free school 
system grew, not from Dutch models, but from the inherent character 
of the Puritan religion. In the face of these facts, how can Mr. Camp- 
bell or any one contend that our institutions of to-day are derived from 
Dutch rather than from English sources ? 

News of the accession of William and Mary and of the imprison- 
ment of Andros at Boston created a great excitement - vt • i 

° Jacob Leisler. 

in New York ; and the militia, led by Jacob Leisler, a 

German merchant, took possession of the government. For two 

years Leisler, with the aid of his son-in-law, Milborne, governed the 

1 Fiske's "Dutch and Quaker Colonies," Vol. I, p. 47. 



144 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

^ . — — ^ » 

colony with vigor and energy. But lie offended the aristocracy and 
the magistrates, who pronounced him a usurper. Meantime he took 
measures to defend the colony against the French and Indians, who 
had fallen on the frontier town of Schenectady, had massacred the 
people, and had burned the town. 

The Leisler movement was in part the outgrowth of the anti- 
Catholic wave that swept over England and her colonies during the 
reign of James II, and Leisler's vivid imagination greatly magnified 
the danger of a general religious war. He called for the election 
of an assembly to vote taxes for the pending war with Canada, 
but many of the people denied his authority and refused to 
respond. 

Leisler's next step was one that marked the beginnings of great 
things. He called for a meeting in New York of delegates from 
First Colo- ^^^ t^^® colonies to make preparations for the war, and 
nial Congress, the seven delegates that met, chiefly from New Eng- 
^^^^ land, constituted the first colonial congress in America. 

They took counsel concerning the war, which will be noticed in our 
chapter on Colonial Wars. The clouds were now darkening around 
the head of Leisler, and his career was almost over. 

In 1691 Henry Sloughter, the new governor, arrived in New York ; 
and his agent, whohad landed some weeks before him, demanded the 
surrender of the fort. But the lieutenant could not prove his author- 
ity, and Leisler refused to surrender. At length, when Sloughter ar- 
rived, Leisler yielded to his authority and quiet was soon restored. 
But Leisler's enemies were determined on his destruction. He and 
his son-in-law had been cast into prison, and Governor Sloughter, a 
weak and worthless man, was induced to sign their death warrants 
while drunk, tradition informs us. Before the governor 
Leisler ^^*^ f'^^^^J recovered his senses, Leisler and Milborne were 

taken from the prison and hanged. Leisler had doubt- 
less been legally in the wrong in seizing the government ; but his 
intentions were undoubtedly good, and his execution, after all danger 
was past, was little else than political murder, and it created two 
hostile factions in New York that continued for many years. 

With the passing of Leisler the royal government was restored, 
and the people for the first time secured the permanent right to take 
part in their government, as in the other colonies, and, as in the 
others^ the assembly steadily gained power at the expense of the gov- 
ernor. The royal governors sent to New York were, for the most 



COLONIZATION — NEW YORK 145 

part, men without principle or interest in the welfare of the people. 
A rare exception we lind in the Earl of Bellomoiit, whose brief three 
years at the close of the century as governor of ISTew York, Llassa- 
chusetts, and New Hampshire were all too brief for the people, who 
had learned to love him as few royal governors were loved. His 
successor, Lord Cornbury, was probably the most dissolute rascal 
ever sent to govern an American colony, not even excepting the 
infamous Sothel of the Carolinas. 

An event of great interest occurred in New York in 1735, known 
as the Zenger case. Governor Cosby had entered suit before 
the Supreme Court of New York to obtain a sum of 
money and had lost. He then removed the judge and ^ 1^35' 
appointed a new one, and thus offended the popular 
party. Peter Zenger, the publisher of a newspaper, the New York 
Weekly Journal, attacked the governor through its columns and 
severely criticised his action. The governor was enraged at these 
attacks, and he ordered the paper burned and the editor arrested for 
libel. 

At the trial, Zenger was defended by Andrew Hamilton of Phil- 
adelphia, the greatest lawyer in America. The justice of the cause 
and the eloquence of Hamilton won the jury, and resulted in a 
complete victory for the accused editor. This was the first impor- 
tant victory for liberty of the press in America, and with little 
variation this liberty has been held inviolate from that time to the 
present. 

A few years after Zenger's case had been disposed of, New York 
society was greatly convulsed by the so-called Negro Plot. This 
was a craze similar to the witchcraft delusion which had swept over 
Massachusetts half a century before. It had its origin in a general 
belief that the Spanish Catholic priests, in league with 
the slave population, were planning to burn the city. jyI^" *^ ' 
The craze spread like an epidemic ; the whole commu- 
nity went mad, and before the storm abated, twenty-two persons, 
four of whom were whites, had been hanged, thirteen negroes 
burnt at the stake, and a large number transported. The craze soon 
passed away and the people recovered their normal senses. The 
account of this affair constitutes the most deplorable chapter in the 
history of New York. It is now believed that no plot to burn the 
city existed, and that every one who suffered on account of the de- 
lusion was innocent. 
I. 



146 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

The province of New York grew steadily to the time of the Rev- 
olution. Every decade witnessed the coming of home seekers iu 
large numbers to the valley of the Hudson. French 
Ne^York Protestants, Scotch, Irish, Scotch-Irish, refugees from 
the Rhenish palatinate, and others spread over the 
beautiful river valleys; but the great majority of the people were 
English and Dutch. By 1750 the population was probably eighty 
thousand and this number was more than doubled by the opening 
years of the Revolution. 

New York City was a busy mart indeed, containing some twelve 
thousand people in 1750, and more than five hundred vessels, great 
and small, plowed the waters that half surrounded it. The city was 
the political, social, and business center of the province. Among its 
leading figures in winter were great landholders of the Hudson 
Valley and Long Island, who spent their summers on their estates. 
But the great middle class, composed chiefly of tradesmen of every 
grade, made up the majority of the population. 

NEW JERSEY 

The first settlements in New Jersey were made by the Dutch 
along the western bank of the Hudson, with one on the Delaware 
at Fort Nassau ; but these settlements were insignificant, and the 
history of the colony properly begins with the occupation of the 
territory by the English. New Jersey was included in the grant 
of Charles II to his brother James, the Duke of York, in 1664. 
The same year James disposed of the province to two of his 
friends, Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, and it was named 
New Jersey in honor of the latter, who had been governor of the 
island of Jersey in the English Channel. The next year Carteret 
began to colonize his new possessions. He sent his nephew, Philip 
Carteret, as governor, who, with a company of emigrants, made the 
first settlement at Elizabethtown, so named in honor of Sir George's 
wife. A still larger number came from New England, especially 
from New Haven, because of the great dissatisfaction in that colony 
with its forced union with Connecticut. These Puritans founded 
Newark and adjacent towns. 

Carteret granted a form of government in what was known as 
the "Concessions," which granted religious liberty to Englishmen 
in the new colony, and a government to be carried on by a governor, 
council, and an assembly of twelve to be chosen by the people, and 



COLONIZATION — NEW JERSEY 14? 

no taxes were to be laid without the consent of the assembly. A 
farm, free for five years, was offered to any one ''having a good 
musket , . . and six months' provisions," ^ who should embark with 
the governor, or meet him on his arrival; while those who came 
later were to pay a half-penny an acre quitrent. The first assem- 
bly met in 1668, and the severity of the code of laws adopted plainly 
indicated the Puritan domination of the colony. After a session of 
but five days it adjourned, and met no more for seven years. The 
first quitrents fell due in 1670 ; but many of the settlers refused to 
pay rent, claiming to have received their lands from the Indians, 
the real owners, or basing their right to titles confirmed by Gov- 
ernor Nicolls of New York. The people rose in rebellion, elected an 
illegal assembly, and called James Carteret, illegitimate son of the 
proprietor, to be their governor. But Sir George did not sustain his 
son, and the rebellious government fell to the ground. 

The settlers, however, quietly tilled their farms and gave little 
heed to matters of government. Not even the reconquest of New 
York (which included New Jersey) by the Dutch, in 1673, caused 
any serious disturbance of the New Jersey farmers. The constant 
commotion between Carteret and his colony discouraged Lord Berke- 
ley, and he sold his interest in the province to two English Quakers, 
John Fenwick and Edward Byllynge. The latter soon became a 
bankrupt, and his share passed into the hands of trustees, the most 
prominent of whom was William Penn — and thus we are intro- 
duced to the most famous of American colony builders. 

The province was soon after this divided into two parts : East 
Jersey, which was retained by Carteret, and West Jersey, which now 
became the property of the Quakers. The line between 
them was drawn directly from Little Egg Harbor to the y^^ed^l676 
Delaware Water Gap. The year before the division 
Eenwick had led a few colonists and settled at Salem, but the first 
important settlement in West Jersey was made in 1677, when two 
hundred and thirty people sailed up the Delaware and founded Bur- 
lington, and within two years several hundred more had made their 
homes in the vicinity. Two wholly separate governments were now 
set up, and they were as different as white from black. 
The stern New England Puritans had settled in East ^"Inte"^^™" 
Jersey in sufiicient numbers to give coloring to the laws, 

1 One seventh of the land was to be reserved for the proprietors and two hundred 
acres in each parish for the minister. See Winsor, Vol. Ill, p. 424. 



148 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

and in these laws (enacted by tlie first assembly before the division) 
we find enumerated thirteen crimes for which the penalty was death. 
In West Jersey the government was exceedingly mild. A code oi 
laws with the name of Penn at the top gave all power to the people, 
and made no mention of capital punishment. This was the first ex- 
ample of Quaker legislation in America. 

When Edmund Andros was governor of New York, in the later 
seventies, he claimed authority over the Jerseys also, as the prop- 
erty of the Duke of York. He arrested and imprisoned Governor 
Philip Carteret of East Jersey, but the courts decided against 
Andros, and the Jerseys continued their own separate existence. 

In 1680 George Carteret died, and two years later East Jersey 
was sold at auction to twelve men, one of whom was William Penn.^ 
Each of these twelve men sold half his interest to another man, and 
thus East Jersey came to have twenty-four proprietors, and they 
chose Robert Barclay, a Scotch Quaker, governor for life. Every- 
thing went smoothly under their mild government ; but this tranquil- 
lity was soon to end. 

When James II became king of England he demanded the 
charters of the Jerseys on writs of quo warranto, leaving the owner- 
ship of the soil to the people, and united East and West Jersey to 
New York and New England under the government of 
Andros. At the fall of the king and the expulsion 
of Andros the Jerseys were left in a state of anarchy, and so it 
continued for more than ten years. The heirs of Carteret and the 
Quakers laid claim to the colony ; and New York made a similar 
claim. After a long season of confusion it was decided to surrender 
the whole colony to the Crown, and in 1702 New Jersey became a 
royal province. Queen Anne, who was now the reigning monarch, 
extended the jurisdiction of New York's governor over New Jersey, 
and this arrangement continued for thirty-six years, when, in 1738, 
the two colonies were finally separated. 

New Jersey, numbering some seventy-five thousand inhabitants in 

1760, was settled almost wholly by English people. A few Dutch, 

Swedes, and Germans were scattered here and there, but 

New Jersey ^^^ ^^ &ViQ\\ numbers as to affect society. The Quakers 

occupied the western part, while the eastern portion was 

settled by emigrants from England, New England, and a few from 

Scotland and the southern colonies. Almost the entire population were 

1 The price paid was £oiOO sterling. 



COLONIZATION — DELAWARE 149 

farmers. The numerous towns were little more than centersof farming 
communities. The colony was guarded, as it were, on the east and west 
by the twogreatcoloniesof New York and Pennsylvania, and it escaped 
those peculiar perils of frontier life with which most of the other 
settlements had to contend. This was doubtless the chief cause of its 
rapid growth. New Jersey was also singularly free from Indian 
wars, the people living on the most friendly terms with the red 
men, with whom they kept up a profitable trade in furs ?Jid game. 

DELAWARE 

The soil of the little state of Delaware had more claimants than 
that of any other of the thirteen original colonies. It lies along the 
great bay and river of the same name, and its importance consisted 
in its command of these and of the great fertile valley drained by 
them. It was first claimed by the Dutch by right of the discovery 
of Hudson, next by the Sv.^edes, who made the first permanent settle- 
ment, and finally it came into the possession of the English. Among 
the English, Delaware was claimed by Lord Baltimore as part of 
Maryland ; it next became the property of the Duke of York, was 
sold by him to William Penn, and only after the Revolution did the 
inhabitants of Delaware become the owners. Of the original thirteen 
states Delaware was the only one except New York that was founded 
by another than the English race. 

The first settlement in the territory that afterward became Dela- 
ware was made by the Dutch in 1631, who were sent by De Vries, 
a noted Dutch colonizer and one of the patroons of New Amsterdam. 
Between thirty and forty colonists settled on the Delaware Bay near 
the site of Lewes, but they were led into a foolish quarrel with the 
Indians and were massacred to the last man. The quarrel began 
from a most trivial cause. The Dutch had set up a tin plate 
bearing the arms of Holland. An Indian, without knowing its 
meaning, thoughtlessly destroyed it. The Dutch considered this 
an insult to their nation and demanded that the offender be given 
up. Thus began the trouble which resulted in the destruction 
of the whole colony. When De Vries came the following year to 
visit his colony, he found nothing but heaps of ashes and charred 
bones. 

Even before this unfortunate occurrence the Swedes, under the 
guidance of the greacest oi bwedeu's kings, Gustavus Adolphus, were 



150 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

^ 

planning to colonize the western bank of the Delaware.^ It was re- 
solved to " invite colonists from all the other nations of Europe," to 
exclude slavery, and to make the colony a home for the oppressed 
of all Christendom. The Swedish king incorporated a company 
in 1627, took a deep interest in the project, and pronounced it "the 
jewel of his kingdom." 

But the Thirty Years' War was raging in Germany and Gustavus 
Adolphus determined to invade that country in defense of Protestant- 
ism. In 1632, at the battle of Lutzen, his great life came to a close, 
and Swedish colonizing in America was checked, but not abandoned. 
The fortunes of Sweden now fell into the hands of Oxenstiern, the 
executor and chief minister of the dead king. Oxenstiern, one of 
the greatest statesman of his time and scarcely less able than his 
fallen chief, now renewed the patent of the company, extended its 
benefits to Germany, and secured the services of Peter Minuit, 
former governor of New Amsterdam, to lead his colony to the 
New World. 

In two vessels the colonists sailed, and they reached New Sweden, 

as they called the new land, early in the year 1638. They built a 

fort on the site of Wilmington and named it Christina 

Kef 163? ^^*®^ *^® ^^^^^ ^^^®®^ °^ *^*^^^ ^^^*^^® ^^^^- ^^^^ 
purchased lands of the Indians on the western side of 

the Delaware as far up as a point opposite Trenton, founded a town 
on the site of Philadelphia, built churches here and there, and soon 
presented the appearance of a happy and prosperous community. 
But trouble soon came. The Dutch claimed the entire Delaware 
Valley as part of New Netherland and Governor Kieft protested 
vigorously at the time the Swedes made their settlement ; but Sweden 
was too powerful a nation at that time to be defied, and the colony was 
left for the time unmolested. 

New Sweden grew by immigration and spread over the surround- 
ing country. John Printz, one of the early governors, made his 
headquarters on the island of Tinicum, twelve miles below Philadel- 
phia, drove from the Delaware Bay a band of would-be settlers from 
New England, and displayed an aggressive spirit in general. It 

1 See Bancroft, Vol. II, p. 502. William Usselinx, a Hollander and one of the 
founders of the Dutch West India Company, was the first to lead Sweden into this 
enterprise. Refused a charter by his own country, he turned to Sweden and became 
one of the projectors of the new company. Sweden's only right to American soil 
lay in the assumption that unappropriated lands were common property. See 
Jameson, in American Historical Association Papers, II. 



COLONIZATION — PENNSYLVANIA 151 

seemed for a time that the whole Delaware Valley would be settled 
and held by the Scandinavians. But the Dutch were jealous ; they 
came and built Fort Casimir where New Castle now stands, and thus 
got control of the bay. Soon, however, a Swedish war vessel entered 
the bay and put an end to the Dutch fort. The blus- gtuwesant 
tering Stuyvesant was now governor of New Amster- conquers 
dam, and he determined to avenge the insult and put an New Sweden, 
end to New Sweden. He entered the bay with a fleet bear- 
ing over six hundred men. The Swedes, who numbered but seven 
hundred in all, were overawed, and New S^veden, which had existed 
seventeen years, ceased to exist as a separate colony. The people, 
however, were permitted to retain possession of their farms, and the 
community continued to prosper under its new government. The 
Swedes eventually scattered to various parts and lost their identity 
and their language ; but, like the Huguenots and the Salzburgers, 
they infused an element of strength into the veins of the future 
American. 

The conquest of New Amsterdam by the English, in 1664, in- 
cluded Delaware, which now became the property of the Duke of 
York. The Duke's Laws, framed by Nicolls for New York, were at 
length extended to Delaware, and the people were granted some 
measure of self-government. In 1682, however, the year of the 
founding of Pennsylvania, the duke sold Delaware to William Fenn, 
and the colony, which came to be called the "Three Lower Coun- 
ties," or the " Territories," was the same year annexed to Pennsyl- 
vania. From this time it was in possession of the Penns and had 
no separate governor. Though the colony secured a sepa.rate legisla- 
ture in 1702, under a charter of privileges granted by Penn, its his- 
tory to the time of the Revolution was identified with that of its 
great neighbor to the North. 

PENNSYLVANIA 

The idea of founding a separate colony in America as a refuge 
for persecuted Quakers was not original with William Penn, but 
with George Fox, the founder of the sect. Fox was a man of intense 
religious fervor and of wonderful personal magnetism. Greatly 
troubled in conscience, he sought rest for his unquiet soul in the 
Established Church, then among the Dissenters, and finally, after a 
most diligent study of the Bible, he felt that the " inner light " had 



152 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

dawned upon him, and he went forth to preach to the world. He 
began preaching at the age of twenty years, in 1644, the year in 

which William Penn was born. His sincerity was un- 
George Fox. questioned and his fervor was contagious ; he became 
the founder of a sect, the prime actor of one of the greatest re- 
ligious movements of the seventeenth century. The times seemed 
ripe for such an awak'ening, and within forty years from the 
time that Fox began preaching his followers numbered seventy 
thousand. 

The Quakers refused to recognize all social ranks, or to pay taxes 
to carry on wars, and they met with great opposition from the begin- 
ning ; their meetings were often dispersed by armed men ; an act 
of Parliament pronounced them a "mischievous and dangerous peo- 
ple." It was not long until the Quakers, driven by persecution, 
began to migrate to America. Their reception in Massachusetts 
and elsewhere was anything but cordial, and this led them to turn 
their attention to founding a colony of their own. Most of the fol- 
lowers of Fox were from the lower walks of life, and they were 
greatly elated when the talented young son of Admiral Penn, a 
personal friend of the king, became an open convert to their 
society. The admiral at first stormed at his son for taking this 
step. The king was about to raise the elder Penn to the peerage, 

but when he heard that the son had become a Quaker, 
Yenn^"^ he drew back. This increased the fury of the father 

against his son. But his anger was short-lived ; he at 
length forgave him, and William Penn soon became the most promi- 
nent Quaker in England. His experience in New Jersey we have 
noted; but owing to the various contentions of that colony with 
New York and to the want of clear land titles, home seekers were 
rather repelled than invited, and Penn cast a wistful eye to the fair 
lands beyond the Delaware. 

The king of England was indebted to Admiral Penn to the sum 
of £16,000, and William Penn, on the death of his father, inherited 
the claim. At Penn's request King Charles granted him, in pay- 
ment of this claim, a tract of forty thousand square miles in 
America. In the petition to the king, dated June, 1680, Penn asked 
for the territory west of the Delaware River and from the northern 
boundary of Maryland to the north " as far as plantable, which is 
altogether Indian." It was the largest grant ever made to one man 
in America. The charter was granted the following March. Penn 



COLONIZATION — PENNSYLVANIA 15S 

Aad chosen the name New Wales for his province, but the king called 
it Pennsylvania in memory of the deceased admiral.* The bounda- 
ries of the colony, as given in the charter, became the subject of the 
most serious dispute, and the matter was not fully settled for nearly 
a hundred years. 

The dispute between Lord Baltimore and Penn began the same 
year in which the charter was granted, the former claiming that the 
fortieth degree fell north of Philadelphia, whereas the king in grant- 
ing the charter had supposed it would fall at the head of Delaware 
Bay. Penn therefore insisted that the line be fixed where it was 
supposed to be, and, after a long contention, the matter was settled 
in his favor. The boundary line, however, was not determined until 
many years later — long after Penn and Baltimore were in their 
graves. It was not until 1767 that two English surveyors. Mason 
and Dixon, completed this line, which has since borne their names, 
and which, after acquiring a new meaning, became the most famous 
boundary line in the New World.^ 

1 Penn came near being the author of the name of his colony. When " New 
Wales " was abandoned he suggested " Sylvania " (from the Latin word " sylva," a 
forest) and the king added the prefix, " Penn." 

2 The province was to extend five degrees westward from the Delaware 
River; and "the said lands to be bounded on the north by the beginning of the 
three and fortieth degree of Northern Latitude, and on the South by a Circle 
drawn at twelve miles distance from New Castle Northward and Westward unto 
the beginning of the fortieth degree of Northern latitude." (See Poore's" Charters," 
Vol. n, p. 1510.) Just what the " beginning of the three and fortieth" and the 
"beginning of the fortieth" degrees meant was not clear. Penn, finding that the 
fortieth degree fell too far north to give him a harbor on the Chesapeake, con- 
tended that the "beginning" of the fortieth degree did not mean the fortieth 
degree, and he won in part ; but it cost him dearly, for, although the charter set 
the northern boundary at the "beginning of the forty-thii'd degree," which would 
have thrown it north of Buffalo, it was finally fixed at the forty-second degree. In 
1732 the heirs of Penn and Baltimore signed an agreement that the line between 
Pennsylvania and Maryland be run due west from the tangent of the western 
boundary of Delaware with the arc twelve miles from New Castle. Many years 
of further wrangling followed, when it was decided to employ the two expert 
surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, who fixed the line at 39° 44' and 
extended it westward about 230 miles. At intervals of a mile small cut stones were 
set in the ground ; each stone had a large " P " carved on the north side, and a " B " 
on the south side. Every five miles was placed a larger stone bearing the Pennsyl- 
vania coat of arms on one side and that of Lord Baltimore on the other. These 
stones were cut in England and afterward brought to the colonies. A few of them 
still stand, but time has crumbled many of them; others have been carried away 
piecemeal by relic hunters, and a few are doing service as steps before the doors of 
farmhouses along the route. 

When Mason and Dixon's line was run both Pennsylvania and Maryland were 
slave colonies. In later years Pennsylvania emancipated her alavea, while Mary« 



154 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Of all the colony builders of America the most famous in out 
history is Penu. Nor was he excelled by any in sincerity of purpose 
and loftiness of aim. His province was a princely domain, a vast 
fertile region traversed by beautiful rivers and lofty mountain 
ranges, and holding beneath the soil a wealth of minerals unequaled 
by all the other colonies combined. The colony was rightly named, 
for it was one vast forest, extending from the Delaware over the 
Appalachian Mountain system, down its western slope and far into 
the Ohio Valley. It was inhabited by Indians alone, except for a 
few Swedish hamlets along the lower Delaware, the inhabitants of 
which, some five hundred in number, Penn pronounced a "strong, 
Powers industrious people." Penn was granted ample power 

granted to for the government of his new possessions, the king 
^^^^- requiring, as a token of allegiance, two beaver skins 

each year, and also a fifth of the gold and silver that might be 
mined. In this feature the charter reminds us of the charter 
of Maryland. The proprietor was clothed with the power to estab- 
lish courts, appoint judges, to train soldiers, to wage wars, and to 
make laws ; but the king retained the veto power, and, unlike all the 
other colonial charters, the power of taxing the people of the colony 
was reserved to the English Parliament. This provision remained a 
dead letter until the approach of the Revolution, when it became 
very significant.^ A strange omission of this charter was that it 
did not guarantee the settlers the rights of Englishmen, as did the 
other charters. To gain an outlet to the sea Penn purchased of the 
Duke of York the three counties of Delaware, as we have seen. 

That Penn was a religious enthusiast and a true philanthropist is 
well known ; that he was a man of the world whose secondary object, 
private gain, was never lost sight of, is not so well known, but 
equally true.^ His venture in colony planting was soon published 
widely over England. He drew up a frame of government and 
offered a liberal share of the government to the colonists. He also 
offered five thousand acres for one hundred pounds and one hundred 
acres for two pounds, subject to a small quitrent, and it was not 
long till many were ready to join the enterprise. Penn appointed 

land retained hers and went with the South. Daring the half-century preceding the 
Civil War, the original limits and meaning of the line were lost sight of; no one 
thought of it as a boundary between two states, but rather as the boundary between 
the free and slave states. 

1 See Poore's, "Charters," p. 1515. 

2 See Shepherd's " Proprietary Government in Pennsylvania," p. 174. 



COLONIZATION — PENNSYLVANIA 155 

his relative, William Markham, the first governor of Pennsylvania, 
and in the autumn of 1681 sent him ahead with three shiploads of emi- 
grants. jVIarkham bore an aifectionate letter from the proprietor to the 
Swedes in which he said, " You shall be governed by laws of your own 
making, and live a free, and if you will, a sober, industrious people." 

The year after Markham's vo^^age Penn himself followed him to 
the New World in the ship Welcome. The passengers numbered 
about a hundred, one third of Avhom died of smallpox on the ocean. 
The Welcome sailed up the Delaware and landed at New Castle in 
the autumn of 1682. Penn was received with a cordial 
greeting by the inhabitants ; he produced his royal fr^'vai 
patent, which transferred the territory from the duke to 
himself, and spoke so kindly to the people that he readily won their 
hearts. Reaching Chester, he called a provisional legislature, and 
some time was spent in allotting lands and framing laws. Proceed- 
ing up the Delaware, he came to the site on which was to rise the 
city of Philadelphia, soon to become the chief city in colonial Amer- 
ica, and in a later generation the birthplace of independence and of 
the Constitution of the United States. Here already stood a Swed- 
ish village, and a Lutheran church at Wicaco,^ and here Penn 
decided to build a city and make it the capital of his province. He 
purchased from the Swedes the neck of land between the Delaware 
and the Schuylkill rivers, and in the early months of 1683 the streets 
of the new city were laid out. The growth of Philadelphia was 
phenomenal. In less than four years it had passed New York, 
which had been founded sixty years before. 

It was a few months after this time that Penn made his famous 
treaty with the Indians under a great elm tree on the banks of the 
Delaware, a short distance north of the newly founded city.^ The 
Indians were of the Delaware or Lenni-Lenape tribe. The chiefs sat 
in a semicircle on the ground, says tradition,^ while Penn, with a few 
unarmed attendants, all in their Quaker garb, addressed them as 
friends and brothers, compared the white and red men 
to the different members of the human body, and made tre^y 
a. pledge to live in peace and friendship with them. 

1 This church still stands near the bank of the Delaware, and is one of the most 
interesting landmarks in Philadelphia. 

2 The city has long since absorbed the place. The elm was blown down in 1810, 
and a beautiful monument now marks the spot. 

8 This tradition is doubtless based on Benjamin Weit's painting. See Fisher'i 
" True William Penn," pp. 242-245. 



166 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

These children of the forest were deeply touched by the sincerity 
and open candor of the great Englishman, and they answered through 
a chief that they would " live in love with William Penn and his 
children as long as the sun and moon give light." 

These mutual vows constituted the treaty; no written words 
were required and no oath was taken. Yet this sacred treaty was 
kept unbroken till long after those who had made it had passed away. 
It was said that the Quaker dress was a better protection among the 
Indians than a musket, and that when an Indian wished to pay the 
highest compliment to a white man, he would say, " He is like 
William Penn."^ 

In the early spring of 1683 the legislature of the colony met in 
Philadelphia. The proprietor presented a new frame of government, 
giving all power of lawmaking into the hands of the people repre- 
sented by a council which should originate all laws and an assembly 
that should approve them. All freemen were made citizens and all 
Christians were freemen, except servants and convicts. A law was 
passed uniting the " Lower counties " to Pennsylvania and naturaliz- 
ing the Swedes. Penn was voted the veto power for life. Laws 
were made for the training of children, the useful employment of 
criminals, religious toleration — and all were in keeping with the 
humane spirit of the proprietor. For some years the government 
was very unsettled. 

Penn had established a home in Philadelphia, and there would he 
gladly have spent his life ; but his trouble with Baltimore took him 
back to England in the summer of 1684, and his business kept him 
there for fifteen years. After the English Revolution Penn was 
suspected of giving aid and comfort to the dethroned monarch whose 
brother had granted him his charter, and in 1692 he was deprived of 

1 Governor Markham had already treated with the Indians for the purchase of 
lands, and Penn, on various occasions after this meeting at Shackamaxon, made 
bargains with them for lands, the most famous of which was the " Walking Pur- 
chase." By this he was to receive a tract of laud extending as far from the Dela- 
ware as a man could walk in three days. Penn and a few friends, with a body of 
ludians, walked about thirty miles in a day and a half and as he needed no more 
land at the time, the matter was left to be finished at some future time. (See 
Channing's " Students' History," p. 117.) In 1733, long after Penn's death, the other 
day and a half was walked out in a very different spirit. The whites employed the 
three fastest walkers that could be found, oifering each five hundred acres of land. 
One of them was exhausted and died in a few days, another injured himself for life, 
but the third, a famous hunter named Marshall, walked over sixty miles in the day 
and a half, greatly to the chagrin of the Indians. 5ee Walton and Brumbaugh's 
"Stories of Pennsylvania," p. 39. 



i 



COLONIZATION — PENNSYLVANIA 157 

his colony. The control of Pennsylvania was then placed into the 
hands of Governor Fletcher of New York. But nearly two years 
later, the charges against Penn having been removed, his right to 
Pennsylvania was restored. In 1696 Markham granted a new frame 
of government, in which the power to originate legislation was taken 
from the council and given to the assembly. Again, in 1699, William 
Penn crossed the Atlantic to visit his growing family in the forests 
of Pennsylvania, and he found that vast changes had been wrought 
in his absence. Twenty thousand people had made their homes in 
his province. The city that he had founded was fast rising to im- 
portance, and the wilderness of the river valley was dotted with 
farms. Here he found not only his fellow Quakers, but Germans 
from the Rhine, Swedes, and Dutch, together laying the foundations 
of a great commonwealth. 

The great-souled proprietor had been deeply humbled since last 
he saw the fair lands of Pennsylvania, — he had lost his faithful 
wife and eldest son, he had lost his fortune, and he had borne the 
charge of treason against his native country. And now to these was 
added another sorrow — the people of his province had been weaned 
away from him during the- intervening years ; he was no longer the 
"Father Penn" that he had been before; they clamored for even 
greater freedom than his generous soul had granted them at first, 
and to this was added the demand of Delaware for a separate gov- 
ernment.^ Penn was grieved, but he granted these requests. He 
gave Delaware a separate legislature, and a new government to 
Pennsylvania. The form of government that Penn now conferred 
on his colonists practically transferred all power to the people, sub- 
ject to their allegiance to the Crown, and the veto power of the 
governor. It eliminated the council as a legislative body, giving it 
but a negative influence as an advisory board to the governor. Ii 
also defined the rights of prisoners, granted liberty of conscience, 
and made provision for amendments. This constitution remained in 
force for seventy -five years — to the War for Independence. 

In 1701 Penn bade a final adieu to his beloved Pennsylvania and 
sailed again for his native land. But even now, after his long years 
of turmoil, it was not for him to spend his old age in rest and quiet. 
On reaching England, he found that he had been robbed of the rem- 
nant of his fortune by an unjust steward, and later he was thrown into 

1 Delaware had been granted a separate government as early as 1691, but the 
following year Governor Fletcher, of New York, reunited it to Pennsylvania. 



158 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

prison for debt. In his earlier manhood he had suffered various im- 
prisonments for conscience' sake, but now he chafed under confine- 
ment and to secure his release mortgaged his province in the New 
World. But still other misfortunes awaited him. He was stricken 
with paralysis, and for years he lay a helpless invalid, dying in 1718 
at the age of seventy-four. 

The character of Penn is one of the most admirable in history. 
It is difficult to find a man, especially one whose life is spent in the 
midst of political turmoil and governmental strife, so utterly incor- 
ruptible as was William Penn. When on the threshold of manhood, 
when the hot flush of youth was on his cheek, the blandishments of 
wealth and station and of royal favor beckoned him to a life of ease 
and pleasure ; but he turned away from them all and chose to cast 
his lot with a despised people — purely for conscience' sake. No 
allurements of Pharaoh's court, no threats of an angry father, nor 
frowning walls of a prison-cell could shake his high-born purpose to 
serve God in the way that seemed to him right. His life was full 
of light and shadow. He suffered much, but he also accomplished 
much — far more than the age in which he lived was ready to 
acknowledge. He founded a government and based it on the 
eternal principle of equal human rights, with its sole object as the 
freedom and happiness of its people ; and that alone was sufficient to 
give him a name in history. 

Thirty-seven years elapsed between the founding of Pennsylvania 
and the death of the founder, and he spent but four of these years 
in America ; yet we are wont to regard William Penn almost as 
truly an American as was Franklin or Washington, and in the annals 
of our country his name must ever hold a place among the immortals. 

The growth of Pennsylvania was more rapid than that of any 
other of the thirteen colonies, and though it was the last founded 
save one, it soon came to rank with the most important, and at the 
coming of the Revolution it stood third in pop\ilation. Penn had 
willed the colony to his three sons, John, Thomas, and Richard, and 
these with their successors held it until after the Revolution. In 
the early part of the eighteenth century a great number of palatine 
Germans, driven from their homes by religious wars, 
Ge^^^s^^^* found their way to Pennsylvania, settled Germantown 
(since absorbed by Philadelphia), and scattered over the 
Schuylkill and Lehigh valleys. The English were for a time 
alarmed at the influx of such numbers of a foreign people j but they 



COLONIZATION — PENN»yLVANIA 169 

were not long in discovering that these Germans were an industri- 
ous, peace-loving people, fairly educated, and, while wholly unosten- 
tatious, as sincerely religious as the Puritan or the Quaker. 

Still greater during this period was the stream of Scotch-Irish 
from Ulster. These hardy Scotch Presbyterians, who had occupied 
northern Ireland for two or three generations, being curbed in their 
industries for the protection of English industries and annoyed by 
petty religious persecution, came to America in great numbers,' — 
so great as to form more than half the population of Pennsylvania, 
and to spare many thousands of their numbers to the southern 
colonies along the coast and the wilderness of Kentucky and Tennes- 
see. In Pennsylvania they settled chiefly on the plains and moun- 
tain slopes west and south of the Susquehanna. These people, as 
well as the Germans and others, were attracted to Pennsylvania 
because of the liberal, humane government inaugurated by William 
Penn. Slavery was never popular in Pennsylvania, and the number 
of slaves was kept down by strict laws against their importation. 
Before the Revolution many of them had been set free by their 
masters. Of Redemptioners, mostly Germans and Irish, there were 
probably more in Pennsylvania during the eighteenth century than in 
any other colony. The majority of them, after their period of servi- 
tude, became useful citizens. 

During the long period of her colonial youth we find in Pennsyl- 
vania the same kind of quarreling between the people and the gov- 
ernors, the same vagaries in issuing paper money, the same unbridled 
spirit of freedom, the same monotonous history, as we find in most of 
the other colonies. Among her governors we find in the early period 
no really great men, but in 1723 there arrived in Philadelphia a 
young man from Boston who soon rose to be the leading figure in the 
colony, and so he continued for more than half a century. This was 
Benjamin Franklin, who, it may be further said, was the greatest 
character of colonial America. 

*" 1 Fiske, " Dutch and Quaker Colonies," Vol. II, p. 353. 



CHAPTER VIII 

COLONIAL WARS 
FRENCH EXPLORERS 

Before the coming of the Pilgrim Fathers, or even the founding 
of Jamestown, the French had made a beginning toward the occupa- 
tion of Canada. At the moment when Henry Hudson was bartering 
with the Indians along the banks of the Hudson, Champlain was 
but a few miles away, exploring the beautiful lake that bears his 
Quebec name; and the year before that he had established a post 

founded, on a rocky cliff overlooking the majestic St. Lawrence, 

^^^^- and had named it Quebec.^ For many years thereafter 

the French came in small numbers, scattering through the wilderness, 
trading in furs, and seeking to convert the Indians to Christianity. 
The conversion of the Indians became the care of the French gov- 
ernment, and the work was intrusted to the Jesuit priests — men 
who would brave every peril to carry the religion of Rome to the 
benighted red man. They established missions in many places aiid 
at the same time made useful explorations through the great north- 
ern wilderness. In 1634 Jean Nicollet, sent by Champlain, dis- 
covered Lake Michigan. Other Frenchmen discovered Lake Superior 
and portions of the boundless regions west and south of it. 

In 1666 one of these, Father Allouez, went far into the lake region, 
beyond the head of Lake Superioi", and while there he heard of the 
vast, treeless plains of Illinois and of the great river 
beyond that flowed toward the south. Eeturning to 
Quebec, Allouez related what he had heard, and the hearts of others 
were fired with a desire to explore the great valley in the southwest. 
Among these was Father James Marquette, who had recently come 

1 As early as 1534 Cartier ascended the St. Lawrence as far as the site of 
Montreal, and Roberval made an unsuccessful attempt to plant a colony near the site 
of Quebec in 1542. The French had planted a colony of jail birds on Sable Island, off 
the coast of Nova Scotia, in 1598, and De Mouts settled a colony in Acadia in 1604; 
but neither colony was permanent. Champlain had made a previous exploring tout 
(1603) to the American coast. 

160 



FRENCH EXPLORATIONS 161 



from France. He, with another Jesuit priest named Joliet and a 
few guides and companions, determined to explore the western wil- 
derness, where no white man's foot had been. They ascended the 
Fox Eiver, carried their canoes across the portage to the Wisconsin, 
and floated down this stream to the Mississippi. They then launched 
their little boats upon its bosom and floated for hundreds Marquette 
of miles with its current. The shores were covered and Joliet, 
with dense forests abounding In wild animals, or 1673. 
stretched away in boundless, grassy plains, with here and there the 
well-known traces of the red children of the forest. On they floated, 
past the mouths of the turbid Missouri and of the clear, sparkling 
Ohio, and still on until the semi-tropical plants and breezes replaced 
the rigorous climate of the north. When they reached the mouth of 
the Arkansas, they decided to retrace their steps, and the toilsome 
work of rowing up-stream, was begun. After a weary journey of 
many weeks they reached the Illinois Kiver, and, ascending it, crossed 
the country to Lake Michigan. Joliet now hastened back to Canada 
to tell of their discoveries, while the self-denying Marquette deter- 
mined to remain in the wilderness and give his life to the enlighten- 
ment of the savages. But his labors were soon to end ; 
one day, as he was kneeling by a rude altar of his own 
making, his spirit passed away, and his friends found his lifeless 
body in the attitude of prayer. 

Of still greater importance were the achievements of Robert 
Cavelier de La Salle, a young Frenchman born at Eouen, France, 
and educated at a Jesuit school. While yet a young man he 
migrated to Canada and occupied an estate at Fort Frontenac, now 
Kingston, on the shore of Lake Ontario. Inflamed with the news of 
Marquette's discoveries, he determined to leave his lands and herds 
and explore the great western country, and thus to secure it for his 
king. La Salle was probably the first of his nation to plan the 
holding of the entire Mississippi basin and the lake region by means 
of military posts. After several years' negotiating, he received 
permission from Louis XIV to occupy and explore the 
great valley of the Mississippi. In the spring of 1682 j-eadieg 
he began one of the most famous exploring tours in mouth of 
the early history of our country. Taking with him a Mississippi, 
few companions, he floated down the Mississippi to its ' 

mouth, took possession of its vast basin in the name of France, and 
called it Louisiana in honor of the king. He then made the long 



162 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



and weary journey back to Quebec, and thence sailed to France, where 
he soon succeeded in interesting his king in planting a colony at the 
mouth of the Mississippi. The king sent La Salle back with four 
vessels, one of which was an armed frigate, bearing nearly three 
hundred colonists. It is claimed that the French king expended 
more money in fitting out this colony than did all the English sover- 
eigns combined in planting their thirteen colonies in North America. 
The little fleet sailed into the Gulf of Mexico, but missed the 
mouth of the great river and landed on the shore of Texas. One of 
the vessels was wrecked. Many of the voyagers returned to France, 
but the dauntless La Salle, with a small company, remained, built a 
fort, and spent some months in a fruitless search for the Missis- 
Death of sippi. Contentions arose among the men, and one day 
La Salle, La Salle was murdered by two of his own countrymen. 
^®^'''- Thus perished this ambitious Frenchman; his body 
was left to molder in the wilderness ; his dream was unrealized, but 
his name, in connection with the greatest of American rivers, has a 
place in history second only to that of De Soto. 

KING WILLIAM'S WAR (1690-1697) 

King James II of England, unlike his profligate brother, Charles 
II, was extremely religious, and his religion was that of Rome, 
The large majority of the people of England were Protestants ; 
but they would have submitted to a Catholic king had he not used 
his official power to convert the nation to Catholicism. From the 
time of James's accession, in 1685, the unrest increased, until, three 
years later, the opposition was so formidable that the monarch fled 
from his kingdom and took refuge in France. The daughter of 
James and her husband, the Prince of Orange, became the joint 
sovereigns of England as William and Mary. This movement is 
known in history as the English Revolution. 

Louis XIV, the king of France, was a Catholic and in full 
sympathy with James. Moreover, he denied the right of a people to 
change sovereigns, and espoused the cause of James; and war between 
the two nations followed. This war was reflected in America, as 
King William rejected an offer of colonial neutrality, and it is 
known as " King William's War." The English colonies had long 
watched the French encroachments on the north ; the French deter- 
mined to hold the St. Lawrence country, and to extend their power 



COLONIAL WARS 165 



over the vast basin of the Mississippi ; and each was jealous of the 
other concerning the fisheries and the fur trade. To these differ- 
ences must be added an intense religious feeling. The English 
colonies were almost wholly Protestant except Maryland, and even 
in Maryland the Protestants were in a large majority. New France 
was purely Catholic, and the two forms of Christianity had not yet 
learned to dwell together, or near together, in harmony. King 
James had not confined his designs to the home country ; he had 
not only revoked some of the colonial charters and sent the tyrant 
Andros to domineer New England, but he had instructed his Cath- 
olic governor of New York, Dongan, to influence the Iroquois to 
admit Jesuit teachers among them, and to introduce the Catholic 
religion into the colony. It was at this time that Leisler seized the 
government of New York, and called the first colonial congress. 
Exasperated by these things, the English colonists were eager for 
the conflict, while the French Canadians were equally ready to 
grapple with them. King William's War was very different in aim 
and meaning in the colonies from what it was beyond the Atlantic. 
In America it was the first of several fierce contests, covering seventy 
years ; or, it may be said, it was the beginning of a seventy years' 
war, with intervals of peace, for the supremacy in North America. 

The war began by a series of Indian massacres instigated by 
Frontenac, the governor of Canada. The first of these was the 
destruction of Dover, New Hampshire, a town of fifty inhabitants. 
One night in July, 1689, two squaws came to the home of the aged 
Major Waldron and begged a night's lodging. Being admitted, 
they rose in the night and let in a large number of Indians who lay 
in ambush. Waldron was put to death with frightful tortures, the 
town was burned to the ground, about half the people were massa- 
cred, and the remainder were carried away and sold into slavery. In 
the following month Pemaquid, Maine, met a similar 
fate. In February, 1690, a body of French and Indians, J^assacres 
sent by Frontenac, came to the town of Schenectady on 
the Mohawk. For nearly a month they had faced the wintry blasts, 
plowing their way through the deep snow on their mission of destruc- 
tion. At midnight they fell with dreadful yells upon the sleeping vil- 
lage. In a few hours all was over ; the town was laid in ashes. More 
than sixty were massacred, many were taken captive, a few escaped 
into the night and reached Albany. The towns of Casco and Salmon 
Falls soon after met a similar fate 



164 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

The war spirit was now aroused throughout the colonies. It was 
determined, through Leisler's congress/ to send a land force against 
Montreal by way of Lake Champlain, and a naval expedition against 
Quebec. The expenses of the former were borne by Connecticut 
and New York, and of the latter by Massachusetts. Sir William 
Phipps of Maine, who had this same year, 1690, captured Port Royal 
in Nova Scotia, commanded the naval force. He had thirty or more 
vessels and two thousand men. But the vigilant Frontenac, in spite 
of his fourscore years, was on the alert. He successfully repelled the 
land force, which turned back disheartened, and then hastened to the 
defense of Quebec. But here he had little to do. Phipps was a 
weak commander, and the fleet, after reaching Quebec and finding it 
well fortified, returned to Boston without striking an effective blow. 
The people of Massachusetts were greatly disappointed at the 
failure of the expedition. The debt of the colony had reached an 
enormous figure, and to meet it bills of credit, or paper mone}'-, were 
issued to the amount of £40,000. Phipps was soon afterward sent to 
England to seek aid of the king and a renewal of the old charter 
that Andros had destroyed. King William was hard pressed at 
home, and he left the colonies to fight their own battles ; he also re- 
fused to restore the old charter, but he granted a new one, as we have 
noticed, and made Phipps the first royal governor of Massachusetts. 

The war dragged on for several years longer, but it consisted 
only in desultory sallies and frontier massacres. The towns of York, 
Maine, Durham, New Hampshire, and Groton, Massachusetts, were 
the scenes of bloody massacres, and hundreds of people were slain.^ 

In 1697 a treaty of peace was signed at Ryswick, a village near 
The Hague, and the cruel war was temporarily over. Acadia, which 
Treaty of ^^^^ been prematurely incorporated with Massachusetts, 
Ryswick, was restored to France. But this treaty was only a truce. 

1697. xhe English and French nations had not learned to love 

1 See supra, p. 144. 

2 Mauy were the heroic deeds of those days of savage warfare. One of the 
most notable was that of Hannah Diistiu, the wife of a farmer near Haverhill, 
Massachusetts. She saw her home burned by the savages and her infant child 
dashed to death against a tree, while she and a neighbor named Mary Neff were 
carried away captive. It was not long till she planned her escape. To prevent being 
followed, and to avenge the murder of her babe, she reached a desperate resolve. 
Twelve Indians lay asleep about them when she and her companion and a boy, 
who was also a captive, rose at midnight, and with well-directed blows killed ten 
of them, sparing only a squaw and a boy, made their escape, and returned to their 
homes. Mrs. Dustin had scalped the dead Indians, and she received a bounty of £50 
for the scalps. 



COLONIAL WARS 165 



each other, and the questions in dispute had made no progress toward 
settlement. 

After the death of William and Mary the crown of England 
•was settled (1702) on Anne, the sister of Mary. James, the exiled 
king, died in 1701, and his son, known as James the Pretender, was 
proclaimed king of England by the French sovereign. This act 
alone would have brought another war, but there was another provo- 
cation. King Louis of France placed his grandson, Philip of Anjou, 
on the throne of Spain, and thus greatly increased his power among 
the dynasties of Europe. This was very distasteful to the English, 
and the war that followed was known as the War of the Spanish 
Succession. In America, however, it was styled 

QUEEN ANNE'S WAR (1702-1714) 

After this brief season of peace the colonists were obliged to face 
another long and murderous war. In character this war was similar to 
that which preceded it, a contest over Acadia and New France, consist- 
ing of surprises and bloody massacres. Early in the conflict the coast 
of Maine was swept by bands of savage red men and equally savage 
Frenchmen, and hundreds of men, women, and children were toma- 
hawked or carried into captivity. On an intensely cold morning in 
February, 1704, at daybreak, a party of nearly four hundred French 
and Indians broke upon the town of Deerfield, and with Deerfleld, 
their terrible war cry began their work of destruction and Massachu- 
slaughter. Nearly fifty of the inhabitants were slain, and ^®"^- 
more than a hundred were carried into captivity.^ A few years later 
Haverhill, Massachusetts, met with a fate similar to that of Deerfield, 

In 1704 the colonists made an unsuccessful attack by sea on Port 
Royal, Acadia, and another in 1707 ; and three years later the Brit- 
ish government, having at last decided to aid the colonies, sent a 
small fleet under Colonel Nicholson, which was joined by an arma- 
ment from Boston, and a third attack was made. This was success- 
ful ; Port Royal surrendered, and was named Annapolis in honor of 
the English queen, while Acadia was henceforth called Nova Scotia. 

1 Among the captives were the minister, Williams, his wife, and five children. 
Mrs. Williams soon perished by the tomahawk. The rest were afterward rescued, 
except a seven-year-old daughter. Many years later a white woman in Indian garb 
appeared at Deerfield. It proved to be the daughter of the Rev. Mr. Williams. She 
had married a Mohawk chief. Her friends besought her to remain with them, but her 
heart was with her dusky husband and half-breed children, and no entreaties could 
influence her to remain with the friends of her childhood. 



166 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

-A beginning of English success was thus made, and the bold 
scheme of conquering Canada was now conceived. Sir Hovendon 
Walker arrived at Boston with a fleet and an army, and 
Hovendon these were augmented by the colonists at the bugle call 
of Governor Dudley of Massachusetts, until the fleet 
consisted of nine war vessels, sixty transports, and many smaller 
craft, bearing in all twelve thousand men. Nothing like it had ever 
before been seen in American waters. In August, 1711, this impos- 
ing fleet moved to the northward, and at the same time a land force 
of twenty-three hundred men under Colonel Nicholson started for 
Montreal by way of Lake Cham plain. 

It would seem that New France must certainly fall before such 
a power, and all Canada be added to the British dominions in 
America. But there was one fatal obstacle to success, and that was 
the want of ability in Admiral Walker. He not only lacked capacity 
to command such a force, but he was wanting in courage. The 
whole movement came to nothing. Walker lost eight ships and a 
tliousand men in a dense fog at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and 
refused to go further, believing that the disaster was a blessing 
in disguise, a merciful intervention of Providence to save his men 
from " freezing, starvation, and cannibalism." ^ Nicholson, hearing 
of the return of the fleet, was greatly enraged, and burned his 
wooden forts, led his army to Albany, and disbanded it. 

Vaudreuil, the governor-general of Canada, had heard of the 
enemy's approach and had prepared for him as best he could. The 
people were thrown into a state of wild consternation ; but when 
they heard of the disastrous failure of the fleet, they rejoiced and 
praised God that He had preserved them and dashed their enemy 
to pieces, and a solemn mass was ordered to be said every month for 
a year, to be followed by the song of Moses after the destruction of 
Pharaoh and his host.^ 

Both nations Avere now weary of the war, and the Treaty of 
Utrecht was the result. By this treaty Acadia, Newfoundland, and 
Peace of ^^® Hudson Bay territory were ceded by France to Eng- 

Utrecht. April land ; and the Five Nations Avere acknowledged to be 
11,1713. British subjects. The aged king of France used the last 

efforts in his power to avoid giving up Acadia, but all to no purpose. 

The Peace of Utrecht, like that of Eyswick sixteen years before, 
was but a temporary peace. The great problems in America were 

1 Parkman's "Half Century of Conflict," Vol. I, p. 170. 2 Ibid., p. 173. 



QUEEN ANNE'S WAR 167 

left unsettled. The treaty fixed no limits to Acadia, nor did it mark 
the boundary between the British colonies and Canada. These were 
questions that must sometime be settled ; but there was another 
question of far greater importance, and that was whether France or 
England woiild obtain control of the great valley of the Mississippi. 
The embers of war were thus left unquenched, and the time was 
bound to come when they would burst forth into flame. ^ The Treaty 
of Utrecht brought a nominal peace that was unbroken for thirty 
years; but meantime the two nations, like crouching tigers, made 
ready each to spring upon the other. 

The king of France had sullenly given up his beloved Acadia, 
but he retained Cape Breton Island, still more important because it 
commanded the mouth of the St. Lawrence. Here, on a tongue of 
land in the southeastern portion of the island, the king determined 
to build a fortress far more imposing than any other in America, 
and to call it after his own name — Louisburg. This . 
project was scarcely on foot when Louis XIV died, and 
the plan was carried out by his successors. The great object of this 
movement was to furnish a base from which to guard the St. Lawrence 
Valley against all comers, and to reclaim, if possible, the fair land of 
Acadia. 

But the French did not stop with the founding of Louisburg; 
they spent this season of peace in strengthening their hold on the 
Mississippi Valley. As early as 1698 a naval officer named Iberville 
had been sent by his king to carry out the great work attempted by 
the ambitious La Salle — to plant a colony on the lower Mississippi. 
Iberville made great haste lest the English precede him to the coveted 
land. He reached the mouth of the great river, and ascended it 
for some distance. The chief of an Indian tribe gave him a letter 
that had been written thirteen years before by Tonty, . 

while searching for the lost colony of La Salle. Iber- gjpp^ sfallej. 
ville found no suitable place on the banks of the river, 
and settled his colony on Biloxi Bay. A few years later a colony 
was planted on Mobile Bay. In 1718 New Orleans was founded by 
Bienville, a brother of Iberville, and four years later it was made the 
capital of the vast region known as Louisiana. 

France had now two heads, as Parkman puts it, to her great 
North American possessions — one amid the Canadian snows and 
the other in the tropical regions of the South. But two thousand 

1 Parkman, "Montcalm and Wolfe," Vol. I, p. 117. 



168 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

miles of untrodden wilderness lay between the extremes of this 
boundless domain, and the French knew that to hold it something 
more than merely claiming it must be done. They began, therefore, 
the erection of a chain of forts, or military posts. They built forts at 
Niagara, Detroit, and other points, to guard the great lakes, and they 
even encroached on the soil of New York and built a fort at Crown 
Point. In the Illinois country they founded Vincennes and Kaskaskia, 
and pushed farther southward, while from the Gulf of Mexico they 
moved northward, establishing one post after another, until by the 
middle of the eighteenth century there were more than sixty forts 
between Montreal and New Orleans. France now claimed all of 
North America from Mexico and Florida to the Arctic Ocean, except 
the Hudson Bay region and the narrow English margin on the east 
between the mountains and the sea; and it must have seemed to 
human eyes that the future development of the continent must be 
modeled after the Latin civilization rather than the Anglo-Saxon. 
But a great struggle was yet to determine the trend of American 
civilization. Before treating of that, however, we must take note of 
another preliminary skirmish, known in our history as 

KING GEORGE'S WAR (1744-1748) 

This war, known by the above name in America, was but the 
faint glimmer of the dreadful conflagration that swept over Europe 
at this time under the name of the War of the Austrian Succession. 
On the death of Charles VI, emperor of Austria, in 1740, the male 
line of the House of Hapsburg became extinct, and his eldest daughter, 
Maria Theresa, ascended the Austrian throne. But there were other 
claimants, and the matter brought on a war of tremendous dimen- 
sions, embroiling nearly all the nations of Europe. Again we find 
France and England on opposite sides, war being declared between 
them in the spring of 1744. Of this great war we have little to 
record here, as little of it occurred in America. Aside from the 
usual Indian massacres, but one great event marks King George's 
War — the capture of Louisburg. 

Louisburg, as we have noticed, was built on a point of land on 
Cape Breton Island ; it commanded the chief entrance to the great- 
est of American rivers, except only, the " Father of Waters." It was 
a powerful fortress ; it had cost six million dollars, and was twenty 
years in building. Its walls of solid masonry, from which frowned 



COLONIAL WARS 169 



a hundred cannon, were from twenty to thirty feet high, and their 
circumference was two and a half miles. The fort was the pride of 
the French heart in America. It was looked upon as an impregna- 
ble fortress, that would keep out every intruder and baffle every foe ; 
yet it was reduced and captured by a fleet of little fighting strength, 
bearing a few thousand soldiers, chiefly New England farmers and 
fishermen. 

The father of the Louisburg expedition was William Shirley, 
governor of Massachusetts, and William Pepperell of Maine was 
made its commander. New England furnished the men, while 
Pennsylvania sent some provisions, and JSTew York a small amount 
of artillery. The fleet was composed of something over a hundred 
vessels of various grades, and just before sailing these were joined 
by four English men-of-war from the West Indies, commanded by 
Commodore Warren. On the first day of May, 1745, this motley 
fleet came under the walls of Louisburg. A landing was soon made, 
and the " men flew to shore like eagles to their quarry." Every 
effort of the French to drive them back was foiled. The artillery 
was managed by the master engineer, Richard Gridley of Boston, 
who was to figure in the same capacity in two far greater wars. 
The siege continued for six weeks, when a French war vessel of 
sixty-four guns, laden with military stores, came to the rescue of the 
fort ; but she was captured by the English fleet in open capture of 
view of the helpless besieged in the fort. This was the Louisburg, 
final stroke. The garrison could hold out no longer. I'^'^S. 
On the 17th of June the fort and batteries were surrendered, and the 
British flag soon waved over the walls of Louisburg. 

The French king was astonished at the fall of his great fortress 
in America, and determined to recapture it. He sent D'Annville 
with a fleet for the purpose, but D'Annville died, and his successor 
committed suicide, and the project came to naught. The next year 
the king sent another fleet, but it was captured by the English ; 
and then came the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. 

The peace, as arranged at Aix-la-Chapelle, restored to each power 
what it had possessed before the war — save the great sacrifice of 
life and treasure — and that meant that Louisburg Treaty of Aix- 
must be restored to the French. A wave of indignation la-Chapelle, 
swept over the English colonies when they learned that l"^*^- 
the fruit of their great victory had been quietly handed back, with- 
out their knowledge or consent, to the enemy from whom it had 



170 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

been taken ; and here we find one of the many remote causes that 
Jed the colonists in later years to determine that American affairs 
must be managed in America and not by a corps of diplomats three 
thousand miles across the sea, who had little interest in the welfare 
and future of their kindred in the New World.^ 

1 But the English looked at the matter from a different standpoint. Chalmers 
complains bitterly (Vol. II, p. 253) that England in this war had lost her reputa- 
tion and had expended £30,000,000 on which she must pay interest — all for the 
colonists, who had lost nothing, and who ungratefully continued to defraud the 
mother country by smuggling. He neglects to state that most of this expenditure 
took place in Europe and had no connection with American affairs. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 

The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1748, like its predecessors at 
Ryswick and Utrecht, failed to settle the vital qxiest-ion between the 
rival claimants of North America. A commission of two English- 
men and two Frenchmen sat in Paris for many months after this 
treaty was signed, endeavoring to adjust the French-English boimd- 
aries in America ; but they labored in vain. 

The first subject in dispute was the bounds of Acadia. The 
Treaty of Utrecht ceded it to England without defining its bounds, 
and thus planted the seeds of future quarrels. The French now con- 
tended that Acadia comprised only the peninsula of Nova Scotia, 
while the English claimed that the bounds formerly given to it by the 
French must now be adhered to. By these bounds the vast territory 
comprising northern Maine, New Brunswick, and a great portion of 
the St. Lawrence Valley were included in Acadia. While this ques- 
tion was pending, a more important and immediate one came up for 
solution, namely, the ownership of the Ohio Valley. 

This valley of the " Beautiful River" was a princely domain. It 
extended southward from Lake Erie and westward from 
the base of the Alleghany Mountains, comprising an end- ^® " ° 
less succession of hills and valleys, watered by innumer- 
able crystal streams, and stretching on and on until it merged at length 
into the greater valley of the Mississippi. The French claimed this 
vast region as a part of the great basin of the Mississippi discovered 
by Marquette and La Salle, and now secured by a cordon of forts 
from Canada to the sunny climate of the Gulf of Mexico. The Eng- 
lish claimed it on two grounds, both of which were as shado^vy as the 
claims of the French : first, the early charters of Virginia and of other 
colonies (based on the Cabot discoveries) which covered the unknown 
regions westward to the equally unkhown " South Sea " ; and second, 
the claims of the Iroquois. The Iroquois had been acknowledged 
British subjects by the Treaty of Utrecht, and their lands were 
therefore British territory, and their conquests were considered 

171 



172 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

British conquests. Roving bands of these Indians had, at various 
times, traversed this western country, and had here and there driven 
off the natives or gained some trivial victory ; and the English now 
claimed many thousands of square miles in consequence of these 
"conquests." They "laid claim to every mountain, forest, or 
prairie where an Iroquois had taken a scalp." ^ 

The claims of both nations were extravagant in the extreme. 
If the French had had their way, the English would have been con- 
fined to the narrow space between the crest of the Alleghanies and 
the Atlantic. If the English boundaries had been accepted, the 
French would have been hemmed within a small portion of Canada, 
north of the river St. Lawrence. 

Both nations were now moving to occupy the Ohio Valley. The 
governor of Canada sent Celoron de Bienville, who, with a company 
of Canadians and Indians, floated down the Allegheny and Ohio 
rivers, and took formal possession in the name of his 
1749^^^^^' king. At the mouth of a river flowing into the Ohio, 
he would choose a large tree and nail to it a tin plate 
bearing the arms of France, while at its root he would biiry a leaden 
plate inscribed with the statement that the country belonged to 
France. This was done at many places along the Ohio.^ 

During this same year, 1749, the English made a far more 
rational and tangible move toward securing the coveted territory. 
The Ohio Company was formed ; it was composed of a few wealthy 
Virginians, to whom King George II granted five hundred thou- 
sand acres of land free of rent for ten years, between the Mo- 
nongahela and Kanawha rivers, on condition that they plant one 
hundred families and maintain a fort in their new possessions. A 
little later the French made an important move. They built a fort 
at Presque Isle, where Erie now stands. Fort Le Boeuf, twenty 
miles from this, and Venango, on the site of the city of Franklin, 
Pennsylvania. This action alarmed Governor Dinwiddle of Vir- 
ginia, as Virginia claimed the whole of the Allegheny Valley by 
right of her charter of 1609. The governor, therefore, determined 
to make a formal protest against the occupation of this territory by 

1 Parkman, " Montcalm and Wolfe," Vol. I, p. 125. 

2 The plate buried at the mouth of the Muskingum was found half a century 
later by some boys while bathing. Part of it was melted into bullets, and the 
remainder is now in the cabinet of the American Antiquarian Society. The plate 
buried at the mouth of the Kanawha was unearthed by floods, and was found by a 
boy in 1846, ninety-seven years after it had been buried. Ibid., p. 48. 



FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 178 

the French, and in choosing a messenger to make the journey to the 
newly built forts he unconsciously introduced to the future a young 
man who was destined to hold the first place in the heart of the 
great nation that was soon to be born in America — George Wash- 
ington. Washington was a youth of twenty-one years and was 
adjutant-general of the Virginia militia. He had seen much expe- 
rience in the woods as a surveyor. He was tall and stalwart, and 
he not only excelled all his fellows in athletic sports, but was 
specially noted for his moral character and for his unswerving fidel- 
ity to truth and duty. This first appearance of Washington in public 
life revealed the metal of which he was made, and plainly fore- 
shadowed the great deeds of which he afterward became the hero. 
With the strength and vigor of youth, he and a few washing- 
attendants made this perilous journey through the un- ton's journey, 
broken forest. Over hills and mountains, swamps and 1753. 
marshes, encountering deep snows and frozen rivers, and every peril 
of a wilderness yet untrodden by the foot of the pioneer, he carried 
the letter of Virginia's governor to the French commandant at Fort 
Le Boeuf. Washington's chief guides were Christopher Gist, a pio- 
neer noted for his great skill in woodcraft, and Half King, an Indian 
chief whom he picked up on the banks of the Ohio. He was treated 
with much kindness by the French commandant, Saint-Pierre, who, 
however, declared in his answer that he would remain at his post, 
according to the commands of his general, but promised to send Din- 
widdle's letter to Marquis Duquesne, the governor of Canada. 

Washington's, return trip was full of adventure. Thinking he 
could make better time, he left his horses and all his guides ex- 
cept Gist, and started out on foot. At an Indian village called 
Murdering Town they were shot at by a native whom they caught 
and whom Gist would have killed but for Washington's interference. 
Reaching the Allegheny River, they attempted to cross on a raft, 
but Washington was thrown into the current among the ice floes. 
He regained the raft, thoroughly drenched with the icy waters, and 
they reached an island in the river, on which they were obliged to 
spend a bitterly cold night. Next morning the river was frozen over, 
and they crossed on the ice and were soon again speeding through 
the forest. They reached Williamsburg, Virginia, on January 16, 
whence they had started seventy-eight days before. 

Washington thus won the warm favor of his governor and the 
attention of all Virginia. The people early recognized in him the 



174 HISTOKY OF THE UNITED STATES 

rising hero, nor was it long until his further services were needed, 
for hostilities were at hand. Before midsummer of this same year, 
1754, Washington, in command of a small body of militia near a 
place called Great Meadows, tired on a body of Frenchmen under the 
command of Jumonville, and the latter with nine of his men were 
killed ; ^ and the great war that was to shake two continents, and to 
determine the language and civilization of the future United States, 
was begun. 

A VIEW OF THE BELLIGERENTS 

It is in place here to take a momentary view of the two peoples, 
as we find them in America, who were about to grapple in a great 
final struggle for the control of the continent. There are many 
points of resemblance. Both had occupied portions of the continent 
for nearly two hundred years, both were intensely religious, rep- 
resenting different forms of Christianity, and each was bigoted and 
intolerant and jealous of its rival. However we may admire the 
religious fervor of the Puritan, the Presbyterian, and the Huguenot, 
we must equally admire the French Catholic, who made his home 
in the wilderness and gave his life to the conversion of the savage. 
The religious zeal of both peoples had, however, become 
Points of greatly modified during the two centuries that had 

passed, owing chiefly to the coming of many who sought 
only adventure or gain. In 1750 we look in vain through the English 
colonies for the Puritan of the Winthrop type, and it is almost 
equally difficult to find in Canada the spirit of Allo.uez or Marquette. 
Again, the French and English were alike in personal courage, in a 
jealous love of the respective countries from which they had sprung; 
and both had imbibed that spirit of wild freedom inseparable from 
a life in the wilderness. But the points of difference between the 
English and the French in America are more striking than their 
points of agreement. 

First, as to motive or object in settling in America. The chief 
object of the English was to find a home for themselves, far from 
persecution, where by patient industry they might build up a com- 
monwealth; while secondarily, they would lead the red man to 
embrace Christianity. 

The object of the Frenchman was threefold. First, he would build 
up a great New France which should be the glory of his native land ; 
1 But on July 4 Washington capitulated at Fort Necessity. 



FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 176 

second, he would convert the native red man to his religion; and 
third, he sought the wealth to be derived from the fur trade. These 
are comprehensive statements. It was the French government, as 
reflected in its loyal sons, that aimed to build up a New France ; it 
was the French Jesuit, typifying the religious sense of the nation, 
who labored to convert the Indian ; it was the French settler who 
strove for the wealth of the fur trade. 

But while the Englishman would found a new England by migrat- 
ing in thousands, the Frenchman would do the same for his nation, 
not by migrating, but by making Frenchmen of the Indians. When 
the Englishman wished to marry, he found a wife among his fellow- 
immigrants, or imported her from England ; the French- 
man desiring a wife found her in the forest — he mar- ^fff^ence 
ried a squaw. The English generally migrated in 
families, or congregations ; the French who came were mostly men, 
and thus they lacked the indispensable corner stone of the State — 
the family. One great blunder made by the Frenchman was his 
failure to diagnose the Indian character. He evidently believed the 
Indian more capable of civilization than he was. The Frenchman 
spent himself to lift up the Indian, but more frequently the Indian 
dragged him down to barbarism ; he married the squaw and raised 
a family, not of Frenchmen, but of barbarians. The French made 
many thousands of nominal converts among the natives, but there 
is little evidence that the Indian was changed in habits or character 
by his conversion, or that he was led to aspire to a higher civilization. 

A second important difEerence between the two peoples is found 
in their relation to their respective home governments. The Eng- 
lish colonies had been left by their sovereign to develop themselves, 
and they grew strong and self-reliant. Two of them, Rhode Island 
and Connecticut, chose their OAvn governors ; and, aside from the ever 
irritable Navigation Acts, they all practically made their own laws. 
They were very democratic, and almost independent ; and, indeed, 
but for want of one thing, union, they constituted a nation. The 
French colonies, on the other hand, were wholly dependent on the 
Crown. From the beginning the king had fostered and fed and 
coddled them, and they never learned to stand alone. As a whole 
they were a centralized, hierarchical despotism. As men they ex- 
perienced an individual freedom, born of life in the wilderness, but 
political or religious freedom was beyond their dreams or desires. 

Again, the English colonies opened wide their doors to all the 



176 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

world. The English Protestants were intolerant of Catholics, it is 
true, and even of one another ; but their religious strife was chiefly 
intellectual and theological, and they continued to dwell together on 
the same soil. The French, on the other hand, excluded all except 
Catholics from their new domains. The French Huguenots, who 
were ill at ease among the English in Carolina, petitioned their 
king to permit them to settle in Louisiana, where they might still be 
Frenchmen and still be his subjects ; but the bigoted monarch 
answered that he did not drive heretics from his kingdom only to 
be nourished in his colonies, and thsy remained with the English 
and became a part of them.^ And the narrow-minded king reaped 
the reward of his folly ; while the English in America numbered, at 
the opening of the French and Indian War, at least twelve hundred 
thousand souls, the French population barely reached sixty thou- 
sand. The French king might have had, without expense to him- 
self, a quarter of a million industrious people of his owe nation 
dwelling in the Mississippi Valley ; but he threw away the oppor- 
tunity, and that vast fertile region was now peopled only by roving 
Indian hordes. The French had control of a territory twenty times 
as great as that held b}'- the English ; but the English had a popula- 
tion twenty times as great as the French. 

In one respect, and one only, the French had the advantage over 
the English : they were a unit. The French king had but to com- 
mand, and all Canada was ready to rush to arms. The English were 
composed of separate colonies — republics, we may say ; each enjoying 
much liberty without the responsibility of nationality ; each joined 
loosely to the mother country, but wholly separate politically from 
all its fellows. Each colony had its own interests and lived its own 
life, and it was difficult to awaken them to a sense of common 
danger. Governor Dinwiddle, in 1754, appealed frantically and in 
vain to rouse his neighbor colonists to action. Indeed, it required 
two or three years' warfare to awaken the English to a sense of 
their duty, and the result was that the French during that period 
were successful on every side. 

The far-sighted Franklin saw this great defect — this want of 

union ; and at a colonial conference held at Albany, in 

Congress 1754, and known as the Albany Congress, he brought 

about a plan of vmion, known as the Albany Plan. 

This plan provided for a president-general to be appointed by the 

1 Parbman, " Montcalm and Wolfe," Vol. I, p. 22. 



FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 177 

Crown, and for a council to be elected by the legislatures. But the 
English government rejected the plan because it was too democratic, 
while the colonists rejected it because they feared it would increase 
the power of the king, and the colonies plunged into this war, as 
into those that preceded it, without concerted action. 

An important consideration at the opening of this great struggle 
for a continent was the attitude of the Indians. Had all the tribes 
thrown their weight to either side, the other side would 
doubtless have been defeated. But it happened that ^f^T^d'a 
they were divided. The majority of the Indians, however, 
were with the French, and most naturally so. The Frenchmen 
flattered and won them by treating them as brethren, by adopting 
their customs, by marrying into their tribes, and by showing a zeal for 
their souls' salvation. The Frenchman readily fell into the Indian 
habits. Even the great Canadian governor, Frontenac, is said to have 
at times donned their costume and entered the uncouth dance, where 
he would leap as high and yell as loud as any child of the forest. 

The Englishman, on the other hand, never received the native 
red man on the same footing with himself, never cared for his con- 
fidence, nor desired him as a neighbor. Often the two races were 
friendly, but a mutual suspicion was never absent.^ Moreover, the 
English wanted land, which the Indians were loath to yield, and the 
French wanted furs, which they were always ready to furnish. In 
view of these facts it is not strange that the majority of the natives 
sided with the French. Nearly all the Algonquin tribes were French 
in their sympathies. But the very notable exception we find in the 
fierce, warlike Six Nations, or Iroquois, of northern New York, who 
cast their lot with the English. The enmity of the Iroquois toward 
the French had its origin in a little skirmish they had in 1609 with 
Champlain, when a few of their chiefs were slain. But there was 
another cause. The Iroquois and the Algonquins were deadly, 
hereditary enemies, and so they had been from a time far back, 
beyond the coming of the white man to North America ; and the 
intimacy between the Algonquins and the French proved a serious 
barrier to the latter when they sought to make friends of the Iroquois. 

Nevertheless, for a quarter of a century before the opening of 

the war we are treating, the French were making every effort to win 

the Six Nations, and they would doubtless have succeeded but for the 

counter influence of one man, William Johnson, the British superin- 

1 Sloaue, "The French War and the Revolution," p. 34. 



178 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

tendeut of Indian affairs. Johnson spent many years among tk* 
Iroquois, knew their language as he knew his own, married a 
Moliawk sqnaw, and was made a sachem of their tribe. As Sloane 
says, his attitude toward tlie Indians was French rather than Eng- 
lish, and it was he above all men who held the Iroquois firm for the 
English during the French and Indian War. 

DUQUESNE AND ACADIA 

The colonial wars treated in the preceding chapter did not 
originate in America; they were but reflections or echoes of far 
greater wars in Europe. But the French and Indian War had its 
origin on this side of the water, and was caused by boundary dis- 
putes between two great European powers concerning their posses- 
sions in North America. And yet this was closely connected with 
the tremendous war that raged simultaneously in Europe, known as 
the Seven Years' War, in which Frederick the Great of Prussia con- 
tended, at first single-handed, and later in alliance with the British, 
against the powerful French and Austrian monarchies. The formal 
declaration of war between France and England was not made till May, 
1756 ; but hostilities broke out in America two years before this, and 
the year 1755 is marked by two of the most memorable events of 
the war. These were the ill-starred expedition of Braddock against 
Fort Duquesne and the drastic dealing with Acadia by the English. 

One Sunday, late in February, 1755, a British general of stately 
bearing and in bright uniform came to the home of Governor Din- 
widdie at Williamsburg, Virginia. The governor wrote to a friend : 
" He is, I think, a very fine of&cer, and a sensible, considerate gentle- 
man. He and I live in great harmony." The gentleman was 
General Braddock, and he was accompanied by his secretary, William 
Shirley, son of the famous governor of Massachusetts. Braddock 
had come to be commander in chief of the English and American 
forces against the rising enemy on the north and west. The ministry 
had decided on three expeditions — against Niagara, Crown Point, 
and Fort Duquesne, ?:espectively ; and to the last of these Brad- 
dock was now to address himself. Three months after reaching 
Williamsburg we find him at the Ohio Company's old trading 
station, now Cumberland, Maryland, with a motley army of some 
thirteen hundred men, partly British regulars, partly provincial 
troops, and with a sprinkling of Indians. After much delay and 



FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 179 

trouble in collecting wagons, food, and forage, which caused the com- 
manding general, as well as his quartermaster, to " storm like a 
rampant lion," the army was ready to begin its march across the 
mountains to attack Fort Duquesne. 

Fort Duquesne was a French post situated at the junction of the 
Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, the spot now occupied by the 
great iron city of Pittsburg, with its teeming life and its hurrying 
thousands. When Washington made his famous trip to Saint-Pierre, 
two years before, he took notice of this spot, and reported to his gov- 
ernor that an English fort should be planted there. A few months 
later a body of men were sent to carry out Washington's suggestion; 
but ere they had finished their task, several hundred French and 
Indians floated down the Allegheny and drove them away, and 
erected Fort Duquesne. To capture this fort Braddock would now 
lead his army, and he seemed never to dream of failure. Braddock 
was haughty and self-willed, but he was brave and not without 
ability. He refused to be advised by those who knew more of the 
foe and the country than himself. He looked with contempt on the 
Virginia troops, and made them feel their littleness in his eyes at 
all times; nevertheless one of them, George Washington, was a 
member of his staff. 

Three hundred axmen were sent before to cut a road, and the 
army began to move from Cumberland early in June. The march 
was long and toilsome, but the spring was in full bloom and there 
was much to attract the lover of nature's beauty. Over the hills 
and ridges, streams aud deep gullies, up the steep 
mountain slopes, the brave, hilarious soldiers marched m^ch * 
through the great primeval forest, and the woods rang 
with their shouts and music. The road was cut but twelve feet 
wide, and the army, four miles in length, seemed like a gigantic 
centipede trailing its weary way through the wilderness.^ On the 
9th of July, when they had come within eight miles of Duquesne, 
at a point near where Turtle Creek flows into the Monongahela, sur- 
rounded by the dense forest and under the shadow of a line of hills, 
they suddenly met the enemy whom they sought. Braddock was 
surprised, but not ambuscaded, as is commonly stated. The enemy 
were about nine hundred strong ; two thirds of them were Indians, 
the rest French and Canadians. They were led by Captain Beaujeu, 
who, seeing the English advance column, turned to the motley hordes 
1 See Parkman's " Montcalm and Wolfe," Vol. I, Chap. VII. 



180 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

behind hiin, waved his hat, and gave the signal. Instantly there was 
a terrible war whoop and the French and Indian forces spread into two 
parts to the right and left, hid behind trees, and opened a murderous 
fire. The English column wheeled into line and returned the fire 
with the utmost courage and steadiness. The enemy were scarcely 
visible from the beginning; they had adopted the true Indian mode of 
fighting. The first moments gave promise of English success. The 
French commander, Beaujeu, was killed at the beginning of the 
encounter, and most of the French and Canadians wavered and 
fled. But not so with the Indians. They quickly saw their oppor- 
tunity — hiding places in plenty, with an enemy before them that did 
not know or would not adopt their mode of warfare. They swarmed 
on both flanks of the English in great numbers, firing as rapidly as 
they could load from behind trees, bushes, and fallen timber. 

The English fired volley after volley, though they could see no 
enemy — only numberless puffs of smoke from which the bullets 
whizzed into their ranks like hail. At length they huddled to- 
gether in disorder and confusion. Braddock heard 
The battle 

the firing and came with all speed with the main army ; 

but he knew nothing of Indian warfare, and he was too proud to 
learn. He galloped forward and back among the men, striving 
with threats and oaths to form them into battle lines, refusing to 
adopt Indian methods, and striking down with his sword men who 
hid behind trees. The Virginia troops knew how to fight Indians, 
and they might have won the day had they been allowed to use 
Indian methods, as they attempted to do; but the haughty general 
refused to permit it, and they, like the regulars, stood and quivered 
like frightened quail as they were mowed down by the invisible 
enemy. The scene was one of horror beyond description. The 
ground was covered with dead and wounded, and these were trampled 
in the mad rush of men and horses, while the yells of the savage 
hordes in the distance, heard above the din of battle, added to the 
general pandemonium. Braddock dashed to and fro like a madman, 
and at last, when his army had stood this frightful slaughter for 
three hours and more than two thirds of it was cut down, he ordered 
a retreat. 

The battle was almost over. Four horses had been shot under 
Braddock, and he mounted a fifth, when a bullet was buried in his 
lungs, and he pitched from his horse and lay quivering and speech- 
less on the ground. The ruined army was soon in full retreat, but 



FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 181 

only a third was left alive and unhurt. Of eighty-six officers sixty- 
three were killed or disabled. The escape of Washington seemed 
miraculous ; two horses were killed under him and four bullets 
pierced his clothing. Young Shirley, Braddock's secretary, fell dead 
with a bullet in his brain. The loss of the French and Canadians 
was slight, but a considerable number of the Indians were killed. 

The fallen general was carried on a litter back over the rough- 
hewn road that had brought him to the field of death. His wound 
was mortal. He was at times silent for many hours, then he would 
say, " Who would have thought it ? Who would have thought it ? " 
It is said that during his last hours he could not bear the sight of 
the British regulars, but murmured praises for the Virginia troops 
and hoped he would live to reward them.^ Four days after the 
battle he died, near the Great Meadows where Washington had 
fought Jumonville the year before. His body was buried in the 
middle of the road, as he had requested, and, lest the spot be dis- 
covered by the Indians, the whole army — men, horses, and wagons 
— passed over his grave. 

Acadia had been settled by th6 French before the founding of 
Jamestown ; but it was soon in the possession of the English, and 
again of the French, and so it passed back and forth 
like a shuttle between the two nations till the Treaty of gg^^iJ^t igQ4 
Utrecht, when it became a permanent English posses- 
sion. But its inhabitants were French, and, led by their priests 
and encouraged by the home government, they retained the language 
and customs of France, refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the 
British king. Furthermore, they fostered a spirit of hostility to 
the British government, and it was feared that an outbreak against 
the newly founded English settlement at Halifax might occur at any 
time. Governor Duquesne wrote in October, 1754, to one of his sub- 
ordinates, urging that a plausible pretext for attacking the English 
be devised. At the same time the English, led by Governor Shirley, 
were planning the most drastic measures — no less than the removal 
by force of the entire French population from Acadia. Plans were 
ripened during the following winter, and in the early spring the 
expedition set forth from Boston under Colonel Monckton, with 
John Winslow, great-grandson of a Mayflower Pilgrim, second in 
command. On the first of June they sailed into the Bay of Fundy 
1 Parkman's, " Montcalm and Wolfe," Vol. I, p. 226. 



182 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

and anchored within a few miles of Beau Sejour, the only military 
post on the peninsula still in possession of French troops. After a 
short resistance the fort surrendered to the English, who, some 
months later, began to carry into effect their cruel decision to deport 
the Acadians. They had ample authority, for the Lords of Trade in 
London had written that the Acadians had no right to their lands, if 
they persisted in refusing to take the oath. 

The Acadians, some seventeen thousand in number, were a 
simple, frugal, industrious, and very ignorant people, who lived 
apart from all the rest of the world. They raised their herds and 
cultivated their little farms in contentment, and made their clothes 
from wool and flax of their own raising. They often had quarrels 
and litigations among themselves, but in the main they were happy 
and contented. The British government up to this time had been 
fairly lenient with them ; it had granted them the free exercise of 
their religion and had exempted them from military service. Never- 
theless, the Acadians, led by their superiors, had fostered an un- 
friendly, almost a hostile, spirit against their government during 
the more than forty years of British rule. 

After the surrender of Beau Sejour, the English thought it a 
favorable moment for exacting the oath of allegiance which had so 
long been refused. But it was again refused, and the painful business 
of deporting the Acadians began early in the autumn. The scenes at 
Grand Pre, made famous by Longfellow's " Evangeline," furnish a 
fair sample of the whole. This section was under the charge of 
Win slow, and he wrote that the duty before him was the most dis- 
agreeable of his life. Grand Pre was a quiet rural vil- 
ran re. ^^^^^ surrounded by broad meadows, their green slopes 
dotted with farmhouses. It was now late in August, and the wav- 
ing fields of grain betokened the industry and thrift of the simple 
inhabitants. Winslow, with a body of troops, was encamped at the 
village, and he issued an order for the men of the community to 
assemble at the church on a certain day to hear a decree of the 
king ; and the glittering bayonets of the soldiers warned them in 
unmistakable language of their peril if they refused. The men, 
clad in homespun and wholly unarmed, assembled in the church to 
the number of four hundred and eighteen, and heard the fatal decree 
that their houses and lands and cattle were forfeited to the Crown, 
and that they, with their families and household goods, were to be 
removed from the province. The men were thunderstruck at the 



FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 183 

announcement ; however, as Winslow says, many of them did not 
then believe that the decree vs^ould be carried out. But it was car- 
ried out with merciless severity, and within a few weeks hundreds 
of them were launched upon the sea for unknown shores, while the 
lowing of the herds and the howling of the dogs could alone be 
heard from the desolate farms that had so lately been the scene of 
life and peace and plenty. Other similar scenes occurred in various 
parts of Acadia; but the majority of the people escaped to the 
forests and could not be captured. More than six thousand in all 
were deported, families usually being kept together. They were 
scattered among the English colonies from New Haven to Georgia. 
Many of them afterward returned to Canada, some to their old 
homes in Acadia ; and a large number of them made their way to the 
west bank of the Mississippi, in Louisiana, where their descendants 
are still to be found. 

It is difficult to pronounce judgment on this merciless dealing 
of the English with these simple, untutored people of Acadia. His- 
tory has generally pronounced the deed a harsh and needless one, 
that has left an indelible stain upon its perpetrators. Assuming 
that the English had a perfect right to the province, they employed, 
after forty years of forbearance, perhaps the only means, aside from 
extermination, by which they could secure their ends and crush 
opposition to their government. Assuming, however, that might 
does not make right, the English should not have owned Acadia at 
all. They held it only by the doubtful right of conquest. The land 
had been settled and was occupied by the French, and, if there is a 
standard of human rights above the rulings of kings and govern- 
ments and the results of unholy wars, these people should have been 
permitted to choose their own sovereign. Viewing the matter in 
this light (as the Acadians doubtless did), we must pronounce these 
simple people the victims of a dastardly outrage, and they must ever 
elicit the sympathy of mankind. 

At the time when the English planned the two campaigns against 
Fort Duquesne and Acadia, they also decided on two other expedi- 
tions — against Niagara and Crown Point. The movement against 
Niagara was to be led by Governor Shirley,, but it came Defeat of 
to nothing ; that against Crown Point was led by Gen- Dieskau, 
eral William Johnson. He had nearly four thousand 1^55. 
troops, mostly from New England, and with this army he met Dies- 
kau, a brave and able French commander, with a somewhat smaller 



184 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

■ < 

array. Several hundred on each side were Indians. The battle 
occurred near Lake George, and Dieskau was defeated and mortally 
wounded. The honor of this, the only English victory of the year, 
belonged rightly to General Lyman of Connecticut. Johnson, how- 
ever, assumed the honor ; and through his friends at court he was 
rewarded with knighthood from the Crown and a bonus of £5000. 

The following year, 1756, witnessed but few changes in the war 
situation. Both nations formally declared war in the spring. Lord 
Loudon was made the chief commander of the British forces, with 
General Abercrombie as second in command. The Marquis de 
Montcalm became the commander of the French. The English 
planned great things and accomplished almost nothing, while Mont- 
calm captured Oswego, with fourteen hundred prisoners and large 
stores of ammunition. The only English success, aside from build- 
ing a fort on the Tennessee River to guard against Indians in that 
part of the country who were in sympathy with the French, 'was 
the destruction of Kittanning. This was an Indian 
1 anning. village on the Allegheny River, forty-five miles above 
Fort Duquesne, and was the base of many Indian raids on the 
Pennsylvania frontier. Early in September, Colonel John Arm- 
strong, with three hundred men, surprised the town one morning at 
daybreak. A desperate battle ensued ; the Indians were defeated and 
their town was utterly destroyed, and for several years thereafter the 
settlers of western Pennsylvania had rest from Indian massacres. 
The year 1757 was even more humiliating to British arms than the 
preceding year had been. Lord Loudon planned the destruction of 
Louisburg, the powerful French fortress on Cape Breton Island that 
had surrendered twelve years before to the New England farmers 
and fishermen. Loudon embarked in June from New York with 
a large fleet, and was joined at Halifax by Admiral Holborne with 
another. With nearly twelve thousand men they now made ready 
to attack the powerful stronghold. But Loudon was wanting in 
skill as a commander, as well as in the mettle of a true soldier. 
Hearing that Louisburg was guarded by a French fleet, and that 
the garrison had been increased to seven thousand men, he abandoned 
the enterprise and returned to New York. 

While the English cause languished for want of a leader, the 
French had found one of great vigor and ability in the person of 
Montcalm. This intrepid warrior, hearing that Loudon had drawn 
heavily on the militia of New York, and had left the northern 



FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 185 

frontier of that colony but half protected, determined to strike a tell- 
ing blow for his country by attacking Fort William Henry at the head 
of Lake George. This fort was formed of embankments 
of gravel, surmounted by a rampart of heavy timbers, 
and mounted seventeen cannon. Colonel Monro, a brave Scotch 
veteran, was in command, and the garrison numbered twenty-two 
hundred men. It was rumored in early July that the French under 
Montcalm were contemplating an attack ; but Monro felt fairly 
secure, owing to the strength of his fort, the bravery of his men, and 
the fact that General Webb with sixteen hundred additional troops 
lay at Fort Edward, but fourteen miles away. 

The rumor proved true. Stealthily through the midsummer 
forest, along the shore of the silvery lake, over the streams, and 
among the hills, crept the army of Montcalm. It was seven and a 
half thousand strong — sixteen hundred were Indians. On the 
3d of August the wild war whoop and the rattle of musketry from 
among the timbers told the garrison that the siege was begun. The 
spot was fast becoming historic; here Dieskau had captures 
received his death-wound and here Sir William Johnson Fort William 
had won his knighthood. But this third encounter Henry, 
between the same peoples in this lonely forest seemed to promise vic- 
tory to the French. Monro saw his danger, but he refused the French 
demand to surrender. He sent messengers daily to General Webb, 
begging for reenforceraents. Webb was within hearing of the can- 
nonade, and held more than a thousand men in idleness ; but he 
refused to raise a finger for the rescue of the fort. He sent a letter 
to Monro, advising him to surrender. The bearer fell into the hands 
of the Indians, and the letter fell into the hands of Montcalm, who 
sent it to Monro, renewing his demand for the surrender of the fort. 
For several days longer the roar of the cannon echoed from the 
neighboring mountains, when the white flag was raised over the fast- 
crumbling walls. The English were to march out with the honors 
of war, to be escorted by French troops to Fort Edward, and not to 
serve again for eighteen months. 

And now was' enacted one of those bloody deeds characteristic of 
early America — a deed of which only savage man is capable. The 
French commander used every effort to restrain his Indian allies, 
but a taste of blood had awakened their savage nature and turned 
them to demons; the practice of generations was too strong to be 
overcome by the restraints of civilized warfare. They rushed into 



186 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

the fort and tomahawked the sick and wounded, the women and 
children. But this did not appease their thirst for blood. They 
even attacked the column of marching soldiers. Montcalm ran 
among them with wild gestures, striving with threats and entreaties 
to restrain them. *' Kill me," he cried, "kill me, but spare the 
English who are under my protection." But the savage hordes 
v/ere not restrained until they had slain eighty of the New Hamp- 
shire men in the rear of the column. 



WILLIAM PITT 

The fortunes of England were now at the lowest ebb. For three 
years she had suffered one defeat upon another, and now, at the close 
of the year 1757, there was not an English fort or hamlet in the 
basin of the St. Lawrence or in the Ohio Valley. The chief cause of 
this condition was a want of ability in the conduct of the war. The 
Duke of Newcastle, who was at the head of the British cabinet, was 
little fitted to carry on the great business of the nation. Above all 
things England wanted a man of ability and decision of character at 
the head of affairs, and at length she found one in the person of the 
rising statesman, William Pitt, the greatest Englishman of his genera- 
tion. Pitt came into power in the summer of 1757, and his compre- 
hensive mind soon grasped the situation. His touch was the touch 
of the master; he soon changed the succession of defeats to a succes- 
sion of victories, and to him above all men was due the fact that 
England and not France became the possessor of North America. 

In the early spring of 1758 Pitt sent a powerful fleet commanded 
by Admiral Boscawen to capture Louisburg. The fleet consisted of 
twenty-two line-of-battle ships and fifteen frigates, and bore ten 
thousand troops under the command of General Amherst. With 
Amherst was associated the most brilliant young military commander 
of England — James Wolfe. After a long and tempestuous voyage, 
the fleet lined up in the waters of Louisburg early in June, and on 
the 7th a landing was effected under the leadership of Wolfe. The 
outposts were soon captured, and the British cannon 
burff°l758^^" op^^^^d on the French fortress. For many weeks the 
incessant roar of the bombardment told of the coming 
doom of Louisburg. By the end of July the walls began to crumble, 
the French garrison of fifty-six hundred men surrendered to their 
conquerors, and for the second time the fort passed into English 



FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 187 

hands. This was the first important British victory in the French 
and Indian War ; and, with all honor to Boscawen, to Amherst, and 
to Wolfe, the chief glory of the victory must be awarded to William 
Pitt. Thus began a series of English successes that was to continue 
to the end of the war ; but the series was broken by one disastrous 
reverse. 

It was during these same weeks when the British shells were 
bursting over the walls of Louisburg that Abercrombie and Lord 
Howe led an army through the wilderness of northern New York, 
only to be defeated by the great French commander, Montcalm. 
The army was the largest ever yet assembled in America, comprising 
fifteen thousand men — six thousand British regulars and nine thou- 
sand provincials, or, as we must soon begin to call them, Americans. 
The nominal leader was General Abercrombie, the real one Lord 
Howe, a young man of great vigor who may be favorably compared 
with Wolfe. We find also in this army John Stark and Israel 
Putnam, who afterward became famous in a greater French vic- 
war. The object of the army was to capture Fort Ticon- tory atTicon- 
deroga, on the shore of Lake Champlain, now held by deroga. 
Montcalm with a force of not less than four thousand men. Howe 
laid his plans with great skill and approached the fort, but at the 
first skirmish with the French pickets he was shot dead.^ His death 
was an irreparable blow to the English, who nevertheless attacked 
the fort again and again with heroic bravery. The stupid Aber- 
crombie, himself remaining out of danger, imposed an impossible task 
upon his brave artillery. Six times in a single day they dashed 
against the fort with ever increasing slaughter. They were mowed 
down in hundreds by the hail of musketry, and on the evening of 
that fatal day 1944 of their number lay dead on the fiekP — a greater 
loss of life than was suffered by either side in any battle of the 
Revolution. The broken army retreated into the wilderness, and 
Ticonderoga remained in the hands of the French. 

There was one ray of sunshine, however, to cheer the defeated 
army. Colonel John Bradstreet with three thousand provincials 
set out in August to capture Fort Frontenac. Crossing 
Lake Ontario in open boats, they landed on the Canadian ^'^ Fronte- 
shore, and in a few days the coveted pr^ze was in their 
possession. This was a serious blow to the French, as the communi« 

1 Howe was a brother of Admiral Howe and General Howe of the Revolution. 
* Sloane's " French War and the Revolution," p. 69. 



188 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

cation between Quebec and the Ohio Valley was now completely 
severed. 

It remains to say a word of the third great expedition of the 
year — that against Fort Duquesne. This was in command of Gen- 
eral Forbes, ably assisted by George Washington with nineteen 
hundred Virginia troops, John Armstrong with twenty-seven hun- 
dred Pennsylvanians, and the brave Swiss officer, Colonel Bouquet.-' 
The route selected was not the road cut out by Braddock three 
years before, but a shorter and more difficult one, over the mountains 
from the head waters of the Juniata and down the western slope to 
the Allegheny. Forbes was afflicted with a mortal illness and had 
to be carried on a litter, but his heart was strong and brave, and the 
labored march was continued. Major Grant, with eight hundred 
men, was sent ahead to decoy a portion of the garrison from their 
shelter. But the French, came out in unexpected numbers, and in 
a sharp conflict Grant lost almost three hundred men. 

So slow was the progress of the main army that when winter 
approached many weary miles were yet to be covered. A council 
of war was about to decide to abandon the project for the season, 
when word was received that the French garrison had been greatly 
weakened and could not endure a siege. This news infused new 
life into the expedition, and it was decided to press forward. Wash- 
ington was sent ahead Avith twenty-five hundred men, but when he 
Capture reached the place he found nothing but smoking ruins, 

of Fort The French had fired the fort and abandoned it ; and 

Duquesne. ^j-^^g much-coveted spot, which had cost Braddock and 
his brave army so dearly, passed into English hands without a blow. 
The place was now named Pittsburg in honor of William Pitt, who had 
inspired the expedition ; and the great city that grew up on the 
spot retained the name, and is a perpetual monument to the memory 
of the great commoner, whose unswerving friendship for the colonies 
during the Kevolution can never be forgotten. 

FALL OF QUEBEC 

Pitt's success during his first year of power was marvelous. 
He had played a winnino' hand in the terrible war that convulsed 
Europe at the time, and had won the most signal victories in 

* This army, about six thousand in number, was composed almost exclusively 
of Americans. 



f"RENCH AND INDIAN WAR 18» 

America. Louisburg, Frontenac, and Duqiiesne had fallen before 
his victorious armies, and the French hold on the Ohio country was 
entirely broken. Pitt now planned still greater things for the coming 
year — no less than the complete conquest of New France, and the 
expulsion of French authority from all North America. General 
Stanwix was to guard the frontier between Pittsburg and the lakes ; 
General Prideaux and Sir William Johnson were to advance on 
Montreal by way of Niagara ; while Amherst, who had been made 
commander in chief, was to lead an army to the Champlain country 
where Abercrombie had been so drastically beaten the year before. 
But the most important expedition of the season was to be sent 
against Quebec under the command of Wolfe. 

Prideaux proceeded to Niagara and invested the fort ; but at the 
beginning of the bombardment he was killed by a bursting shell, 
and Sir William Johnson took command. After a siege of three 
weeks the fort surrendered, but Johnson made no further effort to 
reach Montreal. By this victory the entire upper Ohio Valley 
passed to the control of the English. Amherst gathered his army 
of ten thousand men at Lake George in June, and the next month he 
sailed down the lake to Ticonderoga; but the French abandoned 
the fort for Crown Point, and a little later retreated from this 
point, taking up a strong position on Isle-aux-Noix in the Eichelieu 
River. Amherst then spent the summer building useless forts, and 
made no effort to support Wolfe, as he was expected to do. 

Canada was in a deplorable condition in 1759. The harvest of 
the year before had been meager, and a barrel of flour cost two 
hundred francs.^ Many of the horses and cattle had been killed for 
food, and the people were on short rations ere the summer had 
begun. And besides, thieving officials robbed the people, and British 
men-of-war guarded the mouth of the St. Lawrence. A bitter quar- 
rel between Montcalm and the boastful Canadian governor, Vau- 
dreuil, added to the confusion. Their dispute was carried to the 
court at Versailles, and Montcalm was sustained ; but the one great 
desire of his heart, an additional army of veterans, was denied him. 

Quebec is situated on a promontory in the northwestern angle 
made by the junction of the St. Charles E-iver with the St. Lawrence, 
and from the former extends a table-land eastward to the beautiful 
falls of the Montmorency, about seven miles from the city. This 
plateau was occupied by Montcalm with an army of nearly seventeen 
» Parkman, Vol. II, p. 172. 



i90 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

thousand men, regulars, Canadians, and Indians. Back of the city, 
on the north bank of the St. Lawrence and westward from the 
mouth of the St. Charles, lay the Plains of Abraham,^ which had 
been left unguarded, as the rocky steep was supposed to be inaccess- 
ible from the river. 

General Wolfe was still in his youth ; he had just passed his 
thirty-second year. In appearance he was uncomely, and his health 
was delicate ; but the fire of genius sparkled from his eyes. The 
son of a British general, he had imbibed his martial spirit from 
childhood. From the age of fifteen he had served his king, and 
while still a boy he was noted for deeds of skill and daring. At 
the capture of Louisburg his reputation was greatly enhanced, and 
the keen eye of Pitt now singled him out to command the perilous 
expedition to Quebec. Wolfe had spent the winter in England and 
had won the heart of a beautiful maiden ; and now he gave her and 
his beloved mother a fond and final good-by, and launched out upon 
the journey from which he was not to return. 

His fleet, bearing eight thousand men and commanded by Admi- 
ral Saunders, entered the St. Lawrence in June, and on the 26th 
it was anchored off the island of Orleans, but few miles below the 
city of Quebec. In the English army we find Colonel Monckton 
of Acadian fame, and Guy Carleton, William Howe, and Isaac Barre 
— all afterward famous in the Revolution. Wolfe made 
Quebec'^'^*^ ° his camp on the eastern bank of the Montmorency, near 
its mouth, and opposite the encampment of Montcalm. 
The dreary weeks of the summer were spent by the two armies lying, 
each in view of the other, waiting and watching for some unexpected 
advantage. Wolfe was anxious for a general engagement ; but Mont- 
calm, distrusting his Canadian and Indian allies, steadily avoided 
one. On the last day of July the impatient Wolfe^ with a large 
detachment of his army, forded the Montmorency at low tide and made 
a desperate assault on the French position ; but the ever watchful 
Montcalm was on the alert, and the English were driven back with 
the loss of four hundred and fifty men. The French had attempted 
to destroy the British fleet with fire ships, but in vain. The old 
wooden vessels, laden with pitch, powder, and other combustibles, 
were sent burning down the river, and grandly they lighted the 
heavens and the surrounding country ; but the English grappled 

1 So called from Abraham Martin, who had formerly been the owner of the 
plateau. 



FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 191 

with them and ran them ashore or sent them onward toward the 
sea. 

As the summer wore away and the situation remained unchanged 
the disappointment of Wolfe threw him into a dangerous fever. He 
had lost nearly a thousand men, and the enemy did not seem to be 
weakened. He had expected reenforcements from Amherst, but he 
looked and longed in vain. For many weeks he had kept up an 
incessant bombardment, day and night ; but, aside from burning the 
lower part of Quebec, this had brought him little advantage. At 
length it was determined to attempt to scale the heights of Abraham 
and bombard the city from there, or force Montcalm into an engage- 
ment in defending it. The resolve was a daring and heroic one, but 
the desperate courage of Wolfe was unlimited. He had just risen 
from a bed of illness ; his fever had subsided, but he was further 
afflicted with an incurable disease, and he had reached the con- 
dition in which a soldier is at his best — he had no hope of return- 
ing alive to his native land. To his physician he said, "I know 
perfectly well that you cannot cure me ; but pray make me up 
so that I may be without pain for a few days, and able to do 
my duty." ^ 

The English broke up their camp, and on that moonless night 
before the fateful day they moved as silently as possible up the river 
till they had passed the sleeping city. Wolfe had a strange pre- 
sentiment of death. To a lifelong friend on his flagship he gave 
a miniature of his affianced bride and requested that it be returned 
to her. While on the deck of one of the boats he recited with 
deep pathos portions of Gray's " Elegy," especially the stanza end- 
ing with ,, rpj^g p^^j^g ^j gj^j.y jg^^ ^^^ ^^ ^j^g grave." 

Some hours before dawn the English vessels landed the soldiers 
on the north shore, beneath the rocky steeps that led to the Plains 
of Abraham, and the men were soon clambering up the 
cliffs toward the summit. At the coming of dawn the ^]3raham ^ ° 
ever vigilant Montcalm was amazed to find that his 
enemy had outwitted him — that the heights above the city were 
crowned with long and threatening lines of British soldiers, almost 
five thousand in number. The French commander was stunned at 
the changed conditions before him. He saw that he must do one 
of two things : abandon the city to its fate and save his army by 

1 Parkman, Vol. H, p. 268. 



192 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

flight, or grapple with the enemy in a final, desperate struggle for 
Canada. His army, though superior in numbers, was composed 
jargely of Indians and unskilled Canadians, and its fighting qualities 
S de of "^6^"® iiii^ch inferior to those of the British veterans. 
Quebec, Sep- Montcalm chose to fight, and before noon the two armies 
tember 17, were engaged in a tierce, determined conflict. The 
' battle was short and decisive. The French gave way, 

and ran for their lives ; and a few days later the city of Quebec 
passed into the hands of its British conquerors. 

But the English paid dearly for their victory. Their noble com- 
mander had fallen to rise no more. During the battle Wolfe had 
hurried here and there amid the hail of bullets, urging and encourag- 
ing his men. Twice wounded, he continued his efforts, until a ball 
lodged in his breast and he sank to the ground. He was carried to 
the rear and offered surgical aid. " There is no need," was his 
answer; "it is all over with me." 

The next moment he was informed that the French were in full 
retreat. He received the news as one awakened from a dream, and 
immediately gave orders that a regiment be placed at the Charles 
River bridge to cut off the enemy's retreat. Then, turning upon his 
side, he murmured in a low, sweet voice, " Now God be praised, I 
shall die in peace," and a moment later his soul had passed into 
eternity. 

A similar fate befell Montcalm, the noblest Frenchman of them 
all. He had been ill supported by the governor, the envious 
Vaudreuil, and it seemed fitting now that he should yield his life 
with the cause which he could no longer sustain. While guid- 
ing his flying troops toward the city gates, he received a wound 
that caused his death. On being informed that his wound was 
mortal, he answered, " I am glad of it." He then asked how long 
he had to live, and was answered by the physician that he would 
probably die within twelve hours. " So much the better," was his 
reply ; " I am happy that I shall not live to see the surrender of 
Quebec." 

The body of the dead commander, followed by a groaning and 
sobbing multitude, was borne through the dusky streets of the city. 
Beneath the floor of the Ursuline Convent, in a grave partially made 
by a bursting shell, the remains of the greatest Frenchman that ever 
set foot on American soil were laid to rest. 

Measured by its results, the battle of Quebec was one of the 



TRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 193 

most important ever fought in America. France made a desperate 
effort the following year to recover the city, but an English fleet 
came to the rescue, and the effort was vain. Montreal soon after 
surrendered to General Amherst, and French dominion in America 
was ended. The conflict had been raging at intervals for a hundred 
years. The sum of human life and treasure that had been sacrificed 
by the two rival powers for supremacy in North America was beyond 
all calculation. The fall of Quebec practically ended the war in 
America, but a treaty of peace was not signed until three years later, 
owing to the mighty conflict, known as the Seven Years' War, that 
was still raging in Europe. Meantime Spain came to the rescue of 
France, and in consequence lost possession, for a time, of Cuba and 
the Philippine Islands, which were conquered by England in 1762. 

The Treaty of Paris, signed in 1763, stands alone among treaties 
for the magnitude of its land cessions. England gave Cuba and the 
Philippines back to Spain and received Florida instead. 
France ceded to Spain, in compensation for Florida, the paris''°^ 
city of New Orleans and that vast tract ^ west of the 
Mississippi known as " Louisiana." To Great Britain France surren- 
dered all the rest of her American possessions, including the Ohio 
Valley, Canada, Cape Breton, and all her islands except two in the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence. Thus France lost everything, and hence- 
forth that country had no footing on the mainland in the Western 
Hemisphere.^ 

But these vast land cessions did not constitute the chief results of 
this conflict. As before stated, the trend of civilization in North 
America was to be determined by the outcome of the French and 
Indian War. Galilean civilization differed widely, as it does to 
this day, from Anglo-Saxon ; and the result of this war was that 
the latter must prevail, not only in the future nation that was 
soon to come into existence, but also in the vast dominion on the 
north now wrested from France to become a part of the British 
Empire. The war did much also for the English colonists. It 
brought them into contact with one another, led them to see as 
never before that their interests and destiny were common, and pre- 
pared them for the political union that was soon to follow. It 
awakened in them a self-consciousness, and, as will be noticed on a 
future page, brought out clearly the true relations between them and 
the mother country. 

1 The cessions of Louisiana and Florida were made in 1762. 
8 Except the "orief possession of Louisiana, 1800-1803, by Napoleon Bonaparte. 
o 



194 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC 

The fall of French dominion in Canada and the West left the 
Algonquin Indians unprotected. Since the days of Marquette and 
La Salle the many tribes of this great family had lived in harmony 
with the French, and during the late war had been their faithful 
allies. But they now found in their new masters a people very 
different in their attitude toward the red man. The French had 
treated them as equals and brethren ; but the English, while they 
often made friends among the various tribes, never went far out of 
their way to conciliate them. And now, at the close of this long 
war, their feelings toward the allies of their enemy were anything 
but cordial. The French had lavished presents upon them, but the 
English doled out blankets, guns, and ammunition with a sparing 
hand. 

The proud-spirited Indians were exasperated at the patronizing 
air of the English, and the rising flame was secretly fanned by the 
Frenchmen who were still scattered among them. A conspiracy 
was soon formed to massacre all the English garrisons and settlers 
along the frontiers of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the regions of the 
Great Lakes. The leader of this great movement was Pontiac. 
probably the ablest Indian warrior ever known to the white race 
in America. Pontiac belonged to the Ottawa tribe, but it is said 
that his mother was an Ojibway. He came to be chief of both 
tribes and of several others, and he was now the soul of the great 
conspiracy against the English. On a certain day in June, 1763, to 
be determined by a change of the moon, every English post was 
to be attacked and the garrison murdered, and all the whites were 
eventually to be driven eastward beyond the Alleghanies. 

Pontiac visited many of the tribes and won them by his extraordi- 
nary eloquence. To others he sent messengers, each bearing a wam- 
pum belt and a red-stained hatchet. Almost every tribe of the great 
Algonquin family, and one tribe of the Six Nations, the Senecas, 
joined in this conspiracy. So adroitly was the plot managed that 
the attack was made almost simultaneously in all parts, and every 
English post fell into the hands of the savages except three, — Detroit, 
Fort Pitt, and Niagara. Of these three, Detroit, attacked by Pontiac 
in person, was successfully defended by Major GladAvyn, Fort Pitt 
was saved by Colonel Bouquet, and Niagara was not attacked. 

The war continued at intervals for three years, when the Indians 



FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 195 

yielded, and agreed to a treaty of peace. Pontiac a few years later 
went to the Mississippi Valley, where he perished, like his great 
prototype, King Philip, by the hand of one of his own race. He 
was buried on the soil where St. Louis afterward rose, and " the race 
whom he hated with such burning rancor trample with unceasing 
footsteps over his fovgotten grave." ^ 

NOTES 

Duquesne. — As stated m the text, Colonel Forbes was so ill when he 
crossed the mountains that he had to be carried on a litter. He died the follow- 
ing spring. The Indian allies threatened to refuse to follow a leader who had 
to be carried, when the witty interpreter, Conrad Weiser, quieted them by say- 
ing, " Brothers, this man is so terrible in war that we are obliged to confine him, 
... for if he were let loose upon the world, he would deluge it with blood." 
(Drake's " Making of the Ohio Valley States," p. 70. ) After Washington, sent by 
Forbes, had taken Fort Duquesne, Captain West, brother of the great artist, 
led a party to Braddock's battlefield to search for the bones of their comrades. 
Captain Halket, who was with the party, found two skeletons in each other's 
embrace, and recognized them by the teeth to be his father and brother. He 
fainted at the sight. (Parkman, Vol. I, p. 160.) 

Pitt and Wolfe. — William Pitt, the " Great Commoner," was an aristocrat 
and by no means a democrat in the modern sense. His egotism was his greatest 
defect. " I am sure," said he, " that I can save this country and that nobody 
else can." Frederick the Great said of him, "England has long been in labor and 
at last has brought forth a man." Pitt was severely criticised for appointing 
Wolfe to lead the Quebec expedition. "Pitt's new general is mad," said ex- 
Premier Newcastle. " Mad, is he ? " returned Pitt ; " then I hope he will bite 
some other of my generals." This reminds one of President Lincoln's remark 
about General Grant. Being informed that Grant sometimes drank, he ex- 
pressed a desire to know the brand of whisky Grant used, as he wished to give 
some to his other generals. 

Washington's Modesty. — The Southern colonies took little part in the war 
during the last years of its progress. Even Washington, after the capture of 
Fort Duquesne, retired to his plantation, and was soon afterward elected to 
the Virginia House of Burgesses. Being called on to give an account of his mili- 
tary exploits, he rose in his seat, but stood abashed and unable to utter a word, 
when the speaker relieved him by saying, " Sit down, Mr. Washington, your 
modesty equals your valor, and that surpasses any power of language I possess." 

Detroit, Pontiac. — Pontiac's plan for capturing Detroit was very skillful, 
but it miscarried. It was not unusual for the Indians to come into the fort and 
amuse the garrison with their rude games and dances. Pontiac's plan was to 
lead his warriors within the fort on a pretended friendly visit, each to hold a 
weapon hidden beneath his cloak, and at a given signal to fall upon the English 

1 Parkman (references to Parkman are to the 5th edition), " Conspiracy of Pon- 
tiac," Vol. 11, p. 313. 



196 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



and murder them to the last man. But on the day before this was to occur, an 
Indian girl, well known to the English, revealed the plot to Major Gladwyn, and 
when the Indians came they found the white men drawn up in battle line and 
armed to the teeth. Pontiac did not give the signal, but afterward attacked the 
fort, and besieged it unsuccessfully for several months, when it was relieved by 
General Bradstreet. Gladwyn and Pontiac had both fought on opposite sides 
in Braddock's battle near Fort Duquesne. Pontiac kept two secretaries, one 
to read his letters and the other to answer them, and he managed to keep each 
ignorant of what the other did. To carry on the war he secured loans from the 
Canadians and gave promissory notes written on birch bark, signing his name 
by making the totem of his tribe, the figure of an otter. Every note was paid 
in full. On hearing that a trusted friend of his, a Canadian, had been offered a 
bushel of silver to betray him, Pontiac went to the friend's house and slept there 
all night to show his perfect confidence. The genius of Pontiac was very re- 
markable, and had his great powers been devoted to uplifting and civilizing his 
race, his name would hold a conspicuous and abiding place in history. 

Sir William Johnson was a power among the Indians, and, with all his 
shortcomings, he did a great service for his countrymen in keeping the Iroquois 
(except the Senecas) from joining the great conspiracy. It was to him that 
Pontiac came to arrange a treaty of peace in 1766, making the long journey to 
Oswego, New York. 

Michilimackinac. — The plan adopted at Michilimackinac was similar to 
that at Detroit. Here the Indians arranged to play a game of ball within the 
fort. The squaws were to stand by with concealed weapons. At a certain 
signal the players ran to the squaws, seized the weapons, and began the bloody 
work. The English were unprepared, and few of them escaped alive. At 
Presque Isle the garrison surrendered after a terrible siege of two days. San- 
dusky was captured by treachery, and every man in the fort was put to death 
except the commander, Ensign Paulli, who was carried to Detroit as a trophy. 
He was afterward given his choice of two things — to be put to death, or to 
marry a squaw. He was not put to death. (Drake, p. 85.) 




Before the French and Indian War. 




After the French and Indian War. 



CHAPTER X 

COLONIAL LIFE 

To compare our own age with a former age only to show oui 
cleverness and wisdom over those of our ancestors — to laud and 
magnify our intelligence and civilization at the expense of our fore- 
fathers — is at least of doubtful good taste. Certain it is that we, 
with the same environment, would be as our grandfathers were, 
would act, speak, and believe as they did. It cannot be demon- 
strated that the human race has, in historic times, advanced in men- 
tal capacity at all. Our modem civilization has produced no greater 
figures than Moses or Plato, Aristotle, Hannibal, or Cajsar, But to 
get nearer the time we are treating : Shakespeare died but nine years 
after the founding of Jamestown, and the same year 
Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood ; yet 
with all our advance in civilization the world has not produced 
another Shakespeare, nor has any anatomist of our times made a 
discovery equal to that of Harvey. The year before 
the coming of the Pilgrim Fathers, Kepler discovered 
the three eternal astronomical laws that bear his name ; and the 
year before Roger Williams hied away to his native land for a 
charter and the New England Confederacy was formed, Isaac New- 
ton, the discoverer of the universal application of the 
law of gravitation, was born — and Keplers and New- 
tons since then have been rare. We may twit the seventeenth cen- 
tury for its religious intolerance, its belief in witchcraft, its ignorance 
of steam navigation, of electric motors, and of sulphur matches — 
and here is the answer : " We gave you Shakespeare and Harvey and 
Kepler and Newton." Verily, we are no better nor cleverer than 
were our ancestors ; yet in one respect we are wiser than they — 
superior to former generations : we do not persecute our Roger 
Bacons and Galileos ; we welcome them as prophets of good. And 
herein lies the secret of modern progress. The result has been mar- 
velous. Our modern way of living is quite unlike that of our fathers 

197 



198 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

of colonial times, and a glance at the latter is not only interesting, 
but also liiglily profitable. 

POPULATION AND SOCIAL RANK 

In 1760 the population of the thirteen colonies was approxi- 
mately 1,600,000, about one fourth of whom were negro slaves. 
The people were scattered thinly over the vast region along the 
seaboard between New Brunswick and Florida, extending from the 
coast in decreasing numbers to the foothills of the Alleghanies. 
A few settlers and traders had occupied the valley of the Ohio, but 
in one colony only, Pennsylvania, had the settlers crossed the Alle- 
ghanies in any considerable numbers. About half the population 
lived on either side of INIason and Dixon's line. The most populous 
of the colonies was Virginia, Massachusetts coming second and Penn- 
sylvania third. The largest city was Philadelphia, with 25,000 in- 
habitants ; the only other cities exceeding 5000 were Boston, New 
York, and Charleston. 

In New England and the South, the people were almost wholly 
of English stock,^ with a sprinkling of Scotch-Irish and other nation- 
alities, and, especially in the South, of French Huguenots and Ger- 
mans. In the middle colonies less than half the population was 
English; the Dutch of New York, the Germans of Pennsylvania, 
the Swedes of Delaware, and the Irish of all these colonies, together 
with small numbers of other nationalities, made up more than half 
the population.. 

In all the colonies there were well-drawn social lines ; birth and 
pedigree counted for more than in the free America of to-day. The 
lowest stratum of society was composed of African 
Socia caste, g^g^ygg Slavery existed in all the thirteen colonies, 
but the great bulk of the slaves, perhaps four fifths of them, were in 
the South. The institution did not pay at the North, and it never 
became an important social factor in that section. Few were the 
rights of the slaves before the law in any of the colonies ; but with 
regard to their condition they may be divided into three classes. 
Those in New England and the middle colonies were for the 
most part domestic servants, and they usually received mild and 
humane treatment, were instructed in religion and morals, and were 
not infrequently admitted to the family circle. In Virginia and 
1 New England was of more purely English stock than was the South. 



COLONIAL LIFE 199 



Marylaml, where all social life centered round the owners of the 
great plantations, the slave was a body-servant to his master, or 
more frequently a plantation laborer, living a life of ig- 
norance and contentment in his rude hut with his family. a^eiT- 
At certain seasons of the year his labor was arduous, but, on the 
whole, his condition was a happy one. Among this class we find 
mechanics and artisans, trained for the various duties about the 
plantation. A severer form of slavery marked the third class, 
which was found farther south, where the blacks were brought from 
Africa or the West Indies in great numbers, and where, under the 
lash of the taskmaster, they Avore away their lives in the rice 
swamps with unrequited toil. 

For many years there was no particular public sentiment against 
slavery ; but about the time of the English Revolution, the Quakers 
and Germans of Pennsylvania began to be heard in opposing the 
institution on moral grounds. Thus began a public feeling against 
slavery that was destined to increase in volume for more than a hun- 
dred and fifty j^ears, and at last to bring about the overthrow of the 
institution in America. 

Kext above the slaves, and not far above them, stood the indented 
white servants. Many of these were criminals, who, being thrust 
upon the colonies by the mother country, escaped imprisonment or 
death by a long term of servitude in America. Others were waifs 
from the streets of London, sold by their inhuman parents, or kid- 
napped by cruel traders and sold into servitude across the sea. Still 
others, known as redemptioners or free-willers, volunta- 
rily sold their services for a term of years, not usually tioners^" 
more than five, in order to pay their passage across the 
sea. The shipmaster would bring a company of them to an Ameri-- 
can port, and dispose of them to the planters, farmers, and mer- 
chants. The majority of the redemptioners, after serving their time, 
merged into the great middle class and became substantial citizens. 
Many left the scenes of their servitiide and pushed out to the fron- 
tier, hewed their homes out of the frowning forest, and led a quiet, 
industrious life. Of the convict class, few were reformed by their 
service ; the majority continued shiftless and worthless, and consti- 
tuted, especially at the South, the most undesirable element of 
society. On election days and other special occasions they, and too 
often citizens of the more respectable classes, would gather at the 
taverns and courthouses and spend the time drinking, gambling 



200 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

and fighting. They also, with the free negroes, constituted the chief 
criminal classes in most of the colonies. Crime was punished by 
hanging, whipping, ducking, branding, and b}' exposure in the pil 
lory and the stocks — less frequently b}' imprisonment, except in 
some of the northern colonies. The indented servants, like the 
slaves, were far more numerous in the South than in the Xorth, but 
in no place were thej' socially or politically of much importance.^ 

The next higher class, the most numerous of all, comprised the 
traders, shop-keepers, and small farmers — the rank and file, the 
bone and sinew of the land. Especially was this true of the north- 
ern and middle colonies. To this class belonged the great mass of 
the people, and they were for the most part prosperous, contented, 
and moderatel}^ educated, but not highly cultured. They were sturdy, 
honest, usually religious, and hospitable to strangers. There is no 
doubt that in morals the colonists as a Avhole were equal to any 
people in the world. Governor Spottswood of Virginia wrote to the 
bishop of Loudon that in that colony he had observed less profaue- 
ness, drunkenness, feuds, and villainy than in any part of the world 
where his lot had been. 

At the top of the social scale stood the ruling class, composed in 
New England of the elevgy, magistrates, college professors, and 
other professional men ; in Xew York of these classes, and, above 
all, of the great landholders along the Hudson ; while in the South the 
proprietors of the great plantations were uppermost in society, and 
near them stood the professional men. In all the colonies social 
lines were distinctly drawn, more so than in our own 
la^s*^^^ times. The style of dress was, in some colonies, regu- 
lated by law, and no one was permitted to dress " above 
his degree." Worshipers in church and students in college were 
obliged to occupy seats according to their social standing. The upper 
class made much of birth and ancestry ; and, whatever our prejudices 
against rank, it is significant that from this class came many of the 
leading statesmen and generals of the Kevolution, With all the 
class distinctions, however, it was not unusual in those days, as at 
present, for an aspiring youth to rise from the lower walks of life 
and take his place among the leaders of society. 

1 Id Virginia the indented servants outnumbered the slaves for a hundred years. 
In all the colonies there were strict laws against their running away. Sometimes 
man and wife, or parents and children, were separated, to meet no more for years, 
or even for life. See Bolles's "Pennsylvania,'' p. 177 sq. 



COLONIAL LIFE 201 



OCCUPATIONS AND CUSTOMS 

America in colonial days was a land of farmers. Our forefathers 
on migrating to America found no great cities with innumerable 
openings for the industrious and thrifty, no great industries with, 
salai'ied positions awaiting them. They found onl}'^ a vast, uncultivated 
region — the valleys, the plains, the illimitable succession of rolling 
hills, crowned with primeval forest; and from this they must clear 
the timbers and delve into the soil for their daily bread. Hence a 
nation of tillers of the soil. A few ministers and artisans, rulers 
and merchants, there had to be, but their combined numbers were 
few compared with the great body of the people, — the farmers. 

In New England, however, the soil was not fertile ; a farmer 
could get a living from the soil and perhaps a little more, but he 
could not thrive and accumulate money, and it was not long before 
many of the people turned their attention to the sea. The}' became 
fishermen and sailors, shipbuilders and merchants. They took car- 
goes of fish and cattle and the products of the forest and of the soil 
to the West Indies, to England, and to Spain, and brought in return 
molasses and the many articles of manufacture that they could not 
make at home. There were few manufactories, but the people sup- 
plied manv of their own wants. Xearly every farmer was also a 
rude mechanic. He and his sons usually made the furniture for the 
household and many of the implements of the farm as well, while 
his wife and daughters spun the flax and wove it mto a coarse cloth 
from which the family was clothed. 

The Xew England farmhouse was scantily furnished. It was 
solidly built of wood, but, as. if inspired by their stern Puritan reli- 
gion, the builders gave all too little attention to com- 
fort, and the average ]S'ew England farmhouse would ^^ ^ *^ 
have been scarcely endurable in winter but for the great 
open wood-fire about which the family (^usually a large one) gath- 
ered in the evening and made brooms, shelled nuts, and told stories. 
But the " house of the seven gables "' was not wanting in Xew Eng- 
land. Many of the rich in the cities and their suburbs built fine 
stone, brick, or wooden mansions, and lived on the fat of the land. 
The furniture in the dwellings of the rich was often imported from 
England, as was also the tableware — china, wedgwood, cut glass, 
and silver plate. 

Town life in New England was everything, while in the Southj 



202 HISTOKY OF THE UNITED STATES 

as "we shall notice later, the county or the plantation was the geo- 
graphical unit. The Puritans were not great landholders ; they 
were small farmers. Each had his little clearing surrounded by the 
dark, merciless forest, with its wild beasts and wild men. But he 
was loath to dwell far from the town, where he attended church and 
market, and which became his city of refuge on the approach of 
hostile Indians. Many farmers lived in the village or very near it. 
The town was a straggling, rural village with unpaved, 
e 1 age. s]^a^(;[y streets partly covered with stumps of native 
trees. There were at least three important buildings in the town, 
always near together — the church, the tavern, and the blockhouse. 
The church in early Puritan days was built of logs, provided with 
benches, and never heated. The congregation was summoned by 
the sound of a horn or a drum, and the people sat in order of social 
rank and listened to the long sermons. If a man or a boy fell asleep 
or misbehaved, he received a rap on the head from the rod of 
the tithingraan ; while if a woman fell into a doze, she was awak- 
ened by the brushing of her face with a rabbit's foot appended to 
the rod. In early times, when the red man still lurked in the woods, 
the men went to church armed, and the minister often preached with 
a musket by his side. 

The tavern or ordinary was not only a lodging place for travelers, 
but also a drinking house, and a place of general gossip for the village 
and neighborhood. Here the people would gather on special days 
to take a social glass, to get the latest news, and to discuss politics 
and religion. The tavern was considered a public necessity, and 
a town that did not maintain one was subject to fine by the Gen- 
eral Court.^ The principal drinks were rum, small 
beer, and cider, and these were used freely by men, 
women, and children. The tavern keeper was a man of great im- 
portance — usually a jolly gentleman whose stock of information on 
all current topics was inexhaustible. He was often the chief man, 
next to the town clerk, in the town — schoolmaster, leader of the 
singing in the church, member of the town council, land agent, sur- 
veyor, and the like. He was required to be a man of good character, 
and was not permitted to sell strong drink to drunkards. 

The blockhouse was strongly built of logs, the second story ex- 
tending over the first and being provided with portholes so that the 
occupants could fire directly down on a besieging enemy. In catse 
1 Field's " Colonial Tavern," p. 13. 



COLONIAL LIFE 203 



of an Indian attack the whole population would abandon their 
homes and rush to the blockhouse, and in this way their lives were 
often saved. The blockhouse in New England ceased to be of great 
importance after King Philip's War. 

Passing westward into New York, we find a soil very different 
from the barren lands of New England. The great valleys of the 
Hudson and the Mohawk were exceedingly fertile, and in this colony 
the majority of the people were tillers of the soil. 

But New York was by no means wholly agricultural. The sec- 
ond great industry was that of trade, and this was of two kinds — 

trade with foreign countries and the other colonies and 

New York 
the Indian fur trade. New York City was the center 

of all maritime commerce, and was a formidable rival of Boston 

and Philadelphia. The Indian fur trade was exceedingly lucrative, 

and hundreds of men were constantly engaged in it.^ A trader 

would go into the Indian country laden with rum and trinkets and 

implements prized by the natives, and for these he would receive 

furs and peltries, with which he would float down the Hudson and 

sell them to the foreign traders of Manhattan. 

The character of society in New York was unlike that of any 
other colony, owing to the patroon system, which continued all 
through colonial days and far into the national period. 
The patroon had a luxurious, well-built house of brick ** ^' 
or stone, a retinue of servants, large barns, orchards and gardens, and 
broad pasture lands dotted with flocks and herds. His tenants were 
scattered for miles about him, and among them he lived much like a 
feudal lord of the Middle Ages. 

The majority of the people, especially in the country, were Dutch, 
and they clung tenaciously to the customs and habits of their nation. 
They were a plodding, industrious, religious people, who dwelt in small 
wooden or brick houses with sanded floors, and high, steep roofs, 
and, in the villages, with the gable ends, " notched like steps," turned 
toward the street. The window panes were very small ; the doors, 
each with its knocker of brass or iron, were divided into an upper and 
a lower section. Country houses were placed as near together as the 
extent of each farm would allow, often forming a little village street.^ 
A great fireplace in each house was usually built of tiles brought from 

1 But the fur trade was greatly crippled wheu, in 1732, England forbade the 
people to export hats. 

« Earle's "Colonial Days in Old New York," p. 116. 



204 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Holland, and on these were stamped various Scripture scenes, one 
of which was Lazarus leaving the tomb and waving the flag of the 
Netherlands.^ One of the features of the Dutch village and farm- 
house was the stoop, on which, in summer evenings, the family would 
sit and chat for hours with their neighbors, the men smoking long 
Dutch pipes, the women busy with their knitting or sewing. 

The Dutch were more liberal in games and amusements than 
were the Puritans of New England. No people in America presented 
a more attractive picture of quiet, pastoral contentment, of unruffled 
satisfaction in life, of thrift and plenty, than the Dutch rural popu- 
lation of New York. Thus these people continued their rustic life, 
maintaining their customs and language for nearly two centuries ; 
but after the Revolution they were forced to yield to the ever 
increasing tide of the English race, until they gradually lost their 
identity and their language. 

In New Jersey the mode of life was somewhat similar to that of 
New England, from which many of the people had emigrated. This 
was especially true of East Jersey, while in West Jersey, where the 
Quakers predominated, the mode of life resembled that of Pennsyl- 
vania. The soil, with the exception of the sand regions in some por- 
tions of the colony, was fertile, and farming was practically the sole 
industry. There were few large estates, the great mar 
jority of the settlers being small farmers, each with his 
clearing in the forest ; and this, with the fact there were few slaves 
or indented servants, brought about a social equality unknown in 
most of the colonies. There was little culture or education except in 
the villages that dotted the great highway between New York and 
Philadelphia. The people were thrifty and honest ; houses were 
left unlocked, and there was little crime. The laws and punish- 
ments were modeled after those of New England. 

The moment we cross the Delaware into Pennsylvania we find 
a notable change in colonial society. It is true there were many 
English Quakers, as in West Jersey, but they were outnumbered 
by others. There were Germans, Irish, Scotch-Irish, Welsh, and 
Swedes. The tolerant spirit of the Quaker government had attracted 
men of every nationality and every creed. First in numbers came the 
Lutherans and Presbyterians, and after these the Dunkards, Mora- 
vians, Baptists, Anabaptists, Pietists, and Mennonites, with a sprink- 
ling-of Methodists, Episcopalians, and Roman Catholics. Yet with all 
lEarle's " Colonial Days in Old New York," p. 126. 



COLONIAL LIFE 206 



the mixture of sect and nationality there was no colony in America 
more peaceful, contented, and democratic than Pennsylvania. It is 
true that the Germans and the Scotch-Irish could not get along well 
together, and they kept apart by settling in separate communities or 
in parallel bands across the colony, while the English 
predominated in Philadelphia and vicinity. There was 
also frequent political strife between the Scotch-Irish and the Quakers, 
and the latter often combined with the Germans to retain their pres- 
tige in the legislature. The chief industry was farming; the soil was 
rich and productive, and the river valleys were laden with waving 
fields of grain" every year, while the broad meadows and mountain 
slopes were dotted with grazing herds. But there were other occupa- 
tions in Pennsylvania. Many were engaged in the fur trade and still 
more in foreign commerce, while the iron industry had its beginning 
early in the eighteenth century. 

Philadelphia was a fine, well-built city with straight streets cross- 
ing at right angles — and its plan, originating with Penn, became the 
model for nearly all the cities of the United States. This city passed 
New York in population but few years after its founding ; about the 
middle of the eighteenth century it left Boston behind, and so it 
continued the largest city in America until after the Revolution. 

Crossing into Maryland and Virginia, we again find a great change 
in the social atmosphere. Here there was little or no town life; 
villages were few and insignificant. The planter or great landlord 
stood at the head of society ; the plantation was the center of social 
and industrial activity, and the sole important product of the planta- 
tion was tobacco. The great estates were situated along the river 
valleys. In the center stood the well-built and well-furnished man- 
sion of the landlord, and around it were clustered the 
offices, tobacco houses, barns, stables, and negro huts, the ajf/^f^inia. 
whole presenting the appearance of a small village. 
The planter enjoyed every luxury of the age. He had blooded 
horses, carriages, and body servants in abundance, and his dress was 
fashioned after that of the upper classes in England. His monotonous 
life in the forest led him to long for company of his own class, and 
gave rise to the hospitality for which the Southerner became famous. 
He treated strangers with great cordiality, and often sent to the 
nearest tavern requesting that any chance traveler might be sent to 
spend the night at his home. 

• As we move farther to the southward we find another marked 



206 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

change. Here, especially in South Carolina, the great staple was 
rice. The rice planters were men of education and culture, and they 
comprised the ruling class. Most of them lived in Charleston and 
spent but a few months of the year in the malarial regions in which 
the rice was produced. 

The old colonial aristocracy of the South was not without its 
shortcomings, but on the whole it was chivalric and picturesque ; 
and it is a remarkable fact that it was this old aristocracy of a 
single southern colony that furnished the newborn Kepublic with its 
greatest soldier, half of its first cabinet, and four of its first five 
presidents. 

The small farmers of the South were also a respectable class, and 
of course more numerous than the great planters. They were slave 
owners on a small scale, and many of them rose by dint of genius, by 
thrift and industry, to the upper class,^ while, as stated before, there 
was an almost impassable barrier between them and the lower classes, 
composed of servants and slaves. 

RELIGION; EDUCATION; MEDICINE 

In tracing the growth of the several colonies we have had fre- 
quent occasion to notice the religious life of the people, but a few 
additional words are necessary here. In the Carol inas, Virginia, 
and Maryland the Church of England was recognized by law as the 
State Church ; and in Maryland, which had passed through Catho- 
lic and Puritan hands, this church was supported by general taxa- 
tion.^ Many of the clergy were men of doubtful morals, men who 
were foremost at the horse races, and who Avere seldom outdone 
in drinking, betting, and gambling. The Established Church had 
little footing in the North, outside of IsTew York, where it was 
rapidly gaining. In Pennsylvania and Khode Island alone were 
all religions free. 

In New England, except Rhode Island, the Puritan or Congre- 
gational Church was practically the State Church. In no other part 
of America had religion taken such a powerful hold on the people 
as here. The minister was held in the highest esteem and rever- 
ence by the people, who considered it a privilege to sit on the hard 
seats and listen to his three-hour sermon as he dilated on the special 
providences of God, on some metaphysical abstraction, or on the 

1 Patrick Henry and John INIarshall were strikiiis examples of this. 
3 This had been done at times in Virginia and the Carolinas. 



COLONIAL LIFE 207 



tortures of the lost soul. The New England ministers were men of 
profound learning. Many of them could read the Old 
Testament in the original Hebrew, the Kew in the miristrr^^*"** 
original Greek, and expound them in classic Latin. 
We may grow weary of the pedantry, the metaphysics, and the 
narrowness of the Puritan ministers, but it cannot be denied that 
they were sincere, honest men. The greatest of the New England 
ministers was Jonathan Edwards, whose work on the "Freedom of 
the Will " is one of the very few colonial productions that still live 
in American literature. 

Next to religion the Puritans valued education, and they had 
scarcely become established in their new home when they turned 
their attention to the education of their children. In 1636 it was 
voted to found a college at Newtown, now Cambridge, three miles 
west of Boston. Two years later, John Harvard, a young clergy- 
man, gave the institution a portion of his estate, amounting to 
about $4000, — a large sum in those days, — and it was called after 
his name. In 1647 the General Court of Massachusetts ordered 
that a common school be established in every township of fifty fami- 
lies, and a grammar school in each of the larger towns. Prom this 
crude beginning has developed the public school systems 
of the United States. The school term in New Eng- 
land was seldom more than four months in the year ; the teacher 
was often a youthful divinity student, and sometimes the minister 
of the parish, or even the innkeeper. The pupils pondered for 
long, weary hours over the " New England Primer," the catechism, 
and various cumbrous text-books of the time. 

In New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania commendable 
effort was made to educate the young, but the schools fell below 
those of New England, and seldom at this period was a school 
to be found outside the towns and villages. In the South the 
education of the masses was almost wholly neglected, except for 
some feeble efforts in Maryland and Virginia. The rich employed 
private tutors, the minister, or sometimes an indented servant, 
while a few of the most opulent sent their sons to England or the 
North to be educated. There was no public school system in Vir- 
ginia before the Revolution,^ yet this colony could boast the second 

1 The seven colleges founded before the Revolution were : Harvard, 1636 ; William 
and Mary, 1693; Yale, 1701; Princeton, 1746; University of Pennsylvania, 1749,- 
King's (Columbia), 1754; and Brown University, 1764. 



208 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

college in America in point of the time of its founding. The efforts 
to educate the young in many of the colonies was most praiseworthy, 
but outside of New England and New York there was no public 
school system till after the Revolution, all efforts to educate the 
young in other colonies being private. 

The practice of medicine in the colonies was in a cruder state 
even than were the educational facilities. The village doctor was 
indeed an important personage, quite equal to the school- 
master or the innkeeper, and not much inferior to the 
minister. He was at home in every family, and was highly respected 
by all classes. He was present at every birth and every funeral ; he 
sat with the minister at the bed of death, and put his name with that 
of the lawyer to every will.^ His medical education was usually 
meager, and often consisted only of a short apprenticeship with some 
noted physician. No medical college existed in the colonies before 
the Revolution. The practice of bloodletting for almost any disease 
was universal ; and if the physician was not at hand, this was done 
by the barber, the clergyman, or any medical amateur.^ The drugs 
used were few, and their rightful use was little known. St. John's- 
wort was taken as a cure for many ills, for madness, and to drive 
away devils. A popular medicine was composed of toads burned to a 
crisp and powdered, then taken in small doses for diseases of the 
blood,^ There was a great deal of mystery in connection with the 
practice of medicine. In addition to the regular physicians there 
were many quacks who hawked their Indian medicines and special 
cures about the country; but these were not peculiar to colonial 
times — we have them still. 



MEANS OF TRAVEL; MAILS; NEWSPAPERS 

In nothing has there been a greater change in the last hundred 
years than in the means of travel. For two thousand years, as Henry 
Adams says, to the opening of the nineteenth century, the world 
had made no improvement in the methods of traveling. That cen- 
tury brought the river steamer, the ocean greyhound, the lightning 
express train, the bicycle, the electric car, and the automobile. In 
colonial times travel by land was in the old-fashioned stagecoach, 
on horseback, or afoot. The roads were usually execrable. Many o± 

1 McMaster, Vol. I, p. 29. 

2 Eggleston's " Transit of Civilization," p. 53. « Ibid., p. 58. 



COLONIAL LIFE 209 



the towns were wholly without roads, being connected with their 
neighbors by Indian trails. The best roads to be found were in Penn- 
sylvania, all centering into Philadelphia, and on these 
at all seasons the great Conestoga wagons lumbered into °^ ^' 
the busy city, laden with grain and produce from the river valleys 
and the mountain slopes. Long journeys were often made on foot 
by all classes. A governor of Massachusetts relates that he made 
extensive journeys afoot, and speaks of being borne across the 
swamps on the back of an Indian guide. A favorite mode of travel 
was on horseback. A farmer went to church astride a horse, with 
his wife sitting behind him on a cushion called a pillion; while the 
young people walked, stopping to change their shoes before reaching 
the meetinghouse. Great quantities of grain and other farm prod- 
ucts were brought from the remote settlements on pack horses, 
winding their weary way through the lonely forest by the Indian 
trails. Coaches and chaises were few until late in the seventeenth 
century. Not until 1766 was there a regular line of stagecoaches 
between New York and Philadelphia. The journey was then made 
in three days ; but ten years later a new stage, called 
the " flying machine," was started, and it made the trip coach ^^ 
in two days. A stage journey from one part of the 
country to another was as comfortless as could well be imagined. 
The coach was without springs, and the seats were hard and often back- 
less. The horses were jaded and worn, and the roads were rough with 
boulders and stumps of trees, or furrowed with ruts and quagmires. 
The journey was usually begun at three o'clock in the morning, and 
after eighteen hours of jogging over the rough roads the weary 
traveler was put down at a country inn whose bed and board were 
such as few horny-handed laborers of to-day would endure. Long 
before daybreak the next morning a blast from the driver's horn 
summoned him to the renewal of his journey. If the coach stuck 
fast in a mire, as it often did, the passengers must alight and help 
lift it out. When they came to a river, they found no bridge. The 
crossing was made, at the peril of all, on a rude raft of timbers, or a 
number of canoes lashed together. After five or six days of such 
torture the traveler from Boston found himself in the city of New 
York. The great highways of those early days were those that 
nature had furnished — the rivers and bays. Without these the 
people of the different colonies would have been isolated indeed, and 
would scarcely have known of the existence of one another. Even 
p 



210 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

as it was, only the few ever traveled far from home ; the majority oi 

the native common people lived and died in the neighborhood in 

which they were born. 

The mail was carried by postriders, who followed the main roads 

as far as there were any ; on reaching the roadless settlements thej) 

found their way through the forest as best they could 
The m&ils j o j ^ 

by the trails and bridle paths. The postman left a city, 

not at regular intervals, but only when he received enough mail to pay 
the expenses of the trip. The remote settlements were fortunate if 
they received mail once o. month. Benjamin Franklin was appointed 
post-master general in 1753, and he served about twenty years.^ He 
soon made the service a paying one to the Crown. Yet even then 
the amount of mail delivered in the whole country in a year was 
less than that now delivered in the city of New York in one day.^ 
Newspapers were not carried in the mails, but by private arrange- 
ment. The newspapers were small and ill-printed, and contained little 
that we would call news. The chief contents were bits of poetry, 
advertisements for runaway slaves and indented servants, arrivals 
of cargoes, bits of European news, and essays on politics, morals, 
and religion. The Boston News Letter, established in 1704, was 
the first permanent newspaper in America. At the opening of the 
Revolution there were thirty-seven newspapers printed in the 
colonies, with a combined weekly circulation of about five thousand 
copies. The first daily was not printed until 1784. 

COLONIAL GOVERNMENT 

In addition to the brief account of the government of each colony 
in our narrative of the settlements, an account must here be given of 
colonial government as a whole. 

The thirteen colonies are usually grouped, according to the form 
of government, into three classes — the Charter, the Royal, and the 
Proprietary ; but recent historical research has evolved a better classi- 
fication — into the proprietary, the corporate, and the provincial, or 
royal.^ The corporate colonies were practically self-governing and 

1 As early as 1710 Parliament passed the first colonial post office act. 

2 McMaster, Vol. I, p. 41. 

8 In a series of able articles in the Political Science Quarterly, Vol. II, H. L. 
Osgood shows that the "charter" does not indicate a form of government; it is 
simply a grant of power of certain rights which may or may not pertain to colony 
planting. In granting a colonial charter the king created a corporation and gave 



COLONIAL GOVERNMENT 211 

at the opening of the Revolution there were but two, Rhode Island 
and Connecticut. The proprietary colonies at that time were Mary- 
land, Delaware, and Pennsylvania; and the royal colonies were 
Virginia, the Carolinas, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, 
Georgia, and Massachusetts.^ 

So variable were the forms of colonial government that but two 
colonies remained under the same form from the time of their found- 
ing to the Revolutionary War. These two were the chartered colo- 
nies of Rhode Island and Connecticut. It will be noticed that at the 
close of the colonial period the royal form of government predomi- 
nated, seven of the thirteen being of this class. The movement 
against the chartered and proprietary colonies that brought about 
this condition was begun late in the reign of Charles II, was kept 
up for half a century, and ended in 1729 when the Carolinas became 
royal provinces. One colony, Georgia, was founded after this time, 
and, after flourishing for nineteen years as a proprietary colony, was 
passed over to the Crown (1752) according to the terms of its charter. 
Massachusetts was the first to fall a victim to this new policy, 
losing its charter in 1684. On receiving its new charter, in 1691, 
Massachusetts became a semi-royal province, and is by some writers 
placed in a class by itself. New York, New Jersey, and the Caro- 
linas passed into royal hands during this crusade, and even the 
governments of Pennsylvania and Maryland were each for a short 
time taken from their respective proprietors. 

By leaving out of consideration the two self-governing colonies, 
Rhode Island and Connecticut,^ we find the colonial governments 
strikingly uniform. Each consisted of three organs,^ (1) the governor, 
appointed by the Crown or by the proprietor, or proprietors, (2) the 
council, also appointed by the Crown, and (3) the assembly or house 
of representatives, elected by the people. These three, corresponding 
to the king and the two houses of Parliament, resembled the British 
government. 

The governor directly represented the Crown or the proprietor. 
His position was a most difficult one to fill. Representing a higher 
power, by which he was appointed and from which he had explicit 

it the power to found and govern a colony. The government was therefore a gov- 
ernment by the corporation in accofdauce with certain directions given in the charter. 

1 Massacliusetts under the charter of 1691 was essentially a royal province. 

" For the government of these, see supra, pp. 107 and 113. 

3 Except Pennsylvania and Georgia, to be noticed later. See Morey, in Annals 
of the American Academy, Vol. IV, p. 213. 



212 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

jnstructions, he nevertheless owed a duty to the people over whom 

he was placed, and the interests of the two were so conflicting as to 

keep the governor in a constant turmoil. The powers 

e gov- ^£ ^j^g governor were extensive. He could convene, pro- 

ornor. 

rogue, or dissolve the legislature, or veto any of its laws. 

He had command of the militia, and he appointed many officials, such 
as judges, justices of the peace, sheriffs, and the like, and, especially in 
the early period, he had industrial, commercial, and ecclesiastical as 
well as political duties; but in one respect he was ever held in check 
— he had no power over the public purse. Many of the governors 
were honest men and faithful to their duties ; but others, and per- 
haps the majority, were profligate men, the fruits of the spoils 
system of that day, who sold the offices at their disposal, and who 
cared little for the welfare of the colonists. 

The council consisted usually of twelve men, though in Massa- 
chusetts there were twenty-eight, and in early Maryland but three. 

They had to be residents of the colony in which they 
e counci . ge^.yg(j^ ^mj ^]^Qy ^ere usually men of station and wealth. 
Appointed by the same power that appointed the governor, they 
usually sided with him in his conflicts with the assembly. The 
functions of the council were threefold, — it was a board of advisers 
to the governor, it constituted the upper house of the legislature, 
and it frequently formed the highest court of the colony. In Massa- 
chusetts, after 1691, the council was elected by a joint ballot of the 
legislature, called the General Court. In the other provincial colo- 
nies it was appointed by the Crown or the proprietors. 

The assembly, or lower house of the legislature, represented the 
people and was elected by them. It had the chief legislative power ; 

but its acts could be vetoed by the governor, or be set aside 
asaemblv ^^ ^^® Crown within a certain time after their passage. 

But the assembly held the key to the situation by its 
sole power of taxation. To this right the assembly of every colony 
clung with jealous tenacity. Through the exercise of this right the 
colonies may be said to have been self-governing, and their liberties 
were secure so long as they could retain this sole right of taxing 
themselves. For many years the British government wrestled in 
vain with the problem of how to get an American revenue at the 
disposal of the Crown. The goveimor, representing the Crown, and 
the assembly, representing the people, were in frequent conflict 
during the whole colonial period; and the assembly usually won 



COLONIAL GOVERNMENT 213 

through its one all-powerful weapon — a withholding of supplies. 
On many occasions the assembly would refuse to grant the governor 
his salary until he had approved certain laws it had passed, though 
often his act was in direct violation of his instructions. Nor was it 
infrequent that the assembly grew arrogant and meddled in purely 
executive affairs, such as military matters, the appointment of officials, 
and the like, all through its power over the purse. 

The legislature in every colony was bicameral, except in Penn- 
sylvania and Georgia, in each of which it consisted of a single house. 
This bicameral system had its model in Parliament, but it seemed 
to spring up spontaneously in America. It began in Massachusetts 
in 1644, when the assembly or deputies first sat apart from the 
council or magistrates, and the two bodies henceforth remained 
separate. Other colonies soon followed the example, until all the 
legislatures came to be divided, except in Pennsylvania, where the 
governor's council had no legislative functions after 1701, and in 
Georgia. In Connecticut and Rhode Island, and in Massachusetts 
before 1684, the people elected the governor, and, aside from the 
Navigation and a few other restrictive laws, were practically inde- 
pendent of the Crown. 

The representative system of government, as we have assumed 
all along in our narrative, was common to all the colonies, though 
it was not introduced in Georgia before 1752. It began in Virginia 
with the first meeting of the burgesses in 1619; it was introduced 
in Massachusetts in 1634, in Plymouth and Maryland in 1639. The 
system of representative government was allowed, but not required, 
by the early charters. But after it had sprung up spontaneously in 
various colonies, it was recognized and ratified by the later charters, 
as in those of Connecticut and Rhode Island, and the second charter 
of Massachusetts, though it was not mentioned in the New York 
grant. The franchise came to be restricted by some property quali- 
fications in all the colonies, in most by their own act, as by Virginia 
in 1670, or by charter, as in Massachusetts, 1691.^ In no colony 
was universal suffrage to be found. 

In the judicial system the justice of the peace stood at the 

bottom. In most cases he was appointed by the governor, and he 

tried petty civil cases only. Next came the county 

• Courtis 

courts, before which were tried civil cases involving 

1 " Property, not men, Toted," says Thorpe, "Constitutional History," Vol. I, 
p. 192. The religious test was also applied in some form in every colony. 



214 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



sums to a certain amount and criminal cases not involving capital 
punishment. The highest colonial court was usually composed of 
the governor and the council. But in some colonies the governor 
appointed a body of judges for this function, while he and the 
council acted as a court of appeals. In certain cases, also, a further 
appeal could be made to the Privy Council in England. 

A practice of the colonies was to keep an agent in England to 
look after their interests. This practice originated in Virginia about 
1670, and was soon followed by other colonies. Some- 
Agents in times the same agent represented two or more colonies, 
as in the case of Franklin. The duties of these men were 
similar to those of modern diplomatic representatives. To the Eng- 
lish Board of Trade, which became a permanent institution after 1696, 
nearly all colonial questions were referred, and the board reported 
them to the king, or to a committee of the Privy Council. It was to 
this board that the colonial agents presented the interests of their 
respective colonies, and their efforts did much toward bringing about 
a closer fellowship between the mother country and the colonies. 
This good feeling between them was at its best about the year 1750. 

In methods of local government the colonies were less uniform 
than in the general government. As stated in our account of Massa- 
chusetts, the old parish of England became the town in New Eng- 
Local govern- l^-nd- "^ lie people, owing to the necessity of guarding 
ment in New against the Indians and wild animals, and to their desire 
England. ^q attend the same church, settled in small, compact 

communities, or townships, which they called towns. The town 
was a legal corporation, was the political unit, and was represented 
in the General Court. It was a democracy of the purest type.' 
Several times a year the adult males met in town meeting to discuss 
public questions, to lay taxes, to make local laws, and to elect officers. 
The chief officers were the " selectmen," from three to nine in number, 
who should have the general management of the public business ; the 
town clerk, treasurer, constables, assessors, and overseers of the poor. 
To this day the town government continues in a large measure in 
some parts of New England. The county in New England was of 
much less importance than the town. Its business was chiefly the 
holding of courts of law, the keeping of court records, and the care 
of prisoners. 

In Virginia, which may be taken as the type of southern local 
1 See Shaler's "United States," Vol. II, p. 476, 



COLONIAL GOVERNMENT 215 

government, the county, first called the shire, was the unit of repre- 
sentation. The large plantations rendered the compact settlement 
impossible. At first the parish was the local unit, 
but it soon gave way to the county. The chief county ^ ^^^^ 
officer was the sheriff, appointed by the governor. Next to the 
sheriff stood the "colonel," whose duties were largely military. 
The counties were divided into parishes which were governed by ves- 
tries, whose duties were largely ecclesiastical. Local government, 
judicial and administrative, was chiefly in the hands of a county 
court, whose members, usually prominent planters unlearned in the 
law, were appointed by the governor. This court gradually came 
to do the business formerly done by the parish. Instead of the town 
meeting, as in New England, the Virginians had their " court days," 
on which the people of every rank would gather on the green about 
the courthouse to transact private business, to engage in sports, and 
to listen to stump speeches. 

In South Carolina there were parishes, but neither counties nor 
townships. In the Carolinas the governor and legislature found it 
almost impossible to govern the mountainous districts, and they were 
aided by bands of " regulators " organized for the purpose. 

In Maryland the " hundred " was the unit of representation till 
1654, when it gave way to the county. The officers of the hundred, 
except the assessor, were appointed by the governor. Maryland dis- 
carded the term " hundred " in 1824, but Delaware, having adopted 
it, retains it to this day. In Delaware the "levy court," composed 
of the assessors, justices, and grand jurors, met once a year to fix tax 
rates. 

The middle colonies borrowed from both New England and the 
South; they adopted a mixed system of county and township govern- 
ment. In New York the township was the local unit, 
and not till after the English conquest was the county (.o^oQ^gg 
organized. Under English rule the towm meeting was 
instituted, but with less power than in New England. They chose 
"overseers," instead of " selectmen," and other officers. After 1703 
they chose a " supervisor " to manage the affairs of the township ; 
and he was also a county officer as a member of the county board of 
supervisors, which met once a year. 

In Pennsylvania the county was at first the only organization 
for local government.^ It had charge of the non-judicial, as well as 
1 Except ill Philadelphia. All the county otticers were elective in Pennsylvania. 



21« HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

ihe judicial, business. This was at first among the duties of the 
court, but at length it was placed in the hands of comnnssioners 
elected by the people. As the population increased the township 
was organized to aid the county in local matters, such as the care of 
highways, the assessing of property, and the like; but the county 
remained the administrative district and the unit of representation. 
Nearly all the states organized since the Revolution have adopted the 
mixed system of New York and Pennsylvania. 



THE NAVIGATION ACTS 

Throughout the colonial period, after the middle of the seventeenth 
century, the one great source of irritation between the mother coun- 
try and her colonies was found in the Navigation Acts. The two- 
fold object of these acts was to protect English shipping, and to 
secure a profit to the home country from the colonies. As early as the 
reign of Richard II steps had been taken for the protection of ship- 
ping, but not before 1651 were there any British statutes that seriously 
hampered colonial trade. The Long Parliament, in 1642, exempted 
New England exports and imports from all duties, and a few years 
later all goods carried to the southern colonies in English vessels 
were put on the free list. 

In 1651, however, while Cromwell was master of England, the 
first of the famous Navigation Acts was passed. The chief provi- 
sions were, that no goods grown or manufactured in Asia, Africa, or 
America should be transported to England except in English vessels, 
and that the goods of any European country imported into England 
must be brought in British vessels, or in vessels of the country pro- 
ducing them. The law was directed against the Dutch maritime 
trade, which was very great at that time. But it was nowhere strictly 
enforced, and in New England scarcely at all.^ 

In 1660 the second of these memorable acts was passed, largely 
embodying the first and adding much to it. This act forbade the 
importing into or the exporting from the British colonies of any 
goods except in English or colonial ships ; - and it forbade certain 
enumerated articles — tobacco, sugar, cotton, wool, dyeing woods, 
etc. — to be shipped to any country, except to England or some 

1 Palfrey, Vol. II, p. 393. 

2 Three years later all ships were pronounced foreign except those built in 
England or the colonies. 



TRADE LAWS 217 



English plantation. Other goods were added at a later date. Such 
goods were to pay heavy duties when shipped to England, and in 
1672 the same duties were imposed on goods sold from one colony 
to another. Had these laws been strictly enforced, the effect on the 
colonies that produced the " enumerated " articles would have been 
disastrous, for they enjoyed a flourishing trade in these goods with 
other countries. Other articles, such as grain, salt provisions, and 
fish, were not put on the list, because these were produced in England. 
and, had the entire colonial productioii been sent to that country, the 
English producer would have been ruined.^ Rice was also allowed 
to be shipped direct to all ports south of Cape Finisterre. Some 
things, however, the Parliament did purely to favor the colonies, — 
it prohibited the raising of tobacco in England and kept Spanish 
tobacco out by high duties, it kept out Swedish iron by a high tariff, 
to the advantage of the colonies, and it paid a bounty on various 
colonial products. 

In addition to these laws there were two other classes of laws, all, 
however, belonging to the same system, which tended to impede the 
development of the colonies, — the corn laws and the 
laws against manufacturing. The corn laws in the inter- rj™" ^^^^ 
est of the British farmer, beginning about 1666, practi- 
cally shut out from England grain raised in the colonies. This 
drove New England and New York to manufacturing, and this again 
led England to forbid manufacturing in the colonies. Manufactur- 
These laws were far more effective than the Navigation ing forbid- 
Acts. It is stated that in 1708 New York manufactured <i®i^- 
three fourths of the woolen and linen goods used in the colony, and 
also fur hats in great numbers, many of which were shipped to Europe 
and the West Indies. This trade was largely suppressed by English 
laws passed at various times. In 1732 an act forbade the exporting 
of hats to England, to foreign countries, or from one colony to 
another. It also limited the number of persons a maker of hats 
might employ. Iron was found in all the colonies, and forges and 
furnaces were established in many places. But in 1750 Parliament 
enacted a law declaring that " no mill or other engine for rolling or 
slitting iron," " nor any furnace for making steel shall be erected in 
the colonies " ! After this only pig and bar iron could be made. 
Parliament also enacted laws at various times restricting the manu- 

1 Egerton's " British Colonial Policy," p. 72 ; N. Y. Col. Doc, Vol. V, p. 63 ; Beer'g 
"Commercial Policy of England," p. 82. 



218 HISTORY OF TIlE UNITED STATES 

facture of woolen goods. These laws bore heavily on the northern 
colonies, but were little felt in the South, where manufactories were 
rare. 

Probably the harshest of England's laws in the suppression of 
colonial trade was the Molasses Act of 1733. By this act prohibitive 
duties were placed on molasses and sugar, from the French West 
Indies to the colonies.^ New England enjoyed a great trade with the 
islands, receiving molasses and sugar for flour, stock, 
Act ^733^^^^ lumber, and fish, part of which could not be sold to 
England owing to the corn laws. Had the Molasses 
Act been enforced, the prosperity of New England would have been 
at an end. 

The northern colonies, Avhich produced the same kinds of goods 
as England produced, and consequently Avere barred from the English 
trade, suffered deeply by the trade laws, while the southern colonies, 
which raised commodities, such as tobacco and rice, which could not 
be duplicated in England, suffered far less. 

The Board of Trade and Plantations, established as a permanent 
body in 1696,^ kept account of the acts of colonial legislatures, corre- 
sponded with the governors, and informed itself thoroughly concern- 
ing all matters of colonial trade. But in spite of all efforts the 
Navigation Acts could scarcely be enforced at all. It may be said 
that the whole people became lawbreakers, and often the customs 
officials and even the governors connived at their practice. Smug- 
gling was universal. It went on regardless of the ad- 
mugg mg. jniralty courts established in most of the colonies. 
"Juries found their verdicts against the most undoubted facts." ^ 
The Molasses Act was certainly an economic and a political blunder ; 
it not only made the people lawbreakers, it led them to hold 
Parliament in contempt, as not able to enforce its own laws. 

But the colonists were not without examples in smuggling. It was 
estimated that forty thousand people in Great Britain were engaged in 
smuggling. The illegal imports of French silks, of India tea, and 
the like exceeded the legal imports.* On moral grounds, therefore, 
England could not reproach America. 

1 The object of the act was to aid the English sugar islands. France had adopted 
a liberal policy with regard to the trade of her West India Islands, and this had crip- 
pled the trade of the British West Indies. See MacDonald. p. 248. 

* Before this date the work was done by a committee of the Privy Council. 

* Chalmers's " Introduction," Vol. I, p. 183. 

* Stanhope's " Pitt," p. 215. 



TRADE LAWS 219 



In fairness to England it must be said that not all her colonial 
ti-ade laws were unfavorable to the colonies. As we have noticed, 
the raising of tobacco in England was forbidden — at first under 
James I, because the weed was offensive to that monarch, but later 
for the protection of the colonies. But further, at the beginning of the 
eighteenth century there was a heavy balance of trade against Eng- 
land with Norway, Sweden, and Russia, from which she purchased 
large naval stores. To correct this and to discourage manufacturing 
in the colonies. Parliament offered bounties on American hemp, lum- 
ber, tar, turpentine, etc. So effective was this law, passed in 
Anne's reign, that England was soon exporting a surplus of these 
articles received from her colonies.^ 

In viewing the subject of England's colonial policy during this 
period, two things should be borne in mind ; namely, that the subject 
has usually been treated, on this side of the Atlantic, from a purely 
American point of view, and that England was no more severe in 
the treatment of colonial trade than were other countries having 
colonial possessions. The British government acted throughout on 
the ground, taken by all European countries at the time, that the 
existence of colonial possessions was for the purpose of benefiting 
the mother country. The system involved the subordination of the 
interests of the colonies to those of the mother country.^ The aim 
of Great Britain was to export manufactured goods to America, and to 
import raw materials, and at the same time to retain the balance of 
trade in her own favor. This she usually succeeded in doing. In 
1759 New England sent to England goods to the value of £38,000 and 
purchased goods to the amount of £600,000^ — chiefly with money 
made by smuggling. But in one respect the British policy greatly 
stimulated American industry. It made New England a shipbuild- 
ing community. This was brought about by the fact that the 
Navigation LaAvs placed the colonial-built ship on the same footing 
with the English-built ship. 

On the whole, the British policy was unfortunate for British in- 
terests ; it served to alienate the colonists, little by little, and pre- 
pared them for the final break with the mother land. Lecky, one of 
the ablest of the British historians, says :* "The deliberate selfish- 
ness of the English commercial legislation was digging a chasm 
between the mother country and the colonists." 

1 Beer, p. 102. 2 Egeiton, p. 69. 

8 Beer, p. 154. * " History of England," Vol. II, p. 241. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE REVOLUTION — OPENING EVENTS AND CAUSES 

The American Eevolution, viewed from its results, was one of 
the greatest movements in human history. The expenditure of life 
and treasure has often been exceeded, but the effect on the political 
life of the world is not easy to parallel. The chief result was the 
birth of the first successful federal government in history, a govern- 
ment that was destined to expand to the western ocean within a 
century and to grow into a nation of vast wealth and power and of 
still greater possibilities. 

It is believed by many that the mild bond of union which held 
the American colonies to the mother country might have remained 
unbroken for an indefinite period, but for the imwise policy that 
brought about the resistance of the former ; others are of the opinion 
that the child had come of age, and that nothing could have long 
delayed a political separation. Be that as it may, it is certain that 
for more than fifty years before the Seven Years' War there was a 
strong attachment between the two peoples, and that the thought of 
severing their bond of union was nowhere entertained. It is true that 
the royal governors were forever complaining to the Lords of Trade 
about the unruly spirit of the colonial assemblies ; it is also true that 
the colonists were constantly annoyed by the Navigation Acts, and 
that they thought it not robbery to evade them when they could ; 
but these were only ripples on a smooth sea. And America was 
happy ; the people continued to hew away the timbers and to build 
cities and churches and schools, to delve the soil, to raise grain and 
tobacco and cattle ; they had grown strong in battling with the for- 
est, the Indians, and the wolves : but with all their growing strength, 
of which they could not have been unconscious, they did not long to 
escape the mother wings ; their proudest boast was still that they 
were Englishmen. 

It must be said, however, that a separation sooner or later was 
inevitable. It is true that there was no plot, no conspiracy in 

220 



REMOTE CAUSES 221 



America looking to independence ; but there were forces at work for 
many years that must eventually dissolve the political bond betweeu 
the two peoples. It must be remembered that, while America was 
the child of England, it was not the child of the England of 1760, 
but rather of the England of 1600. The great Puritan immigration 
ceased with 1640, the Cavalier immigration ceased a few decades 
later, and in all the century that had passed since then the migration 
from England had been small. The English institutions, trans- 
planted to America early in the seventeenth century, had developed 
on purely American lines, had been shaped by the social, political, 
and economic conditions peculiar to America. The result j^emote 
was that the two peoples unconsciously grew apart, so causes of 
far apart that they were no longer able to understand separation, 
each other ; and when England now attempted to play the part of 
parent, the fact was brought out that the relations of parent and child 
existed no longer between the two countries. The colonies had 
reached a point in their development where they could govern them- 
selves better than they could be governed by a power beyond the 
sea. Writers who find in the Stamp Act, the tax on tea, and the like, 
the sole cause of the Revolution, fail to look beneath the surface. 
These were but the occasion ; they hastened its coming, but the true 
causes of the separation had their roots in the far past. 

Again, the conquest of Canada changed the relations between 
England and the colonies. So long as this old enemy hung on the 
north, both England and her colonies were held in check : the colo- 
nies felt a certain need of protection; England felt that a contest 
with the colonies might drive them to a coalition with the French. 
But now as this obstacle was removed both could be natural in their 
relations with one another; and this normal relationship soon re- 
vealed how far apart they stood. England then failed to recognize 
this divergence ; she attempted to deal with America, not as a part 
of the empire, which it was, but as a part of the British realm, 
which it was not.^ But for this false assumption by the British 
government and an attempt to act in accordance with it, the old 
relations might have continued for years to come. 

But an evil day came. The sky had been specked with a little 
cloud here and there for many years. Why should so many crimi- 
nals from the British prisons be forced upon the colonists ? This 
was irritating, and had been so from the earliest period of their colo 
1 Snow's " Administration of Dependencies," p. 149. 



;i22 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



nization. Why was the attempt of various colonies to preserve 
society by checking the African slave trade summarily crushed by 
the Crown, in order simply to enrich the English trader ? This did 
not indicate a mother's affection for a child. Again, the overbearing 
hauteur of many of the royal governors, who were supposed to repre- 
sent the king, was distasteful to a people who believed themselves 
as good as any other Englishmen. Still again, during the late war 
with the French, the British officers were ever ready to show their 
contempt for the provincial troops, and colonial officers were often 
replaced by British officers. All these things were at least unpleas- 
ant for the American-Englishman to contemplate ; but they were not 
serious, and their effects would have passed away like a morning 
mist but for the greater events that were to follow. 

OTIS AND HENRY 

The long war was nearing its close ; Quebec had fallen and Brit- 
ish arms were triumphant in all parts of the earth, but withal, the 
British debt had risen to alarming proportions. The colonies also 
had incurred heavy debts by the war, and a small portion of them 
had been paid from the English treasury. There was now a general 
feeling among British statesmen that the colonies should, in some 
regular and systematic way, be made to bear a portion of the burdens 
of the empire. 

George Grenville now became head of the English government ; 
and, no doubt with good intentions, he decided on a threefold policy 
in relation to the colonies. Eirst, the Navigation Acts must be en- 
forced. The high duties of the Molasses Act of 1733, which had 
always been evaded, were lowered in the Sugar Act of April, 1764, 
after which it was determined to enforce them. Second, a standing 
army must be maintained in America ; and third, the colonies should 
be taxed. 

In order to enforce the navigation laws custom officers were to 
be armed with " Writs of Assistance," or general search warrants, 
which authorized them to enter any store, warehouse, or private 
dwelling to search for smuggled goods. This system of spying was 
very distasteful to the people, and their resentment was intensified 
by the genius of James Otis, a brilliant young Boston lawyer, who 
must be considered the pioneer of the Revolution. Otis was an 
advocate of the king, but he resigned the office and took up the 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 223 

cause of the people. In a fiery, passionate address before the Supe- 
rior Court he sounded a clarion note, declaring that the power used 
in issuing the writs was the kind of power, the exercise of which had 
" cost one king of England his head and another his throne," and 
calling upon the people to resist. The people took up the cry, and it 
spread from the New England hills to the valleys of the Hudson, 
the Delaware, and the James. In a short time the whole country 
was roused to resistance against the infringement of their liberties. 
Otis based his argument on the broad ground of the rights of the 
colonists as Englishmen.' The speech of Otis was an epoch-making 
one ; it sounded the first note of resistance to British authority 
heard in colonial British America, and has been called the opening 
scene of the Revolution. John Adams, then a young law student, 
listened to the passionate eloquence of Otis, and wrote, fifty-six years 
later, " Then and there the child Independence was born." ^ 

Scarcely had the sound of Otis's eloquence ceased to reverberate 
when a second note of warning arose. It came from Patrick Henry 
of Virginia. Henry was a young lawyer of Scotch 
parentage. As a youth he was shiftless and gave little g-ei^ 
promise for the future, though he had a fair education. 
Three years before attaining his majority he was married ; he became 
a storekeeper and failed ; then he went to live with his father-in- 
law, an innkeeper, and became his assistant. The future seemed to 
promise him little, but he played the violin and seemed contented 
with his lot. At length he turned his attention to the law, and after 
six weeks' reading was admitted to the bar. For several years his 
clients were few and he barely earned his daily bread, but still he 
was happy with his violin. It was after ten years of married life, 
when in his twenty-eighth year, that his remarkable genius was dis- 
covered. He burst forth suddenly upon the public; he became the 
most eloquent public speaker of his generation. 

The matter that brought Henry to the front is known as the 
Parson's Cause. It had no connection with navigation acts nor 

1 Channing's " United States," p. 43. 

2 Otis soon after was elected to the Massachusetts assembly, became the leader 
of the popular party, and wrote several vigorous pamphlets. Some years later, 
in an altercation with a customs official, the latter struck him on the head with a 
cane, inflicting a wound that impaired his health for life. He fought as a private 
in the battle of Bunker Hill. Otis retired from public life long before his death, 
which occurred in 1783. He had often expressed a desire to die by a lightning stroke, 
and one day, as he stood in his door during a thunder shower, his wish was gratified; 
he was instantly killed by Lightning. 



224 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

with writs of assistance ; but the principle involved was one and 
the same. Virginia still paid its clergy in tobacco ; but back in the 
fifties, under pressure of the war, the assembly passed an act permit- 
ting the payment of public dues, including the salaries of the clergy, 
in provincial money. All went well for several years, 
Parsons when the clergy, feeling themselves defrauded, com- 

plained to the bishop of London, who laid the matter 
before the king, and the king summarily vetoed the Virginia law. 
Rev. James Maury now made a test case, sued in the court for 
damages, or back salary, and won his suit. A jury was to fix the 
amount of damages, and it was before this jury that Patrick Henry 
blossomed forth to the world, transformed from a shiftless mediocre 
to one of the leading men of his age. 

Henry was in the wrong, or rather the Virginia assembly had 
done wrong, for it partially repudiated an honest debt by forcing 
payment in a depreciated currency. But that was not the chief ques- 
tion dealt with by Henry. The question was. What right has a king 
three thousand miles away to interfere in the private, internal affairs 
of Virginia ? Virginia has the right to make her own laws, was the 
burden of his speech ; in annulling a law at the request of a class, 
" a king, from being a father to his people, degenerates into a tyrant, 
and forfeits all right to obedience." The friends of his Majesty 
cried " treason," but the people were ripe for such a prophet and 
heard him gladly; so with the jury, for they awarded the par- 
son only a penny. The fame of the orator spread far and wide. 
The people admired the rising genius, and, as in the case of Otis, 
their admiration was inseparably linked with what he had said 
about their rights and the infringement of those rights by the 
king; and thus were sown in the American heart the seeds of 
discontent. 

THE STAMP ACT AND OTHER ACTS 

No crisis had yet been reached. Otis and Henry had each made 
more than a local reputation at the expense of British authority, 
and they had both won. The writs of assistance had fallen still- 
born, and the king had yielded in the Parson's Cause. A shadow 
was thus cast over the royal prerogative, but it was not threaten- 
ing; American loyalty was too deep-seated to be seriously shaken 
by such trifles. But greater events were soon to follow. 

Every source of English revenue was drained on account of the 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 226 

great war debt, and it was proposed to lay a tax on the colonies, not 
to pay the interest on the national debt, nor to be expended in Eng- 
land in any way, but solely for the protection and defense of the 
colonies. It was thought necessary to maintain a standing army in 
the colonies to preserve order and to prevent Indian outbreaks, and 
this belief was confirmed by the great conspiracy of Pontiac. The 
colonists, however, strenuously denied the need of British troops on 
American soil in time of peace. They believed that the true reason 
was to hold them in awe. Franklin, who was then in London, stated 
to a committee of Parliament that there was no occasion whatever to 
inaugurate such a movement, that the colonists when but a handful 
had defended themselves against the Indians, and that they were 
more competent to do so now. But all protest was unavailing, and 
the government decided to quarter an army of ten thousand men 
among the Americans, and to tax the latter for its partial support. 
Lord Grenville sought how to raise the revenue by the easiest 
method without offending the colonists. There is little doubt that 
he was sincere and that he did not mean to offend them. A stamp 
tax suggested itself; but the idea was not original with Gren- 
ville. As early as 1728 Governor Keith of Pennsylvania had pro- 
posed a stamp tax for America. Governors Shirley and Dinwiddie 
had again proposed it about 1755, but the oncoming war had deferred 
the matter.^ 

Grenville proposed the stamp duties in the spring of 1764, a year 
before the act was to be passed. His object, as he said, was to con- 
sult the colonial agents and even the colonial assem- 
blies, requesting them to propose some better method, 
if possible, for raising the necessary revenue. No doubt Grenville, 
like most British statesmen, felt piqued at the evasion of the navi- 
gation laws in America and at the failure of the writs of assistance ; 
but there is no proof that he desired to humble the colonists with an 
army and with stamps. He doubtless meant it all for the best, but 
with all his sincerity, he was narrow-minded, and never perhaps 
dreamed of the storm he was about to raise. The year passed, and 
a majority of the colonial assemblies spoke against the proposed law, 
none offering an alternative; the universal voice from America was 

1 Pitt was not in favor of it. " I will never burn my fingers with an American 
stamp tax," said he. As early as 1732, when a stamp tax for America was proposed 
to Premier Sir Robert Walpole, he answered, " I will leave the taxation of America 
to some of my successors who have more courage than I have." See Lossing's " Cy- 
clopedia of United States History," p. 1334. 
Q 



226 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

against it. But this warning was not heeded ; and in March, 1765, 
the Stamp Act became a law and was to go into operation on the 
first of the following November. The colonies were not without 
friends in the Commons during the debate that preceded the passage 
of the law, the foremost of whom was Colonel Barre,^ who had fought 
by the side of Wolfe at Louisburg and Quebec. In a sudden burst of 
eloquence, in answer to the statement that the colonies were " children 
planted by our care, nourished by our indulgence, and 
Colonel protected by our arms," Barre made his famous reply : 

" They planted by your care ! No ; your oppression 
planted them in America. Nourished by your indulgence ! They 
grew up by your neglect of them. They protected by your arms ! 
Those sons of liberty have nobly taken up arms in your defense." ^ 

The stamps, ranging in value from a few pence to several pounds, 
were to be placed on newspapers, marriage licenses, deeds, shipping 
bills, and many kinds of legal papers — fifty-four kinds of documents 
in all. 

The promoters of this law in Parliament doubtless expected some 
protest from America, but they were not prepared for the violence 
of the opposition that was awakened. A few weeks after the news 
of the act reached the colonies the storm broke forth in all its fury. 
The Virginia legislature was then in session, and Patrick Henry, who 
Th V ■ 'a ^^^ ^°^^ ^ member, offered a series of resolutions in 
resolutions, which he declared that the people of that colony were 
May 30, entitled to all the privileges of natural-born subjects of 

England; that they, through their assembly, had the ex- 
clusive right to tax the colony ; that they were not bound to yield obe- 
dience to any law, except of their own making, designed to impose any 
taxation whatsoever upon them ; and that any person or persons who 
assert or maintain such right " shall be deemed an enemy to his 
Majesty's colony." In supporting his resolutions Henry made one 
of his great speeches, in which the well-known passage occurs, 
*' Caesar had his Brutus, Charles I his Cromwell, and George 
III" — "Treason," shouted the speaker, and the cry was echoed 
from the chamber. "George III," continued Henry firmly, "may 
profit by their example. If that be treason, make the most of it." 
The old conservative members opposed the resolutions, but Henry's 

1 Pitt was absent with the gout. 

2 The expression " Sons of Liberty " was soon caught up in America, and made 
the party name of a patriotic society that spread through all the colonies. 



STAMP ACT RIOTS 227 



impetuous eloquence carried them through by a narrow margin.' 
These ringing resolutions were sent over the land to the North and 
to the South, and by midsummer they had been published in all the 
leading newspapers in America. 

Massachusetts again joined hands with Virginia in upholding 
colonial liberty. The legislature, led by Otis, issued a circular 
letter to all the colonies, calling for a general congress stamp Act 
to meet the following autumn. The Stamp Act Con- Congress, De- 
gress, in response to this call, met in the city of New tober 7,1765. 
York. Nine of the colonies were represented, while the remaining 
four sent their expressions of good will. This congress sat but three 
weeks. Otis was its leading spirit, ably seconded by Christopher 
Gadsden of South Carolina.^ It framed a Declaration of Rights, and 
respectfully petitioned the king and both houses of Parliament. Gads- 
den, in a notable speech used the significant words, " There ought to 
be no New England men, no New Yorkers, known on the continent, 
but all of us Americans." This congress was important in that it 
fostered concerted action and established a precedent for union. 

Meantime, during the summer, the opposition to the Stamp Law 
grew in intensity. The Sons of Liberty organized in every colony, 
determined to prevent the operation of the law. Most of the colonial 
legislatures took action against it, and as the time drew near, riots 
'occurred in various sections, and mass meetings were held to de- 
nounce the odious law. As the first installments of stamps began to 
arrive and the names of the distributors were made known, the riot- 
ing increased and reached its culmination in Boston, where the 
usual meeting place, Faneuil Hall, became known as the Cradle of 
Liberty. Boxes of stamps were seized and destroyed by the mob ; 
distributors were burned in effigy. The fine residence of Chief 
Justice Hutchinson of Massachusetts was sacked and his valuable 
library destroyed. In New York Lieutenant Governor Colden 
attempted to enforce the act, but the people were furious. He 
threatened to fire on the crowd, and was informed that if he did so 
he would speedily be hanged to a lamp-post.^ Colden's best chariot 

1 Next day, in the absence of Henry, the resolutions were reconsidered, and modi- 
fied, and the most violent one was struck out. But they had been given to the public 
In their original form, and in this form they were published broadcast over the land. 

2 In the Stamp Act Congress we find Livingston of New York, Dickinson of 
Pennsylvania, Rodney of Delaware, and Rutledge of South Carolina, who was ohos«n 
president ; all were leading men of the Revolution. 

s Fiske's " Americau Bevolution," Vol. I, p. 24. 



^8 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

was seized, dragged tlirougli the streets with the images of him 
self and of the devil sitting side by side in it, and burned in the 
open square in view of his own house. Merchants and business men 
banded together and agreed not to import goods from England until 
the law was repealed ; newspapers came out with a death's-head 
and crossbones where the stamps were required to be. In short, the 
opposition was so determined and widespread that it was evident 
that the law could not be enforced except at the point of the 
bayonet. 

Viewing the matter calmly from this distance, it must be con- 
fessed that no better or more equitable method of taxing the colonies 
could have been found than by means of stamps, if it be conceded 
that England had the right to tax them at all. But this was exactly 
what the colonists denied. "Taxation without representation is 
tyranny," became their battle cry. Lord Mansfield and others 
explained that the colonies were represented in Parliament, as every 
member of the Commons represents in a broad sense the whole 
British Empire, and that the colonists were as truly represented as 
were eight ninths of the inhabitants of England, who had no vote 
for members of Parliament and yet were taxed by them. The Ameri- 
cans answered that there was a great difference between the Eng- 
lishman who had no vote and the colonist ; as the former was a part 
of the British public to which the member of Parliament was re- 
sponsible, while the latter, three thousand miles away, could not 
appeal to his interests or his fears.^ If we agree that America was 
not represented in Parliament, it cannot be denied that the colonists 
were clearly in the right. It is a badge of slavery to be taxed 
by a foreign power. The men that lay a tax should be a part of 
the people that pay the tax. Thus they are taxing themselves 
as well as their fellows, and the danger of abuse is reduced to a 
minimum. 

The British Parliament heard the wild clamor from the American 
wilderness. Under a new ministry, with the Marquis of Rocking- 
ham at its head, the subject of repealing the Stamp Act became the 
principal business. William Pitt, now Earl of Chatham, rose from 
a sick bed to make one of his great speeches in favor of the colonists, 
rejoicing, as he said, that America had resisted. Pitt took the mod- 
erate ground that while Parliament had a right to lay external taxes, 
as in the navigation laws, she had no right to lay internal taxes. 
1 See Chunning's "United States of America," p. 30. 



THE TOWNSHEND DUTIES 22« 

The other side was presented by Grenville with candor and abil- 
ity, but Pitt carried the day, and the law was repealed 
in February, 1766. With the repeal was passed the ^^claratory 
"Declaratory Act," a declaration that Parliament 
had the right to tax the colonies "in all cases whatsoever." 

The Americans gave little heed to the Declaratory Act. They 
rejoiced in the repeal of the Stamp Act, and were ready to return to 
their former allegiance. But the very next year Parliament, with 
a foolhardy rashness that admits of no explanation, wantonly probed 
into the half-healed wound. The Rockingham ministr}^ soon fell, 
and the Great Commoner was called again to take the helm. He 
became nominal premier, but his health was broken and he retired 
to the country. The ministry was composed of men of various 
shades of political doctrine, and each became practically the master 
of his own department. Against the wishes of Pitt, Charles Town- 
shend became the chancellor of the exchequer, and held in his hands 
the matter of taxing the colonies. He was a man of brilliant talents, 
but without the conservatism and foresight necessary to statesman- 
ship. He was a firm believer in the right of Parliament to tax the 
colonies, nor was he willing that the Declaratory Act be left on the 
statutes a dead letter. No ; he would tax the colonists again without 
delay and show them who was their master. It was Townshend, 
above all men except his sovereign, who was responsible for the 
Revolution. Through his guidance Parliament laid an Townshend 
import duty on tea, glass, paper, lead, and a few other acts, June, 
articles imported into the colonies. The revenue thus 1767. 
raised was to be used in paying the royal governors and the other 
officials appointed by the Crown. This form of taxation, known as 
" external," as contrasted with the " internal " taxation of the Stamp 
Act, had been acknowledged to be legal by the colonists. But they 
could not escape the belief that the act was meant to annoy and 
humble them. The same Parliament had pronounced the writs of 
assistance legal, and had suspended the functions of the New York 
legislature for refusing to make certain required appropriations. 
This was a blow at the independence of colonial assemblies. More- 
over, the colonists had always insisted on paying the salaries of 
their own governors, and thus making them feel responsible to the 
respective assemblies ; and to have this privilege taken out of their 
hands without their consent was not conducive to harmony. All 
this was irritating in the extreme, and the colonists, who had dis- 



230 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

» 

covered their strength in opposing the Stamp Act, were in no con- 
dition to be thus dealt with. Tlieir fury rose again, and for the 
third time within six years colonial America, from the mountains 
to the sea, was aflame with indignation against the mother country. 

A new light now arose in the Massachusetts assembly in the person 
of Samuel Adams, who became the most powerful political leader 
during the early years of the Revolution. John Dickinson, of the 
Pennsylvania assembly, in a series of able "Letters from a Farmer," 
attacked the British position with great force, while George Wash- 
ington led the planters of Virginia to resistance. Led by such men, 
the colonists determined to purchase no English goods on which the 
import duties had been laid. 

Important events now followed rapidly upon one another. The 
Massachusetts assembly sent a circular letter to the other colonies, 
setting forth the rights of the colonists as Englishmen and 
1768^*'^ ' ^^^'gi^^g ^ united petition to the king. The English govern- 
ment demanded that the letter be withdrawn, though it 
had expressly disavowed a desire for independence ; the assembly 
refused, and was dissolved by Governor Bernard. The Virginia bur- 
gesses issued a still bolder circular, calling for union. This circular, 
the '' Virginia Resolutions," 1769, condemned the Townshend acts, and 
declared that the people of Virginia could be taxed only by their own 
representatives. The governor then dissolved the assembly; but the 
members met again, in the Raleigh tavern, and pledged themselves 
to the non-importation policy. 

Regiments of British troops had been sent to Boston to enforce 
the Townshend acts, and a few of their number, in answer to the 
taunts and jeers of the people, fired on the latter, several of whom were 
Boston killed.^ This became known as the " Boston Massacre." 

Massacre, The people were maddened by the massacre; a great 
^'^'^^- meeting was held in Old South Church, and through 

Samuel Adams they demanded that the troops be instantly removed 
from the town. The lieutenant governor, acting for the absent gov- 
ernor, saw that the temper of the people was such that he dare not 
refuse, and the soldiers were removed to Castle AVilliam, on a little 
island in the harbor. In 1771 Governor Tryon of North Caro- 
lina, with fifteen hundred troops, fired upon the people who had 
organized as " regulators " to maintain public order. 

1 The offending soldiers were tried in a Boston court and acquitted. They were 
defended by John Adams and Josiah Quiucy. 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 231 

The coast of Rhode Island had been menaced by an armed 
British schooner, the Gaspee, whose captain, in pretense of enforc- 
ing the revenne laws, committed many outrages upon the people, 
until, in June, 1772, it was burned to the water's edge 
by a band of infuriated citizens. The ministry then aspee. 

ordered that the offenders be sent to England for trial, but the 
Rhode Island authorities declined to obey the order. 

This rapid succession of events showed plainly that the breach 
was widening, and that the signs of the times pointed to still more 
serious differences between England and America. Meanwhile 
Parliament had receded a little ; it had repealed the Townshend 
duties,^ all but one, the duty on tea, and that was retained in 
order to maintain the principle at stake — the right to tax the 
colonies. This duty was retained at the instance of one man, the 
man who had now become the real as well as the nominal master 
of the British realm. 

KING GEORGE III 

In 1760 occurred the death of the second of the Hanoverian sov- 
ereigns of England ; and his grandson, a youth of twenty-two years, 
ascended the throne as George III. The young sovereign was 
received with universal applause throughout the empire, includ- 
ing America. Fair and promising were his prospects for a long 
and successful reign. For two generations England had been gov- 
erned by Parliament, and Parliament had been in the hands of a 
few great Whig families. The first two Georges had little to do in 
the management of the empire, but the third was not long in his 
high station before he determined to take the reins of government 
into his own hands — to obey the frequent mandate of his mother, 
" George, be king ! " 

The times were specially favorable for his purpose. The Old 
Whigs, who had retained their power in large part by the open pur- 
chase of seats in Parliament, were fast losing the confidence of the 
people. Eor two hundred years there had been no redistribution of 
seats, and many old towns, known as " rotten boroughs," which had 
dwindled to almost nothing, were still represented, while growing 
cities like Manchester and Leeds had no representation in Parliament. 

1 The Townshend duties had produced but £295, owing to the non-importation 
agreement, while the expenses incident to their attempted enforcement reached 
*170,000. Channing's " United States," p. 60. 



232 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

The Tory party, after a long exile from power, owing to its adherence 
to the pretending Stuarts, was now rapidly gaining ground. George 
III took advantage of these conditions, and, putting himself at the 
head of the Tories, soon became the real master in English politics. 
The vast power of patronage, amounting to many million pounds a 
year, which had been wielded by the Whigs for many years, was 
soon in the hands of the king, and in the purchase of seats in the 
Commons for his favorites he outdid the Whigs in the worst days 
of their corruption. 

It was a sad day for the British Empire when King George 
became its political master. He was a man of narrow intellect, and 
lacked every element of the greatness of statesmanship. " He had 
a smaller mind," says the British historian. Green, " than any Eng- 
lish king before him save James II." He showered 
th*k^^*°^ favors on his obsequious followers, while men of in- 
dependent character whom he could not bend to his 
will became the objects of his hatred. Pitt he pronounced a 
"trumpeter of sedition"; Burke and Camden were the objects of 
his wrath. He had not the capacity to shield his natural littleness 
by surrounding himself with great men, as many a mediocre sov- 
ereign has done. He despised Grenville for his independence and 
got rid of him as soon as he could. He recalled Chatham to the 
premiership because he could not help doing so, but he rejoiced 
that the old Commoner was broken with age and infirmity, and even 
expressed a wish that he would die. At length, in 1770, the king, 
having become supreme in the government, chose as his chief 
minister a man that he could mold as the potter molds his clay, 
a man of many noble impulses, but of the class who 
believed that the king could do no wrong.^ This man, 
whose "lazy good nature and Tory principles " led him to defer 
to the king's judgment rather than to his own, was kept at the 
head of the government, even against his own will, for twelve 
years — until the Revolution had been accomplished and America 
was free. Yet withal, King George has his redeeming traits : he 
was a man of prodigious industry, he was devoid of hypocrisy, and 
he led a moral life in the midst of a corrupt court. 

At the door of George III must be laid the American Revolu- 
tion. What the future might have unfolded had not this union 
been broken when it was must be relegated to the field of con- 
1 But after the Revolution we find North allied with the king's opponents. 



KING GEORGE AND THE TEA 231 

jecture; but that this union was severed between the ''beautiful 
mother and the more beautiful daughter" in the last lialf of the 
eighteenth century was chiefly the work of George III. He had 
little to do, perhaps, with the beginnings — with the enforcement 
of the navigation laws and the writs of assistance of 1761. But 
after the colonies had once offended him by defying British au- 
thority, he pursued them with the same vindictive spirit which he 
exhibited toward Pitt and other statesmen that he could not control 
— he determined to humble them at all hazards. He opposed the 
repeal of the Stamp Act, but his power was not yet great enough to 
prevent it. When the English merchants made an outcry against 
the Townshend duties, on account of their loss of trade, it was 
the king, as stated above, who retained the duty on tea and thus 
kept alive the embers until they burst forth into the flame of 
war. 

The Americans now refused to purchase tea from England ; they 
smuggled it from Holland. The English then, by an ingenious trick, 
made their tea cheaper in America than it was in England, or than 
that smuggled from Holland. They did this by removing the duty 
always paid at an English port by the tea merchant on his way from 
the Orient to America. But the colonists still refused to buy the 
tea. The principle was at stake, — the right of Parliament to tax 
them at all, — and they were as determined as the English king. 
Tea-laden ships reached Charleston, Philadelphia, ISTew York, and 
Boston late in the autumn of 1773. Excited meetings of citizens 
were held in all these cities. Iij Charleston the tea was landed, only 
to rot in storage ; the Philadelphians refused to permit the ships to 
land. 

Three ships lay in the harbor at Boston, but the people kept 
watch day and night to prevent the landing of the tea. The owner 
of the vessels was informed by the excited people that he must take 
back his tea to London ; but this he could not do, as the governor 
refused him permission to sail and two of the king's ships guarded 
the harbor. Meetings were held nightly in Faneuil Hall, or Old 
South Church, and at length, on December 16, after every legal 
method for returning the tea had been exhausted, a body of seven 
thousand men resolved that it should not be landed; Boston Tea 
and half a hundred men, in the disguise of Mohawk Party, Decern. 
Indians, after giving a war whoop, ran silently to the har- ^®^' ^'^'^^• 
bor, boarded the ships, broke open the tea chests, about three hundred 



234 ' HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

and forty in number, and threw the contents into the sea. The 
people looked on from the shore, taking the proceedings as a matter 
of course. Boston slept that night as if nothing had happened. 
Who these fifty Indian-garbed king-defiers were is not known ; but 
it is known who instigated the mob, who was the mouthpiece of 
Boston at this moment, and of Massachusetts, of New England, of 
America — it was Samuel Adams, the " Palinurus of the Revolution." 

England stood aghast at the temerity of her sometime docile 
colonists. The irate king, with monumental obstinacy and ina- 
bility to discern the signs of the times, resolved to humble the 
Americans once for all ; nor did his short-sighted Majesty seem to 
doubt for a moment his ability to do so. Of the colonists he writes, 
" They will be lions while we are lambs : but if we take the resolute 
part, they will undoubtedly prove very meek." ^ King George now 
led his Parliament to pass in quick succession four drastic measures 
against the people of Massachusetts. First, the Boston Port Bill, 
which removed the capital from that city to Salem and closed the 
port of Boston to the commerce of the world ; second, 
bi^'^a t ' ^^^® Regulating Act, which annulled the Massachusetts 
charter and transformed the colony to an absolute des- 
potism ; third, an act providing that persons accused of certain crimes 
in connection with riots be transported to England, or to some place 
outside of the colony for trial ; while the fourth made it legal to quar- 
ter troops in any town in Massachusetts. These were soon followed 
by the Quebec Act, which extended the province of Quebec to include 
all the territory west of the Alleghanies and north of 
° ■ the Ohio River to the Mississippi — except what had 
been granted by royal charter. It is supposed that the act was 
intended to prevent pioneers from settling in the Ohio country, and 
to win the favor of the French Catholics. 

Two years before these acts were passed (1772), Massachusetts, 
led by Samuel Adams, had made an important move toward con- 
certed action. " Committees of Correspondence " had been appointed 
in every town in the colony for the purpose of guarding the interests 
of liberty. The next year Virginia suggested the forming of a per- 
manent Committee of Correspondence to extend to all the colo- 
nies. This was gradually done, and the system was very effective in 
spreading the doctrine of resistance. 

Against the drastic British measures Massachusetts now made an 
1 This was quoted by the king from General Gage. See Knight, Vol. VI, p. 58. 



FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 235 

appeal for aid, and through these committees the people were pre- 
pared for an immediate response. From Maine to Georgia they 
made common cause with their brethren of the Bay colony, and 
South Carolina sounded the keynote in these ringing words, " The 
whole country must be animated with one great soul, and all Ameri- 
cans must stand by one another, even unto death." Washington 
offered to arm and equip a thousand men at his own expense and to 
lead them to the relief of Boston. Thomas Jefferson set forth the 
view in a pamphlet, the " Summary View," that Parliament had no 
right to any authority whatever in the colonies. Nearly all the 
colonies joined in an agreement of non-intercourse with England. 
As the day approached for the Port Bill to take effect, cattle, grain, 
and produce from tlie other colonies began to pour into Boston. The 
day came, and throughout the country it was generally kept as a day 
of fasting and prayer ; the church bells were tolled, and flags were put 
at half-mast on the ships in the harbors. Had the English king 
been able to glance over America on that day, he must have aban- 
doned every thought of punishing a single colony without having to 
deal with them all ; he must have seen that but two courses lay 
before him — to recede from his position, or to make war upon :; 
continent. 

THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS; LEXINGTON 

The events above noted gave unmistakable evidence of the unity 
of American sentiment against British oppression ; but something 
more must be done to bring about united action. There must be 
some central authority to which all the colonies could turn for 
guidance. This political union came about in the formation of a 
Continental Congress. This Congress was the result of a spontaneous 
and almost simultaneous movement throughout the country. From 
New York came the first call. Paul Eevere had been sent from 
Boston on a fleet horse to rouse the people of New York and Phila- 
delphia, but ere he reached the former the Sons of Liberty had 
taken action for a congress. The Massachusetts legislature added 
its voice in June. Delegates were chosen in all the colo- 
nies except Georgia, and they met in Carpenter's Hall, Septembers, 
Philadelphia. Among them we find such leaders as Wash- 
ington, Lee, and Henry of Virginia, Dickinson of Pennsylvania, Sam- 
uel and John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut. 



236 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

The Congress was not a constitutional body ; many of its members 
had been chosen irregularly. Its authority was limited to the 
willingness of the people to respect and obey its suggestions and man- 
dates. The very fact of its existence had a meaning of great signifi- 
cance, but it was too profound for the comprehension of George III. 
It was less a congress than a national committee, an advisory council 
of continental magnitude. It attempted no national legislation. It 
was controlled by conservative men who counseled moderation. 
They made a declaration of rights, mild but deeply sincere ; they 
prepared an address to the king, disavowing a desire for indepen- 
dence, another to the people of England, and still another to the peo- 
ple of Canada. They also approved the policy of non-intercourse with 
Great Britain, and formed an association to carry it out. The form- 
ing of this association, which at first constituted the revolutionary 
machinery, was an act of great importance. Its object was to secure 
a redress of grievances by peaceful methods, by enforcing the non- 
importation and non-consumption agreement. To carry out this pur- 
pose committees were to be formed in every county or township in 
the colonies. These worked under the guidance of the Committees 
of Correspondence. The local committees marked out for persecution 
every loyalist who refused to comply with the recommendations of 
the Congress. The loyalists made a feeble effort at counter organiza- 
tion ; but the patriots were so furious in their opposition that little 
came of it. Not until the next year, 1775, did the patriots begin to 
form associations pledged to oppose the aggressions of the king by 
force of arras.^ 

Among other things this Congress indorsed a set of resolutions 
from Suffolk County, Massachusetts, drawn up by Joseph Warren. 
By these it was declared that the king who violates the 
" ^' ■ chartered rights of the people forfeits their allegiance, 
that the Regulating Act was null and void, and so on. After Congress 
had adopted them, Massachusetts, in accordance with their spirit, 
proceeded to set up a provisional government. 

This Congress sat for about seven weeks and then adjourned, after 

appointing the 10th of the following May for a second Congress, in 

case it was needed. When the addresses issued by this 

Congress reached England, Chatham paid the following 

remarkable tribute to the men who framed them : — 

" When your lordships look at the papers transmitted us from 
1 Van Tyne's " Loyalists in the Revolution," p. 75. 



AFFAIRS IN MASSACHUSETTS 231 

America — when you consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, 

you cannot but respect their cause. .' . . For myself I 

must declare and avow, that in all my reading and tribute"^ ° 

observation . . . that for solidity of reasoning, force 

of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion ... no nation or body of 

men can stand in preference to the Congress at Philadelphia. I 

trust that it is obvious to your lordships, that all attempts to impose 

servitude upon such men, to establish despotism over such a mighty 

continental nation, must be vain, must be fatal." 

In Massachusetts the summer had been one of unusual excite- 
ment. The people set the Regulation Act at defiance and banded 
together in thousands to prevent its operation. They surrounded 
the courthouses and forced the king's officers to resign ; they refused 
to serve as jurymen ; they met for military drill on the village green 
of every town. The leaders of the people, in the absence of Samuel 
Adams, were John Hancock, a man of refinement and culture and 
the richest merchant in New England, and Joseph Warren, a promi- 
nent physician, a man of unsullied patriotism, and the bosom friend 
of Adams. 

General Gage had returned to Massachusetts with an army with 
which to awe the people, and he was made civil as well as military 
governor. The people answered these proceedings by organizing 
into bands of "minutemen," ready to move on a minute's notice. 
On one occasion Gage sent a j^arty of soldiers to seize some powder 
at Charlestown ; the rumor spread that they had fired on the citizens, 
and in less than two days twenty thousand farmers were under 
arms, marching toward Boston. But the rumor proved false, and 
they returned to their homes. Late in October a provincial congress 
met at Concord, with Hancock as president and Warren 
the chairman of a committee appointed to collect mili- 
tary stores. This congress dissolved in December, and another met 
at Cambridge in February and proceeded to organize the militia and 
to appoint officers. 

During the winter and spring of 1775 the estrangement continued 
to increase, and every index pointed to a conflict of arms. The king 
and Parliament and Gage had miscalculated when they believed 
that the presence of an army would awe the colonists and change 
them from roaring lions into fawning lambs. Nor were the colonists 
making a leap in the dark ; they were strong, and they knew that 
they were strong. Their bodies had been developed in clearing away 



238 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

the forest, in tilling the soil, in fishing and shipbuilding ; they had 
become expert marksmen in fighting Indians and wild animals, and 
many of them had gained an excellent military training in the late 
war with France. Gage issued a proclamation offering full pardon 
to all the people, except Samuel Adams and John Hancock, if they 
would yield to his authority ; but the people did not heed him ; they 
only kept on organizing, drilling, and collecting military stores in the 
towns. Gage had been ordered to arrest Adams and Hancock, who 
had been elected to the Second Continental Congress, and to send 
them to England for trial. The two patriot leaders, fearing arrest, 
were at Lexington in hiding. The British general discovered their 
hiding place, and, on the night of the 18th of April, sent a body of 
eight hundred regulars to make the arrest and, at the same time, to 
move on a few miles farther and destroy the military stores at Con- 
cord. Silently in the darkness the troops were rowed across the 
Charles River, and by midnight they were well on the way to Lex- 
ington. Every precaution for secrecy had been taken, but the vigi- 
lance of the patriots was too keen to be eluded. 

Paul Revere, one of the noblest of the Sons of Liberty, stood by 
the river, his steed by his side, waiting for a lantern signal from the 
belfry of the North Church, which would inform him of the direc- 
tion the troops had taken. The signal appeared, and a moment later 
he was galloping through the night toward Lexington. At every 
door, as he dashed along, he shouted the thrilling news 
ride ^^^'^^ * that the British were coming. Reaching Lexington, he 
came to the house of the Rev. Jonas Clark, where Han- 
cock and Adams were sleeping. The door was guarded by minute- 
men, who warned him not to disturb the inmates with his noise. 
''Noise!" cried Revere, "you'll soon have noise enough; the regulars 
are coming!"^ Hancock, at an upper window, knew his voice and 
invited him in ; and a few hours later, when the enemy came up, the 
two patriots had quietly proceeded on their way to the Congress at 
Philadelphia. 

The news of the approaching enemy sped on to Concord, and to 
the surrounding towns and farmhouses ; and the men arose, seized 
their guns, and hastened to the scene of the coming conflict. Colonel 
Smith, in command of the English, saw but too plainly, by the 
flickering lights on the hills, by t-lie sound of bells and of signal 
guns, that his movements were known, and he sent back to Gage 

1 Fiske, Vol. I, p. 121. 



LEXINGTON AND CONCORD 239 

for reenforcements while he dispatched Major Pitcairn forward with 
six companies of infantry to secure the bridge at Concord. Pitcairn 
reached Lexington at sunrise, and found himself confronted by 
some forty minutemen under Captain John Parker.^ With an oath 
lie called upon them to disperse, but they stood as motionless as a 
wall, and he ordered his men to fire. The soldiers hesitated, and 
Pitcairn discharged his own pistol, and thus fired the first shot of the 
war of the Revolution. Again he ordered the men to fire ; they now 
did so, and the volley laid seven of the patriots dead and ten wounded 
upon the village green. Parker was greatly outnumbered, and, after 
making a feeble resistance, ordered his men to retire. But the day's 
business was only begun. The British troops hastened on to Con- 
cord and entered the town unopposed, as the minutemen, to the 
number of two hundred, had withdrawn to the top of the hill beyond 
the river, taking with them or hiding most of the cannon and stores. 
The regulars destroyed the little they found, cut down the liberty 
pole, and set fire to the courthouse. But their work came to an 
abrupt close. Two hundred of their number had been left to guard 
the North Bridge that spanned the little river near the village, and 
on these the patriots, now increased to four hundred, made a descent 
and opened fire. The firing of both sides, the river flowing between 
them, was brisk for some minutes and a few of each were slain. 
This was the first encounter after that on the greensward at Lexing- 
ton some hours before. 

Colonel Smith now understood the peril of his position, and 
determined to retire. But it was already too late. The whole sur- 
rounding country was roused; the farmers and villagers swarmed 
to the scene, and, without a leader, without order, from every hiding 
place — trees, fences, thickets, and hillocks, in true Battle of Lex- 
Indian fashion — they poured an incessant fire into the ington, April 
retreating British. The latter were not wanting in ^^' ^"^T^- 
courage ; they made a brave effort to retreat in order, but the 
retreat became a rout, and every attempt to halt and form into 
line was thwarted by the deadly hail of patriot bullets from every 
side. Many of them fell dead or dying on the road ; the rout be- 
came a race with death. They had marched all the night before ; the 
day was hot, and they were well-nigh exhausted. The whole force 

^ Parker had said to his men, " Don't fire unless you are fired on; but if they 
want war, it may as well begin here." Parker was the grandfather of the great 
New England preacher and abolitionist, Theodore Parker. 



UO HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

would have been killed or captured but for the coming of reeuforce- 
ments. When they reached Lexington, they were met by Lord 
Percy with twelve hundred men coming to their rescue. Percy 
opened his ranks to admit the fugitive soldiers ; and they ran in, as a 
hunted fox finds his den in the mountains, and fell to the ground, 
with their tongues hanging from their mouths in sheer exhaustion. 
Percy planted his cannon, and for a time held the Americans at bay ; 
but as he began his march toward Boston they attacked him in ever 
increasing numbers, and the battle ceased only at nightfall when the 
British found shelter under the guns of the royal ships in the 
harbor. The British loss was 273 and the American loss 93. 

Thus ended the first armed conflict of the Revolution.^ That 
night was one of intense commotion in the vicinity of Boston. The 
patriots did not return to their homes ; they encamped on the ground, 
and their numbers were rapidly augmented from every hill and 
valley of New England. Israel Putnam of Connecticut left his 
plow in the furrow to lead a band of fellow-farmers to Cambridge ; 
Benedict Arnold brought a company from New Haven ; John Stark 
arrived from New Hampshire with twelve hundred men, and Na- 
thanael Greene from Rhode Island with a thousand. Within a few 
days after the affair at Lexington and Concord, Boston was beset by 
an untrained army of sixteen thousand men. 

The news of the battle soon spread beyond the confines of New 
England, and the whole country was aroused. The people rose in 
general rebellion against their rulers, and within a short time every 
royal government in America had fallen.^ In New York the patriots 
set the royal officials at defiance, and seized the munitions of war; New 
Jersey and Pennsylvania rejected all overtures of reconciliation and 
began to train their militia ; Governor Dunmore fled from the infuri- 
ated people of Virginia ; and from the far South the voice of Georgia 
joined in the general chorus. Exactly three weeks after the Lex- 
ington fight the fine fortress of Ticonderoga, which guarded with 
its two hundred cannon the watershed between the great valleys of 
Surrenderor ^^^ St. Lawrence and the Hudson, was surrendered 
Ticonderoga, "in the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental 
MaylO,l775. Congress" (which met on that day) to Ethan Allen 
with less than a hundred " Green Mountain Boys " ; and on the same 

1 In the wilderness of Kentucky the pioneers were founding a town when the 
news of the battle reached them, and they named the town Lexington. 

2 Governors Tryon of New York and Franklin of New Jersey maintained a 
semblance of power for some months longer. 



TICONDEROGA AND CROWN POINT 241 

expedition the fortress of Crown Point fell into the hands of anothei 
Vermonter, Seth Wai-ner. 

Every indication now pointed to a long and bloody war. Frank- 
lin, just returned from England, declared that the colonies were 
lost forever to the British Crown. Yet the thought of independence 
had scarcely at that date entered the colonial heart ; reconciliation 
was still possible, but only on the ground that England would 
yield every point at issue. This the proud, obstinate monarch could 
not do, and events moved rapidly on till the opportunity was lost. 



NOTES 

The Hutchinson Letters. — Among the interesting occurrences of this period, 
not mentioned in the text, was the Hutchinson letter episode. Hutchinson was 
the royal governor of Massachusetts, and, though a native of the colony, his 
sympathies were with the Icing. In a series of private letters written by him 
and other royal officials (1773-1774) to an under secretary, Whately, of London, 
the colonial leaders and chartei's were attacked. Copies of these letters fell into 
the possession of Franklin, then in London, and he saw in them a conspiracy 
against his country, and sent them to the Massachusetts assembly. The tempest 
raised by their publication resulted in a petition for Hutchinson's recall. Frank- 
lin was arraigned before the Privy Council for treachery in disclosing private 
letters, and was denounced by Solicitor Wedderburn with the most abusive 
and coarse invective. Franklin listened with apparent indifference and never 
regretted his action, though English writers to this day denounce it as dis- 
honorable. 

Burke on the Tea Tax. — The principle for which the colonies contended 
was not misunderstood in England. In reply to the statement that the tax on 
tea was trifling, Edmund Burke (April 19, 1768) replied : "Could anything be 
a subject of more just claim to America, than to see you go out of the plain 
high road of finance . . . merely for the sake of insulting your colonies ? No 
man ever doubted that the commodity of tea could bear an imposition of three- 
pence. But no commodity will bear threepence, or will bear a penny, when 
the general feelings of men are irritated, and two millions of people are resolved 
not to pay. The feelings of the colonists are the same as those of Mr. Hampden 
■when called on for the payment of twenty shillings. Would twenty shillings 
have ruined Mr. Hampden's fortune ? No 1 but the payment of half twenty 
shillings, on the principle it was demanded, would have made him a slave." 

Samuel Adams and the Election of the First Congress. — The Massachu- 
setts assembly was very anxious to choose delegates to the Congress to meet in 
September at Philadelphia ; but it was known that at the first hint at such busi- 
ness the governor would dissolve the assembly. On June 17, 1774 (made famous 
a year later at Bunker Hill), the favorable moment came. The door was locked 
and delegates were nominated. Some of the members were frightened and sought 
to go out, but Adams pocketed the key. At length one of the loyalist members 



242 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

pretended to be very ill and was allowed to go. He ran to the governor and 
told the news. Governor Gage instantly sent his secretary with a writ dissolv- 
ing the assembly, but the secretary found the door locked. He then read the 
writ in a loud voice from the steps outside. Meantime the assembly had elected 
four delegates — the two Adamses, Robert Treat Paine, and Thomas Gushing — 
by a vote of 117 to 12. — See Fiske, Vol. I, pp. 104-105. 

The Mecklenburg Declaration. — The county committee of Mecklenburg 
County, North Carolina, on May 31, 1775, resolved that as the king and Parlia- 
ment had " annulled and vacated all civil and military commissions granted by 
the Crown," etc., the provincial congresses, directed by the Continental Con- 
gress are invested with all legislative and executive power, independent of the 
Crown, until Parliament shoxild resign its arbitrary pretensions. This was a 
bold and admirable resolution, and it formed the basis many years later of the 
so-called Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, very similar to the great 
Declaration of 1776. This spurious Mecklenburg Declaration was never pub- 
lished till 1819. 

Paul Revere. — One of the most heroic minor figures of the early years of 
the Revolutionary War was Paul Revere, and his name has received a perma- 
nent historic setting in the poem of Longfellow. He was of Huguenot descent ; 
he served in the French War as lieutenant of artillery. By profession he was a 
goldsmith and copperplate engraver, and he engraved the plates for the " Con- 
tinental money." In 1775 he was sent to Philadelphia to learn to make powder, 
and on his return he set up a powder mill. He also became a manufacturer of 
church bells and cannon. Revere was forty years old at the time of his famous 
midnight ride. He was captured by the British while on that ride, between 
Lexington and Concord, but he was soon set free. He lived nearly forty years 
after the Revolution, dying in 1818, at the age of eighty-three. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE REVOLUTION — WAR AND INDEPENDENCE 

SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 

It was on May 10, 1775, the day that had witnessed the capture 
of the powerful fortress at the base of the Adirondacks by the in- 
trepid Allen, that the Second Continental Congress met in Indepen- 
dence Hall, Philadelphia. It was composed of the best brains of the 
land. Most of the old members of the preceding Congress were 
present, but some of the strongest men in the body now took their seats 
for the first time. Among these were Thomas Jefferson, a youthful 
Virginian whose powers were beginning to unfold; Benjamin Franklin, 
the only American who enjoyed a world-wide fame; and John Han- 
cock, who was chosen president in defiance of the king's proscription.^ 

The Congress was a conservative body. Only a few of the mem- 
bers — the two Adamses, Franklin, and possibly Jefferson and 
Hancock — honestly believed that a reconciliation with England was 
past all hope ; but even these were agreed that any consideration of 
the subject was not then in place. This Congress, like its predeces- 
sor of the year before, was only a great committee, or a combination 
of committees, met for the avowed piirpose of seeking and, it may be 
said, demanding a redress of grievances. Yet it was forced by exist- 
ing conditions to assume some of the functions of a national govern- 
ment. Its most important act was to adopt the straggling army 
around Boston as the " Continental Army," and to appoint for it a 
commander in chief. George Washington, at the suggestion of John 
Adams, was chosen to be commander of the army. As •washinffton 
Adams described, in an elaborate speech, the high quali- chosen com- 
fications necessary to the position and reserved mention- mander. 
ing the name of his choice to the close, Washington sat near and 
watched his face intently, and hearing his own name mentioned, per- 

1 Peyton Randolph was again chosen president, but he was called to Virginia; 
and Jefferson, who had been elected as an alternate, occupied his seat while Hancock 
was made president. 

243 



244 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

iiaps without any expectation of it, he quickly arose and went into an 
adjoining room. A recess was then taken that the members might 
talk the matter over privately ; and when they reassembled ; Wash- 
ington was elected unanimously.^ This choice was made for two 
reasons. First, the Continental army was thus far a purely New Eng- 
land army, and it was felt that a commander must be chosen from 
the South in order to secure the more firmly the aid and sympathy 
of that section and to allay any feeling of jealousy that might arise. 
Second, Washington was honestly believed to be the best choice that 
could be made. His military reputation was second to none in the 
country. The remarkable journey he had made while still a youth 
through the wilderness of Pennsylvania at the behest of Governor 
Dinwiddle had not been forgotten ; nor his saving of Braddock's 
defeated army just twenty years before the meeting of this Congress, 
He was now commander of the Virginia militia, and moreover he 
was noted for his stanch character, his stalwart, commanding appear- 
ance, his marvelous self-control, and above all for his extraordinarily 
sound judgment. 

This Congress, while recognizing a state of war and preparing 
for its vigorous prosecution, disclaimed any intention of casting 
ofE allegiance to the Crown of England. On the contrary, led by 
Dickinson and Jay, it prepared a new petition to the king, almost 
fulsome in its tone, and sent it to London by a special messenger, 
Richard Penn, who was himself a Tory. Addresses were sent to the 
people of Great Britain, to Ireland, and to Canada. Congress also 
authorized the issue of two million dollars in bills of credit, or paper 
money, set apart a day of fasting and prayer, authorized various colo- 
nies to form local governments, and did many other things. Thus 
gradually, as circumstances required, Congress was forced to assume 
sovereign powers. Meanwhile matters had reached a crisis at Bos- 
ton, and before the coming of midsummer, before the arrival of the 
newly appointed commander, the most famous of all the battles of 
the Revolutionary War had been fought. 

BUNKER HILL 

Notwithstanding the Lexington disaster, British hopes again 
ran high in Boston harbor during the spring of 1775. The arrival 

1 Hancock had expected and desired the appointment. Congress at the same 
time appointed four major generals, Artemas Ward, Charles Lee, Philip Schuyler, and 
Israel Putnam, and eight brigadiers. 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL 



24« 



m May of Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne, with another army, raised 
the British force to ten thousand men. Gage seemed no longer to 
doubt his ability to put down the rebellion ; and yet, to show his 
moderation, he issued a proclamation, offering a free pardon to all, 
except Adams and Hancock, who would lay down their arms and 
return to their allegiance, while those taken in arms were to be put 
to death. Gage had possession of Boston, and he might have felt 
secure but for the menace of the surrounding hilltops from which 
the enemy might throw shells into his camp and shipping. He 
therefore determined to occupy some of these hills. 

Boston, a city of some seventeen thousand people, was situated on 
a peninsula jutting northward, while farther to the north, across a 
narrow channel of water, 
was the Charlestown penin- 
sula, connected with the 
mainland by an isthmus 
known as Charlestown 
Neck. On the point of this 
peninsula lay the village of 
Charlestown, and back of 
the village rose an elevation 
called Breed's Hill, while 
farther back was situated a 
higher elevation known as 
Bunker Hill. 

The American army oc- 
cupied the mainland and 
extended in a grand semicircle for sixteen miles — from Cambridge to 
the Mystic River. It was under the general command of an honored 
veteran of the late war, General Artemas Ward, whose headquarters 
were at Cambridge. Hearing of Gage's intention to occupy the hills 
above Charlestown, Ward sent a force of twelve hundred ^ men on the 
night of the 16th of June to fortify and possess Bunker Hill and thus 
to forestall the English. Under Colonel William Prescott, who had 
witnessed the dispersion of the Acadians twenty years before, this 
band of men marched silently to the place. Passing Bunker Hill, 
for some cause unknown, they reached Breed's Hill at midnight and 
began to throw up embankments. Faithfully they toiled on till 
break of day revealed their work to the gaze of the astonished British 
1 These figures are given by Frothiagham, " Battle of Bunker Hill," pp. 17 and 40. 




246 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

The English guns were soon trained on the works, and the sleeping 
city was awakened by the boom of cannon. But the men on the hiK 
toiled on, and by noon they were well intrenched behind a strong re 
doubt. The British meanwhile decided to storm the American works. 

The British lauded — three thousand of them, led by Howe — 
about three in the afternoon, and began the ascent of the hill toward 
the American breastworks. It was a daring thing to do — and not 
only daring, it was foolish and suicidal. They might have gone 
round to Charlestown Neck and cut Prescott off from supplies and 
reenf orcements, and eventually have forced his surrender. But here 
was a sample of the bulldog courage of the Englishman. Up they 
marched, in line of battle, with undaunted courage. Not a shot was 
fired from the top of the hill ; the Americans were coolly reserving 
their fire. General Putnam rode along the lines and ordered the 
men not to fire until they could see the whites of their enemy's eyes. 
When the British had come within a few rods, a flame of fire swept 
along the American lines and the front ranks of the enemy were cut 
to pieces. Another volley followed, and another, until the British 
fell back in disorder, leaving the hillside strewn with dead and 
wounded.^ Scarcely fifteen minutes elapsed before they had re-formed 
their lines and made another dash up the hill, only to receive again 
such a murderous fire from the breastworks as no army, however 
brave, could have endured. Again they rolled down the hill in con- 
fusion — except the hundreds who lay dead or wounded on the slope. 

More than an hour now elapsed before the English could rally to 
a third attack, and it was only a blind tenacity of purpose, untem- 
pered by wisdom, that led them to make it at all. They had lost 
near a thousand men, while the Americans had suffered but little. It 
is true that the latter had almost exhausted their supply of powder, 
but this the British did not know ; and but for this fact any number 
of assaults would have resulted as did the first two — until the British 
army would have been annihilated. With wonderful courage they 
now made a third charge up the hill. The first volleys of the Ameri- 
cans swept down their front ranks as before. But as the assailants 
neared the crest of the hill, they noted the slackening of the 
American fire, and Howe determined to charge with the bayonet. 
Madly the English rushed forward and leaped over the parapet. 
The Americans were without bayonets to their muskets, and the 
fight was now an unequal one ; but with clubbed muskets and stones 

1 Fiske's " American Revolution," Vol. I, p. 141. 



BEGINNING OF THE WAR 247 

ihey made a valiant stand against the oncoming enemy. Scores of 
them were cut down, until Prescott, seeing the folly of continuing 
the struggle, ordered a retreat, and the British were left in posses- 
sion of the field. 

One of the last to leave the redoubt was General Joseph Warren, 
who lingered in the rear as though he disdained to fly, and this 
cost him his life. He had joined the ranks as a volun- 
teer and had fought bravely during the day, but with Hf^*^ °^ 
the last English volley he feil dead with a bullet in his 
brain. Through his death the American cause suffered the most 
serious 'Oss in a single life during the war. 

The victory won by the British at Bunker Hill ^ was a costly one. 
They lost in killed and wounded 1054 men, one tenth of whom were 
officers. Pitcairn was among the dead. Howe was wounded in the 
foot. The victory enabled the English to hold Boston for nine 
months longer, but the moral effect lay wholly with the Americans, 
whose loss was 449. At Bunker Hill they had discovered their own 
prowess, their ability to stand before the regulars ; and Bunker Hill 
became a rallying cry of the patriots in every contest of the war. 



WASHINGTON AND THE ARMY 

After an overland journey from Philadelphia, that partook of the 
nature of an ovation, Washington arrived in Cambridge two weeks 
after the Bunker Hill battle, and the next day, beneath the shade of 
a great elm tree that still stands as a living monument of that heroic 
age, he formally assumed command of the Continental army. The 
new commander was warmly welcomed by the army. The local 
officers yielded gracefully to his superior authority. Some of them 
were men destined to achieve abiding fame in the coming war. 
By far the ablest man among them was ISTathanael Greene of Rhode 
Island. As a farmer boy, and later a blacksmith, he had lacked the 
means of a classical education, but being fond of books, he acquired 
much knowledge by private study. He read law, general literature, 
and especially military tactics. He Avas a born soldier, and before 
he knew that he was to spend a portion of his life in the field he 
was thoroughly familiar with the theory of warfare. He was in 
most of the battles of the war, and was implicitly trusted by Wash- 

1 Most of the fighliiio: was done at Breed's Hill, but the higher eminence nearby 
gave its name to the battle- 



248 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

ington, to whom he was scarcely inferior in generalship. Greene 
was a man of rare sweetness of character and purity of morals. In 
the later years of the war he became the savior of the Southern 
states ; and after peace had come to the newborn republic, he left 
his native state to spend the evening of his days among the people 
of Georgia, who, in grateful remembrance of his services, had pre- 
sented him with a fine plantation^ From the hills of New Hamp- 
shire had come two men, opposite in characteristics, both of whom 
have left a permanent name in the annals of their country — John 
Sullivan, who represented wealth, refinement, and culture, and John 
Stark, who had shown his mettle at Bunker Hill, and whose dashing 
vigor, undaunted courage, and almost fierce patriotism mark him as 
one of the most heroic figures of the war. Here also was Henry 
Knox, a Boston bookseller, a corpulent man with a winning smile 
and a jolly laugh, who soon won his way into Washington's heart, 
and who many years later became a member of his first Cabinet. But 
the most picturesque figure of all was Daniel Morgan, the leader of 
the Virginia sharpshooters. Morgan was a giant in size, genial and 
affable, but fierce and recklessly daring in battle. In youth he had 
received five hundred lashes for insulting a British officer, but his 
spirit was unsubdued. He had escaped a murderous band of Indians 
on horseback after a musket ball had passed through his neck. He 
now joined the army of Washington and did valiant service for 
liberty throughout the war. These and many other Sons of Liberty 
now made the acquaintance of the commander in chief on the Cam- 
bridge Common. 

Sir William Howe had succeeded Gage as commander of the 
British army, and his brother, Lord Eichard Howe, was made 
admiral of the fleet. The contempt that Gage had felt 
c er, . £^^ ^T^g Americans had worked to their benefit at Lex- 
ington and Bunker Hill. Howe seemed now to entertain the oppo- 
site opinion of his enemy ; he remained inactive during the summer 
and autumn, and this again proved a great advantage to the Ameri- 
cans, for Washington needed the time to drill and reorganize his 
army and to secure an adequate supply of ammunition. The new- 
made soldiers soon grew tired of warfare, and as their terms of enlist- 
ment expired they departed for their homes by hundreds. Keenlist- 
ments were slow, and it was with great difficulty that Washington 
kept an army about him. He practically disbanded one army and 
enlisted another — all within musket shot of the British regiments. 



EXPEDITION TO CANADA 249 

Within this period a remarkable expedition to Canada had been 
undertaken by General E-ichard Montgomery. From Ticonderoga 
Montgomery pressed northward in September with two thousand 
men, and two months later he had possession of Montreal. The ex- 
pedition promised success. To join this army in Can- 
ada Washington had dispatched eleven hundred men canada'^°^*° 
under Benedict Arnold, who, after a march of incredible 
hardships through the Maine wilderness, reached the valley of the 
St. Lawrence in November. Arnold, whose name in our history was 
to become famous, then infamous, was a man of military skill and 
intrepid courage. With Arnold on this perilous journey was another 

whose name, like his, was yet to be honored, then dis- 

. Aaron Siirr 

honored, by his countrymen. The fragments of the two 

armies met in the valley of the great Canadian river, and together 
they made a desperate and fruitless assault on Quebec,^ on the last 
day of the year 1775. Montgomery was shot dead, and Arnold was 
wounded ; Ethan Allen had been taken prisoner and sent in irons to 
England; hundreds of the brave Americans perished through cold 
and hunger and the ravages of smallpox ; and, on the whole, the expe- 
dition ended the following spring in disastrous failure. 

Washington was severely criticised for his long delay before Bos- 
ton; but he was wiser than his critics. He spent every day in perfect- 
ing his army and preparing to strike a blow. By the 1st of March, 
1776, a great many of the cannon captured at Ticonderoga the year be- 
fore had been drawn on sledges all those hundreds of miles to the 
Continental army at -Cambridge. The commander now determined to 
wait no longer. He sent two thousand men on the night of the 4th of 
March to fortify the peninsula south of Boston, known as Dorchester 
Heights, which commanded the city and harbor even better than did 
Bunker Hill. During the night the Americans kept up 
an unceasing cannonade from Roxbury and other points jjei^j^tg ^^ 
for the purpose of drowning the sound of the pick and 
the hammer, the noise of the moving wagons, and of the dragging 
of siege guns ; and Howe, all unwittingly, aided him in the good 
work by replying with his cannon. 

At the dawn of day the British general opened his eyes in aston- 
ishment upon the work that had been wrought in the night on the 
heights of Dorchester. What could be done ? Washington could 
now destroy every ship in the harbor with shells. Howe determined 

1 The city was defended by Sir Guy Carleton. 



250 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

to storm the works ; but his men remembered Bunker Hill, and the 
memory left them spiritless. Yet something had to be done, and 
Howe in desperation set apart three thousand men under Lord 
Percy to undertake the perilous business ; but a terrific storm swept 
over the harbor and delayed the project until the morrow. Then 
it was too late: for the American works had been made so strong 
that only suicidal folly would attempt their reduction by storm. 
There Avas but one thing left for the English to do — to abandon 
Boston and the Boston harbor; and ere the end of the month 
General Howe, with all the British ships, bearing eight thousand 
soldiers and nearly two thousand American loyalists, launched out 
Evacuation i^pon the deep and sailed away to Halifax, Thus the 
of Boston. old Bay colony, the home of the Pilgrims and the Puri- 
March, 1776. ^^ns, the scene of the opening acts of the Revolution, 
after six years of incessant annoyance,^ was set free from the enemy ; 
and never again, from that day to the present, has a foreign army 
trod the soil of Massachusetts.^ 

This was Washington's first stroke in the war, and it was one of 
his most brilliant. With little loss he had cleared New England of 
the enemy, and had sent a thrill of joy over the whole country. 
In their haste the British left behind more than two hundred cannon 
and great quantities of muskets and ammunition, all of which became 
the property of Washington's army. Furthermore, the news of 
Howe's departure did not reach England for several weeks, and 
meantime vessels were being sent to Boston to supply the wants of 
the army — and so they did, but not of the British army. They 
sailed innocently into the harbor, and were captured, and their con- 
tents went to increase the stores of the Continental army. 

THE GREAT DECLARATION 

Let us now go back for half a year and shift the scene again to 
Philadelphia, and the scene, covering some eight months, is the 
most dramatic of all the scenes in the drama. Early in the autumn 
of 1775 Congress was waiting to hear from the king. In deference 
to his Majesty, who would not recognize Congress as a legal body, 
the members had signed their humble petition, not as a body, but 
separately, as individuals representing their respective colonies. 

1 It was exactly six years (March 5) since the Boston Massacre. 
S Except in the district of Maine in the War of 1812. 



DRIFTING TOWARD INDEPENDENCE 251 

This alone proves their sincerity, and absolutely disproves any inten- 
tion to strike for independence at that time. The petition reached 
London in August. The answer came late in October, and it was a 
stunning blow, even to the most sanguine. King George had declined 
to receive the petition, or to see the messenger that bore it ! But 
the king made answer in another way. He thundered forth a 
proclamation declaring the colonists in a state of re- 
Ijellion and no longer under his protection. And this attitude^ " 
Avas not all. The irate monarch, unable to secure at 
home the troops needed in America, hired a large number of soldiers 
from the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel and other German princes, to 
light his subjects in America.^ These Hessians, as they were called, 
were for the most part honest, sincere men, and they came to 
America only because they were sold by their inhuman masters. 

The news of the rejection of their " Olive Branch " petition, of 
the king's proclamation, and of the hiring of foreign mercenaries, 
reached America at about the same time, — the last days of October, 
— and the sensation created was profound and widespread. It was 
evident that the king meant to awe the colonists into submission, 
but this he could not do. He only deepened the resentment against 
him, and thousands who had been lukewarm were now converted to 
the cause of the patriots. From this moment Congress assumed a 
bolder tone. It appointed committees to correspond with foreign 
nations, advised various colonies to set up governments for them- 
selves, and urged South Carolina to seize all English vessels within 
its waters. It also opened the American ports to all nations (March, 
1776), and advised the colonies to disarm the Tories. No more 
disclaimers of a desire for independence do we hear, no more talk of 
reconciliation with the king. 

This change of attitude toward the mother land was not confined 
to Congress. The majority of the people were soon convinced that 
their sovereign did not love them, and it was not long before the sub- 
ject of independence, which before had been only whispered in the 
corner, began to be proclaimed from the housetop. The subject was 
debated on all sides, and the idea of independence grew steadily during 

1 King George had first applied to Catherine II of Russia for troops, but she 
declined, and sarcastically asked the king if he thought it compatible with his dignity 
to employ foreign troops against his own subjects. (See Fiske, Vol. I, p. Ifil.) The 
whole number of "Hessians " employed during the war was about thirty thousand. 
Congress oiTered them grants of land if they would desert the British, and many oi 
them did so. 



252 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

the following winter. But the people were not unanimous. A large 
minority, probably one third of the people, were in sympathy with the 
English cause to the end, and it is noteworthy that in New England 
and the South the tendency to make a final break with the king was 
more pronounced than in the middle colonies. In January, 1776, 
appeared a remarkable pamphlet entitled " Common Sense," from 
the pen of Thomas Paine. This was published broadcast, and its 
concise, simple, and unanswerable style won thousands to the cause. 

Up to April, 1776, all the talk of independence had been private 
talk. This showed the drift of popular feeling, but something more 
must be done to achieve it. North Carolina won the honor of being 
first to make an official move.^ On the 12th of April that colony 
instructed its delegates in Congress " to concur with the delegates of 
the other colonies in declaring independence and forming foreign 
State move- alliances." This was a move of the greatest importance, 
meats toward and it was but a short time until Rhode Island and 
independence, ^j^g^ Massachusetts followed the example of their 
southern sister. The fourth colony to pronounce for independence 
was Virginia, which went farther than the others by instructing its 
delegates to propose independence to the Continental Congress. 
This bold resolution was sent by special messenger to Philadelphia. 

Congress during this time was making history rapidly. It had 
practically assumed sovereign power in its conduct of the war. On 
the 15th of May, 1776, it passed a set of resolutions, offered by 
John Adams, authorizing the several colonies to set up state govern- 
ments independent of the Crown, and several of them, as Virginia 
and New Jersey, proceeded to do so.^ This was altogether an act of 
sovereignty, and it rendered necessary, as a logical consequence, a 
declaration of independence of the Crown. But so vast and so vital 
did this subject seem — the founding of a nation — that Congress felt 
that it could not grapple with it alone; on this one subject it could 
act only at the mandate of its master — the People. The majority 
of the members had come to favor a final break with England. The 
leader of this party was Samuel Adams, who, like Otis and Warren, 
was among the few that had aimed at independence from the be- 
ginning. The opposite party, led by Dickinson, was equally patri- 
otic, but it counseled delay and a further effort toward reconciliation. 

1 Frothingham's " Rise of the Republic," p. 504. 

2 New Hampshire and South Carolina had framed constitutions on the advice of 
Congress (November, 1775) that the colonies set up temporary governments. 



INDEPENDENCE DECLARED 26d 

The messenger from Virginia arrived early in June. What his 
message was we have seen. On the 7th of that month Eichard 
Henry Lee, one of the foremost delegates from that colony, rose 
before Congress and solemnly offered the resolution, in obedience to 
his constituents, " That these United Colonies are, and of right ought 
to be, free and independent states, and that they are 
absolved from all allegiairce to the British Crown." The resolution 
colonies had not all been heard from, and Lee's resolu- 
tion, after a brief debate, was laid on the table for three weeks. A 
committee was then chosen to prepare a declaration in a suitable 
form to be sent forth to the world. This committee was chosen by 
ballot, and Thomas Jefferson, receiving the highest number, became 
the chairman of the committee and the writer of the immortal docu- 
ment. By the 1st of July all the colonies except New York had 
granted the necessary authority to their respective delegations, and 
on that morning Lee's resolution was taken up. For two days the 
subject was debated with great vigor, the chief speaker being John 
Adams. There is no doubt that the speech he made on this occasion 
was the most powerful delivered on the floor of Congress during the 
Revolutionary period. Dickinson answered him as best he could, 
but years afterward he acknowledged that he had been on the wrong 
side. On the afternoon of the 2d the resolution was passed by 
the unanimous vote of twelve colonies^ New York not voting. Each 
colony had but one vote, the majority of the delegation casting it. 

Jefferson had ere this put the sentiments of Congress into a terse 
and fitting form ; in other words, he had written the " Declaration of 
Independence " as we know it. This document was now taken up, 
and, with a few slight changes,^ was adopted by the vote of the 
twelve colonies on the evening of the 4th ; and this day became the 
recognized national holiday of the newly founded nation.^ New 
York joined with the twelve on -the ninth, and the thirteen colonies 
were then unanimous. This Declaration practically ignored Parlia- 
ment and the English people, and laid the entire blame for the dis- 
sension on the king.^ In short, nervous, almost passionate sentences, 
it recounted the political crimes of his Majesty and characterized 

1 Congress made but two changes of importance ; a clause condemning the slave 
trade and another censuring the English people were struck out. The other 
members of the committee that framed the Declaration were Franklin, John Adams, 
Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston — no two from the same colony. 

2 The Declaration was signed by the members at a later date. 
» Winsor, Vol. VI, p. 246. 



254 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

him as a despot and a tyrant. It pronounced the 'Colonies absolved 
from all allegiance to the Crown, and invested them with imperial 
power. The Declaration, whatever its defects (and it is not above 
criticism), was a true expression of the popular will. The people 
were not unmindful of the gravity of the step they were taking, of 
the vastness of the responsibility they were assuming. They knew 
that a long and bloody war must follow — that it meant untold 
suffering and sacrifice, vacant chairs at the family fireside, widowed 
mothers and fatherless children. But they took no step backward; 
they saw in the dim future a new nation born, commercial and 
political freedom, self-government. ''America was never so great," 
says a famous English writer, "as on the day when she declared 
her independence." 

The news of the great act rang forth to the expectant city in 
joyful peals of the old bell in the tower of the statehouse, and the 
people were thrown into a state of delirious joy. Post riders were 
sent in all directions with the great news, and in many places people 
abandoned themselves to the most unrestrained enthusiasm. In 
New York a leaden statue of George III was torn from its pedestal 
in the public square and melted into bullets. The Declaration was 
read at the head of each brigade in the army, from the pulpit and 
the public platform ; and it was welcomed everywhere with shouts 
and processions, with the firing of guns and the ringing of bells, 
with bonfires and illuminations. For fifteen years — since the 
granting of the Avrits of assistance in 1761 — the people had borne 
one indignity upon another ; they had groped in the dark, unable to 
divine the next move on the great chessboard. Now there was a goal, 
a prize for which they were willing to stake their all — their " lives, 
their fortunes, and their sacred honor." 



FORT MOULTRIE AND LONG ISLAND 

The first day of the memorable year 1776 was marked by 
two events that are still remembered in Revolutionary annals — 
the burning of Norfolk by the fleet of Governor Dunmore, who had 
been driven to the sea by the infuriated people of Virginia; and the 
unfurling of the flag over the Continental army at Cambridge. 
Before the close of this same month, January, General Clinton was 
sent fi-om Boston to hold the colonies of the South. In May he was 
joined in southern waters by Sir Peter Parker with an English fleet 



BRITISH REPULSE BEFORE CHARLESTON 255 

of ten warships, bearing a body of troops under the command of 
Lord Cornwallis, who was destined later to be a leading figure in the 
war. Meantime, in February, a fierce battle had occurred in North 
Carolina at the mouth of Moore's Creek between a thousand patriots, 
led by Colonel Richard Caswell, and sixteen hundred Tories, mostly 
Scots, under the leadership of Donald Macdonald, who had fought 
for the young Stuart Pretender at the battle of Culloden thirty 
years before. The patriots were completely successful, routing the 
enemy and taking nine hundred prisoners, including the commander.^ 
The fight at Moore's Creek worked like magic on the people of 
North Carolina, and in a few days ten thousand men were armed and 
ready to expel the invaders of their soil. Clinton now decided not 
to land his troops, as he had intended. After the arrival of Parker 
and Cornwallis they moved southward for the purpose of capturing 
Charleston. But in front of the city on Sullivan's Island the 
Americans had made a strong breastwork of palmetto logs and 
sandbags, and this was defended by several hundred men commanded 
by one of the leading heroes of the war, William Moultrie.^ The 
English fleet attacked the rude fort on the 28th of June ; but the 
elastic palmetto logs proved an admirable defense, and a terrific bom- 
bardment of ten hours did little damage. On the other hand, the 
American fire was well aimed, and nearly every shot took effect. 
The flagship received more than twenty shots and was almost 
wrecked, while every other ship but one was seriously crippled. The 
heroism displayed in the defense of the fort, afterward called Fort 
Moultrie, was equal to that of Bunker Hill or of any other engage- 
ment in the war. It was on this day that Sergeant William Jasper, 
an illiterate youth who could not even read, made a name for himself 
in the history of his country by an act of momentary reckless heroism. 
The flagstaff was broken by a cannon ball, and the flag fell outside 
the fort. Jasper leaped down the embrasure in the face of the 
enemy's fire, gathered up the fallen banner, and planted it in the sand 
on the bastion. And the story is still related at- the American fire- 
side as an example of the heroic valor of the men of the Revolution. 

1 Among the prisoners was also Allan Macdonald, kinsman of the commander 
and husband of the famous Flora Macdonald who had aided the Pretender's escape 
from Scotland. 

2 Congress had appointed General Charles Lee to take general command at the 
South, but Lee did little else than find fault. He would have stopped the proceedings 
of Moultrie but for the determined interference of Rutledge, the president of the pro- 
Tincial congress. 



256 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

After spending three weeks in repairing his ships, Clinton sailed 
for New York, and the South was free from invasion for nearly three 
years, when it became the scene of the final conflict of the war. 

The success of Washington at Boston and of Moultrie at Charles- 
ton sent a wave of exultation over the land ; but this was followed by 
a feeling of depression caused by half a year of unbroken disasters. 
The British had decided to sever the colonies in twain — to cut off 
New England from the South — by occupying New York City and con- 
quering the Hudson Valley. General William Howe came down from 
Halifax, and was joined by his brother, Admiral Howe, with a power- 
ful fleet from England ; and these were joined in the New York harbor 
by Clinton and Cornwallis from the South. At the same time Sir 
Guy Carleton was ordered to descend with an army from Canada, 
to capture Ticonderoga, and to hold possession of the upper Hudson, 

In August the British had thirty two thousand veterans on Staten 
Island. To oppose this force Washington, who, divining the intention 
of the enemy to strike New York, had moved his army thither in the 
early spring, could muster but eighteen thousand men, and many of 
these were new recruits and in no sense to be compared with veteran 
soldiers. Before opening hostilities Admiral Howe offered the olive 
branch, which he had fresh from Lord North, a gracious offer from 
the king to pardon all rebels who would lay down their arms and as- 
sist in restoring order. It was sent by special messenger to " George 
Washington, Esq." But as " George " Washington, the citizen and 
planter, had no authority to deal with national questions, and as 
"General" Washington had not been addressed, he declined to 
receive the communication. The next act in the drama was the 
opening of hostilities. Washington occupied Manhattan Island, 
and Brooklyn Heights, which commanded the city. He had sent 
Greene to fortify the latter, and now he manned it with half his 
army under the command of Putnam. Howe determined 
Heights^ to assault Brooklyn Heights. With twenty thousand 
men the English advanced on the American position by 
different roads, and in the early morning of August 27, they en- 
countered the Americans whom Putnam had sent out under Sullivan, 
who had taken the place of Greene, owing to the illness of the latter. 
Sullivan was first attacked by a large body of Hessians under Von 
Heister, and scarcely had the fight begun when he was assailed in the 
rear by the main force. Between two galling fires, it was not possible 
for the Americans to hold their ground, and nearly the whole force, in- 



BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND 



257 



eluding the commander, were made prisoners of war. Another divi- 
sion of fifteen hundred American troops, under Lord Stirling/ was 
now assaidted by General Grant and a little later by Cornwallis. 
After four hours of desperate resistance, Stirling succeeded in getting 
his men across a marsh}^ stream to a place of safety, while he himself 
was taken prisoner, and the struggle known as the battle of Long 
Island was over. 




About four hundred 
had been killed and 
wounded on each 
side, and the British 
had taken some 
eleven hundred 
prisoners. 

Washington had 
witnessed the dis- 
aster from a distance 
with deep emotion. 
*' My God," he cried, 
" what brave fellows 
I must lose this day." 
Howe closed in 
around the American fortress, and Washington, expecting an immedi- 
ate storming of the works, brought troops from Manhattan and 
raised the defense to ten thousand men. But Howe decided to 
settle down to a siege. The American commander seeing that 
he could not stand a siege, determined to elude his enemy by 
night, and this he did with remarkable skill. The 
night was favorable, as a dense fog enveloped the ^ 
moving army. Every manner of craft on the East River, from 
the yacht to the scow and rowboat, was pressed into the service ; 
and on the morning of the 30th, the entire army with its stores 
and artillery was safe in Kew York, and Howe had lost the rarest 
opportunity of his life of crushing the rebellion and ending the 
war. Had he been quick to surround Washington he could have 
captured him and his ten thousand ; but the delay was fatal.^ 

1 This American "Lord" was William Alexander of New Jersey. He had 
inherited a lapsed Scotch title and was always known as Lord Stirling. 

2 The opinion is held that Howe sympathized with the Americans and did not 
wish to defeat them. See reference to the subject on a later page. 



258 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Lord Howe again made overtures for peace. He sent the cap 
tared Sullivan to Philadelphia to make proposals to members of 
Congress and to request a committee of conference. Franklin, Rut- 
ledge, and John Adams were appointed; they met Howe on Staten 
Island, but as they refused to treat with him, except on the ground 
of independent America, the conference came to nothing. 

After losing Brooklyn Heights, Washington could no longer hold 
New York, and his next move was to fall back with the army to the 
heights along the Harlem River. But before Putnam, with the rear- 
guard of four thousand men, could leave New York, Howe had crossed 
the East River, and occupied the city. Putnam was in imminent 
danger of capture, and was saved by the clever strategy of a woman. 
As Howe reached Murray Hill, the fine covmtry seat of Mrs. Murray, 
— now a fashionable portion of New York City, — that lady sent 
him a pressing invitation to stop for luncheon. Howe accepted 
the kind offer, and while he and his officers spent two hours with 
their hostess, whom they no doubt supposed to be a loyalist, Put- 
nam made his escape up the Hudson to the main army ; but in 
his haste he left behind his heavy guns and many of his army 
equipments. 

The great object of the British was now to get in the rear of 
Washington 'and to cut off his retreat northward. But the Hudson 
was guarded by two strong forts — Fort Washington on the upper 
end of Manhattan Island and Fort Lee across the river on the Pali- 
sades — and for nearly a month the two armies lay glaring at each 
other. After a skirmish on Harlem Plains in September, Washing- 
White Plains ton moved his main army to White Plains. Howe fol- 
Octol)er28, lowed him, and, despairing of gaining his rear, made an 
^'^'^^ attack in front. This skirmish, known as the battle of 

White Plains, took place on Chatterton's Hill near the American 
camp, and resulted in an American loss of nearly one hundred and 
fifty men, and a British loss of over two hundred. Howe refused to 
make a second attack, and retired down the Hudson after Washington 
had taken a strong position at North Castle, near the scene of the 
battle. 

NEW JERSEY AND TRENTON 

The remaining two months of this memorable year — save only 
the final week — must be pronounced the darkest days of the Revo- 
lution. A chain of unfortunate events came near bringing ruin upon 



AMERICAN DISASTERS 269 

the cause of American independence.^ The oliicious interference o£ 
Congress, a serious blunder by General Greene, and the disobedience 
of Charles Lee, who had arrived from the South, brought about the 
famous retreat across New Jersey and produced an appalling depres- 
sion of spirits throughout the land, 

Washington, seeing that the fort called by his name could not 
prevent the enemy's vessels from passing up the Hudson, decided to 
abandon it. He urged the matter on General Greene, but left the 
ultimate decision to the latter's discretion while he made a trip 
to West Point, which was being fortified by General Heath. Con- 
gress now interposed, and resolved that Fort Washington^ should 
not be given up unless through dire necessity. Greene for once 
distrusted the judgment of his commander and followed the advice 
of Congress. The mistake was a disastrous and costly one. To 
hold the fort was impossible ; the British army was closing around 
it and the garrison could not now be withdrawn. On surrender of 
November 17 Howe stormed the fort with almost his Fort 
entire army, and, after losing five hundred men, forced Washington, 
the surrender. Colonel Magaw, the commandant, had made a val- 
iant stand, but he was compelled to surrender to superior numbers; 
and he, with three thousand men, together with a great quantity of 
cannon, muskets, and military stores, so much needed by the Con- 
tinental army, passed into the hands of the enemy. ^ The fall of 
Fort Washington was a terrible blow to the patriots, and Greene 
never forgot the costly lesson it taught him. 

It was now determined to abandon Fort Lee, on the west side of 
the Hudson. Ere this was done, however, five thousand British sol- 
diers had scaled the rocky walls of the Palisades, and were ready to 
dash upon the fort ; and the garrison under Greene retreated with 
such haste as to leave their cannon behind. This was not a serious 
disaster, rat it was the last straw to the disheartened patriot army. 
For several months one misfortune had borne upon another, and 
thousands of people now came to believe that the patriot cause 

1 See Fiske, Vol. I, p. 219. 

2 Fort Washington had been built early in the spring by Rufus Putnam, after- 
ward "Father of Ohio," a cousin of General Putnam. 

8 Howe had made a threat that he would put the garrison to the sword if they 
did not yield without resistance. Magaw answered defiantly and opened the battle. 
Howe was a humane man and probably had no intention of carrying out his threat. 
On gaining the fort, however, the Hessians, exasperated at the determined resistance, 
put a few of the men to the sword, and Washington, viewing the spectacle from 
beyond the river, burst into tears and sobbed like a child. Fiske, I, p. 220. 



260 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

__^ 1 — . fc 

was lost. Amid the general discouragement one cannot but note the 
extraordinary fortitude of Washington. His soul was wrung with 
grief, but there is no evidence that his faith in ultimate success 
was shaken. His ability as a soldier was of a very high order. 
Seldom was his army in a condition to meet the enemy in the open 
field ; but equal if not greater skill is required in conducting a 
retreat, and in wearing out a large army with a small one ; and in 
this Washington was a master with few equals in history. Washing- 
ton's diminished and discouraged army now lay at Hackensack, 
New Jersey, and the troops were leaving for their homes as fast as 
their brief enlistments expired. The commander had urged upon 
Congress the importance of long enlistments, and that body had 
complied, but their action had not yet borne fruit. 

He had with him but six thousand men, having left seven thou- 
sand with Lee at North Castle, in New York, with orders to cross 
the Hudson and join him as soon as practicable. But Lee hesitated; 
and Washington, moving on to Newark with Cornwallis in pursuit, 
sent messengers again and again, urging Lee to join him with all 
possible haste. Lee sent excuses, argued, dissembled, pretended to 
misunderstand, and refused to move ; and the commander in chief 
was forced to his inglorious retreat across New Jersey with but a 
fragment of his army. 

Charles Lee requires a little special attention at this point. He 

was English born, the son of a British officer, and had entered the 

army when only a boy. He served in various European 
Charles Lee j j ^ r 

wars and in the French and Indian War in America. 

Having returned to Europe, he again came to America when he saw 

that the people were about to grapple with the mother country, and 

offered his services to the patriot cause. But there is nothing in 

his career to show that he cared for the cause or that he possessed 

any special ability as a commander. Nevertheless he succeeded, by 

constant boasting, and by reckless criticisms of military affairs, in 

making the American people believe that he was a great military 

genius. Tall, hollow-cheeked, and uncomely, he was irascible, selfish, 

pompous, and censorious ; but these qualities were regarded as but 

pardonable eccentricities of a great man. All classes, including 

Congress and the commander in chief, at first greatly overrated Lee. 

In truth, he was an adventurer, a seeker of fame and fortune, and, 

as revealed by his private letters unearthed in London nearly a 

hundred years latec- a traitor to the American cause. 



CHAEACTER OF CHARLES LEE 261 

While Washington was fleeing before the British regulars and 
appealing to Lee for the other half of the array, the latter was plot- 
ting for the overthrow of his chief, whispering slanders, and writing 
to governors of states and members of Congress, asserting that the 
recent disasters were due to Washington's incompetency, and that it 
would all have turned out differently if his advice had been heeded. 
To Dr. Rush of Philadelphia Lee declared in substance that he 
could bring order out of chaos if he were made dictator for one week. 
Many of the uncritical, in whose minds Washington's star had 
recently waned, firmly believed Lee to be the greater general of the 
two. Lee was still lauded throughout the North as the hero and 
victor of Fort Moultrie, whereas he had done nothing in that noble 
defense but scold and find fault while beyond the reach of the 
British guns. Such was Charles Lee, the senior major general of the 
army since the retirement of Artemas Ward. 

The hour was dark and threatening indeed. Half the army was 
fleeing like a hunted fox across the Jersey plains, while the men were 
departing for their homes by hundreds, believing the cause to be a 
lost one ; the other half was held inactive by a traitor a hundred 
miles away. Furthermore, the gloomy outlook had led some three 
thousand of the leading Jersey farmers to accept Howe's latest 
offer and to swear allegiance to the Crown. Surely the infant life 
of the republic quivered in the balance. At this dark hour Con- 
gress came to the rescue. Silver and gold it had none ; but it could 
do something, and so it did. It made a master stroke for liberty, and 
in the same act answered Lee's intrigue and gave to the country its 
opinion of Washington. It made him military dictator for six months.^ 

Washington had reached the bank of the Delaware before Lee 
moved hand or foot to join him. Then Lee crossed the Hudson and 
leisurely proceeded westward. But ere the middle of December, 
after he had spent a night at a village tavern, and just as he was 
finishing a letter to Gates in which he spoke of Washington as 
" damnably deficient," a band of British riders did the 
American people a lasting service by making General Z^^ °*^" 
Lee a prisoner. Thus a large portion of the army, 
released from the baneful influence of this designing self-seeker, 
became again useful to the commander in chief. 

Howe had fully expected to catch his prey in West Jersey ; but 

1 This action was takea the day after Washington's success at Trenton, to ba 
noticed later, though Congress had not yet heard of the victory. 



262 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



the unwearied vigilance of Washington had saved the American 
army from capture, and landed it safely on the western bank of the 
Delaware. Intense was the excitement in Philadelphia when it 
was learned that the patriot army was fleeing before the enemy 
toward the city. Congress fled to Baltimore, all business was sus- 
pended, and the stores and schools were closed ; excited multitudes 
gathered in the streets, and a few days later the roads leading from 
the city were crowded with all sorts of vehicles bearing women and 




children and household goods to places of refuge.^ A great mass 
meeting, held in the statehouse yard, was addressed by Thomas 
Mifflin, and the result was that several hundred men shouldered 
their muskets and set out to join the army. 

The patriot cause had now reached its lowest ebb. Howe be- 
lieved that armed resistance had collapsed, and retired to Kew 
York, while Cornwallis prepared to take ship for England. New 
Jersey was held in the firm grasp of the British. Count Donop 
■was at Bordentown with a body of men ; a small force was stationed 
1 Winsor, Vol. VI, p. 371. 



WASHINGTON CROSSES THE DELAWARE 263 

at Priuceton, another at ISTew Brunswick; while a larger body, some 
twelve hundred Hessians under Colonel Rail, occupied Trenton. 

But the dawn was beginning to break upon the darkness. The 
volunteers from Philadelphia arrived in camp; Sullivan came 
with the troops that Lee had held so long at North Castle ; and 
Horatio Gates joined the army with two thousand men, sent by 
Schuyler from the upper Hudson. Washington now determined on 
a bold stroke. He would recross the Delaware by night and attack 
the Hessians at Trenton. He chose the most opportune time, — 
the day after Christmas, — judging wisely that after the festivities 
of the holiday the soldiers would be ill prepared for defense. The 
whole project was planned and executed by Washington. Gates, 
who was expected to assist, had gone off to Baltimore to intrigue 
with Congress; Putnam, who was guarding Philadelphia, could 
spare no men for the enterprise. Ewing and Cadwalader, who were 
ordered to cross the river at a lower point and cut off the enemy's 
retreat, failed to do so on account of the floating ice. But no obsta- 
cle could daunt the commander in chief. At the twilight hour, as 
the earliest stars began twinkling from a clear sky on that cold 
Christmas night, the little army of twenty-four hundred men began 
their struggle with the ice floes and the rapid current. Encumbered 
with their cannon and baggage they occupied many hours in cross- 
ing. By midnight the sky was overcast with clouds and the snow 
was falling, and the remaining hours were intensely dark. But the 
men labored on with brave hearts and at four o'clock, without the 
loss of a man, the army was safely landed on the Jersey 
shore. This was at Mackonkey's Ferry, nine miles Delaware 
above Trenton, and the march down the river was one 
of extreme suffering, for the snow had turned to rain and hail, and 
the roads w^ere in a dreadful condition. In two divisions, com- 
manded by Sullivan and Greene, the army reached the little capital 
by converging roads almost at the same moment, and began a simul- 
taneous attack. The enemy was wholly unprepared. Eall was 
roused from his bed to take command, but he soon fell mortally 
wounded. The battle was sharp and decisive, and was all over in 
three quarters of an hour. The American victory was 
complete. Less than two hundred Hessians made 
their escape ; a hundred or more were killed and wounded, while 
about nine hundred and fifty were made prisoners. Six cannon, 
twelve hundred muskets, and other stores were also taken. The 



264 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

American loss was two killed, two frozen to death, and a few dozen 
wounded. 

The victory at Trenton astonished everybody, so closely had 
Washington guarded the secret of his intentions. As the news 
spread through the country the rejoicing was loud and unrestrained. 
The captured Hessians were marched through the streets of Phila- 
delphia to give the people ocular proof of the American triumph. 
The people thanked God for the victory, and took courage to renew 
the struggle for liberty. " The Lord of hosts has heard the cry of 
the distressed," exclaimed the Lutheran patriarch, Muhlenberg, " and 
sent his angel to their assistance."^ 

Cornwallis, on hearing of the American victory, gave up his visit 
to England and hastened to Trenton. Washington had recrossed 
the swollen river with his spoils, but a week later we find him again 
at Trenton with a larger and more hopeful army. The terms of 
enlistment of a large number of his men expired with the year 1776, 
but by pledging to them his private fortune (an example followed 
by John Stark and others) and by the use of $50,000 placed in his 
hands by Robert Morris, the great financier of the Revolution, he 
induced them to remain. Cornwallis had reached Princeton, and on 
the 2d of January he began his march upon Trenton with eight thou- 
sand of his best troops. Washington had taken a stand on the banks 
of a little river south of the town, the Assunpink. But he saw that 
his force was much inferior to that of his antagonist, and he dared 
not risk a battle. The British reached Trenton late in the afternoon. 
Cornwallis now determined to throw his entire force against Wash- 
ington, crowd him to the bank of the Delaware, and capture his 
whole army. But his men were weary and it was evening. He 
decided to wait till morning, never doubting the success of his plans. 
He retired in high spirits, saying, " At last we have run down the 
old fox and will bag him in the morning." ^ But the fox was too 
Washington ^^^7 *o t)e caught. Keeping his camp-fires brightly 
escapes burning all night, and a few men busily throwing up 

Cornwallis. embankments within hearing of the British sentinels, 
Washington silently removed his entire army around the left wing 
and to the rear of his enemy, and by daylight they were marching 
happily toward Princeton. As the army neared the town a detach- 
ment under General Hugh Mercer encountered some two thousand 

1 Winsor, Vol. VI, p. 376. 

2 Fiske, Vol. I, p. 232. 



TRENTON AND PRINCETON 



British under Colonel j\Iawhood on their way to join Cornwallis. 
An immediate conflict ensued. After a fierce opening fire, the Brit- 
ish rushed upon the patriots with the bayonet ; and the latter, being 
without bayonets, fled through an orchard, leaving their 
valiant commander mortally wounded on the ground, ^jf^l'^ 
As the English were pursuing the fugitives they came 
to the brow of a hill where they met the main army under Washing- 
ton, who had heard the firing and was hastening to the spot. The 
British halted, and the battle became general. 

At this battle of Princeton Washington signally displayed that 
marvelous physical courage which characterized him. The Penn- 
sylvania militia wavered and seemed on the point of 
breaking, when the commander, to encourage them, rode ^^*"® °f 
to the front in the very midst of the flying bullets and 
drew rein within thirty yards of the enemy's lines. One of his aids 
drew his cap over his eyes that he might not see his chieftain die. 
Next moment a cloud of smoke enveloped rider and horse and hid 
them from view. A shiver of dread ran through the patriot ranks, 
but as the smoke cleared away and the commander sat unhurt, a wild 
shout of joy arose from the army. 

The British were soon put to flight, and the battle was over. 
Cornwallis was amazed to discover, on the morning of January 3, 
that his prey had again escaped him. The distant boom of cannon 
at sunrise told the story. He broke camp and made a dash for 
Brunswick to save his stores collected there, while Washington 
moved northward to Morristown and went into winter quarters in a 
strong position. 

In three weeks Washington had done a marvelous work for lib- 
erty. Frederick the Great is said to have pronounced his achieve- 
ments in those three weeks the most brilliant in military history. 
In that time Washington, with a small, half-trained, haK-hearted 
army, had won two victories, had taken a large number of prisoners, 
had greatly increased the size of his army, and, above all, had turned 
the tide of popular feeling and infused a new and living hope into 
the hearts of the patriots from Maine to Georgia and from the moun- 
tains to the sea. The star of Liberty, that had seemed so near its 
setting, was mounting again toward the zenith. 



266 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



NOTES AND ANECDOTES 

The Loyalists. — As noted in the text, probably one third of the people oi 
the thirteen colonies remained faithful to the king and opposed armed resistance 
from the beginning. These are ofjen called Tories, but the term "loyalists" is 
better, as they were not in full sympathy with the Tory party in England. 
Usually they were headed by the Episcopal clergy and the officers appointed by 
the Crown, A large majority of them were native born and wei'e sincere lovers of 
their country ; but their love for the king and their pride in being a part of the 
British Empire led. them to oppose independence. There were loyalists in every 
part of the country. In New England they were few ; in Central New York they 
were many, but still in the minority ; so in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, while 
in the South, especially in the newly settled parts of the Carolinas and Georgia, 
at least half the people remained loyal to the king. Many of the loyalists were 
passive ; they wished to be let alone ; their attitude was a negative one. But 
the patriots were aggressive and often violent. In the early years of the war 
they were usually content with disarming the loyalists and forcing them to 
make a public disavowal of their allegiance to the king ; but as the years passed 
they became more violent, drove the loyalists from their homes, treated them 
to tar and feathers, and so on. In Philadelphia two were hanged ; in New Jersey 
several were sentenced to death, but were pardoned by the governor. The 
loyalists were aggressive also at times. On one occasion they made a plot 
against the life of Washington. (See Van Tyne's " Loyalists in the Revolution," 
p. 127.) The Congress and the commander in chief took measures to suppress 
the enemies of the country, as they were called, and various state legislatures 
passed test acts requiring all "suspects " to take an oath to aid the cause of the 
patriots. The states also passed confiscation acts. In New York alone property 
to the amount of $3,600,000 came into the possession of the state through the 
confiscation law. Ibid., p. 280. 

Nathan Hale. — After the Continental army had reached Harlem Heights 
above New York, Washington, desiring to be made acquainted with the force 
and probable purpose of the enemy, applied to Colonel Knowlton for some 
capable man who would be willing to attempt the dangerous task. Knowlton 
chose Nathan Hale, a brilliant young captain, aged twenty -one, a graduate of 
Yale and, before the war, a Connecticut school-teacher. Hale volunteered his 
services and crossed the sound at Fairfield in September, 1776, disguised as a 
school-teacher. He reached New York, made a careful study of the enemy's 
fortifications, drew plans, and was waiting for the ferry to return by way of 
Brooklyn when he was betrayed by a Tory kinsman who recognized him. His 
arrest followed, and Howe turned him over to the inhuman provost marshal, 
Cunningham, who hanged him the next day without a trial, and even refused 
him the services of a clergyman or the use of a Bible. Hale's dying utterance 
is well known : "I regret that I have but one life to give for my country." 
While Hale was engaged in this business, Colonel Knowlton, who had sent him, 
was killed in the battle of Harlem Plains. 

Washington in Love. — While encamped at Harlem Heights, Washington 
occupied a house that must have brought him a ti'ain of recollections. In 1756 



NOTES 267 

he had been sent from "S'irginia to Boston to confer with Governor Shirley, and 
he was received with great respect along the route, for his exploits under Din- 
widdle and Braddock were eveiy where known. When he reached New York he 
became the guest of a Mr. Robinson at the latter's. mansion. Mrs. Robinson's 
sister, Mary Plilllipse, a beautiful heiress, was staying at the house, and the 
future father of his country was greatly smitten with her charms. On his return 
he again stopped at the mansion and remained as long as duty would permit. 
He wished to make her his bride, but lacked the courage to make the pro- 
posal. He confided his secret to a friend in New York, and this friend kept him 
informed by mail of the movements of the young lady, and at length informed 
him that she was to be married to Colonel Morris. Three years later Washing- 
ton married Mrs. Martha Custis, nee Miss Dandridge. With the coming of the 
Revolution, Colonel Morris, whose country seat was on Harlem Heights, went 
with the Tories, and Washington now occupied his vacated house as head- 
quarters. 

Israel Putnam. — General Piitnam, farmer, innkeeper, and soldier, though 
almost threescore at the opening of the war, and never a master of military 
science, was yet one of the most heroic and picturesque figures of the war. He 
commanded a body of rangers in the French and Indian War, was present at 
the capture of Montreal, and of Havana, Cuba, and was a colonel in Bradstreet's 
Western expedition against Pontiac in 1764. In the French War he was taken 
captive by the Indians, bound to a tree till the battle had ceased, and then taken 
into the forest to be tortured to death. He was stripped and tied to a sapling ; 
and the fagots piled at his feet were already ablaze when a French officer dashed 
through the savage horde, rescued Putnam, and carried him to Montreal, whence 
he was exchanged. 

The best known and perhaps the most daring feat in Putnam's checkered life 
was his riding down a precipice at West Greenwich, New York. He had but 
one hundred and fifty men, and was attacked by Governor Tryon with ten times 
that number. Ordering his men to retire to a swamp inaccessible to cavalry, 
he, on the near approach of the enemy, rode down a hundred stone steps that 
had been cut into the solid rock for foot passengers. 

Captivity of Ethan Allen. — In the early part of the war, and not long after 
his bold capture of Ticonderoga, Ethan Allen, as stated in the text, was made 
prisoner and carried in irons to England. His treatment was brutal in the 
extreme, but his spirit was unconquered. On one occasion he knocked an 
officer down for spitting in his face. The captain who brought him back to 
New York, however, was a humane man, and Allen became greatly attached to 
him, and saved his life by preventing a mutiny among the prisoners on the ship. 
Allen was released on parole, the condition being that he must not leave New 
York. Meantime every effort was made to induce him to join the British ranks, 
but no power could move him. Among other things he was offered a large tract 
of land in New Hampshire or Connecticut, when the country should be con- 
quered. His answer was characteristic. He said it reminded him of an incident 
related in Scripture, where the devil took Christ to the top of a high mountain 
and offered him all the kingdoms of the world, " when all th« while the damned 
soul had not one foot of land on earth." 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE REVOLUTION — FROM SARATOGA TO MONMOUTH 

The episode in New Jersey, resulting in the retreat of Washing- 
ton across the state and his later success at Trenton and Princeton, 
did not belong to the immediate general plan of the British ministry. 
That body, of which Lord George Germain, the secretary of state, 
was the mouthpiece and one of the leading spirits, had set its heart 
on dividing the colonies into two parts ^by conquering the great 
valley of the Hudson River. A year had passed since this work 
begun, and the conquest of Manhattan Island alone had been accom- 
plished, while all the vast region to the north, even to the Canadian 
border, was still held by the Americans. The British now deter- 
mined on a desperate and final 

STRUGGLE FOR THE HUDSON VALLEY 

It was decided that an army should invade New York from 
Canada, and that it should be commanded by Lieutenant General 
John Burgoyne, who had succeeded Guy Carleton, the governor of 
Canada, in command at the north. From this army a detachment of 
a thousand men under St. Leger was sent by way of Lake Ontario 
to land at Oswego, to proceed inland, capture Fort Stanwix on the 
upper Mohawk, sweep down the Mohawk Valley, and eventually 
join Burgoyne at Albany. From the south. General Howe was to 
move up the Hudson, destroying every vestige of opposition to the 
Crown, and at length to join his brethren in the general festivities at 
Albany. This was the plan for the summer of 1777. It would 
divide colonial America ; it would sever New England from the 
south, break down the rebellion, and bring back the erring colonists 
to their former allegiance. And it was perfectly easy to carry out — 
on paper. 

The defeat of the whole enterprise had its origin in a little slip 

268 



GERMAIN'S BLUNDER 269 

of the memory amounting to criminal negligence on the part of the 
one who, above all men, except his sovereign, desired the conquest of 
America — Lord George Germain. He had sent Burgoyne peremptory 
instructions to proceed down the Hudson, and the instructions to 
Howe to move up that river were equally peremptory. But before the 
latter order was signed he made a holiday excursion to the country, 
and on his return he forgot all about the paper, which lay in a pigeon- 
hole for several weeks. The delay was fatal. At length the mistake 
was discovered and the order sent ; but when it reached Howe, late 
in August, he was far from New York, — he had sailed to the Chesa- 
peake, and was moving northward to meet Washington on the banks 
of the Brandywine. Who can measure the importance to American 
liberty of this little blunder ? The fate of Burgoyne hung on the 
cooperation of Howe, and the fate of the JRp^volution hung on the 
success or failure of this campaign. 

During the closing days of June, 1777, General Burgoyne, with a 
well-trained army of eight thousand men, was sailing in high spirits 
up Lake Champlain toward Fort Ticonderoga. Four thousand of 
these were British regulars, three thousand were Hessians or Ger- 
mans, a few were Canadians, and some five hundred were Indians. 

Burgoyne was a gentleman of culture and education, eloquent, 
generous, and brave. He was a member of the British Parliament, 
as were several others in his army. Among his sub- 
ordinates were, General Phillips, an artillerist with ^S^T^^- 
an enviable reputation; General Fraser, a veteran commander of 
much ability ; and, not inferior to either, Baron Riedesel, who com- 
manded the Germans. The American commander at the north 
was General Schuyler, who had recently placed Arthur St. Clair in 
command of Ticonderoga. The garrison numbered three thousand 
men, and the fort was considered impregnable. But scarcely had the 
British landed near the fort when they scaled a rocky height — 
Mount Defiance, as it was afterward called — which commanded the 
fort, and which had been considered inaccessible. The Americans 
were completely surprised when they beheld the British and the 
frowning cannon on the brow of the hill overlooking 
the fort. The only thing to do was to abandon the xkonderoga 
place with all speed. In the darkness of that night St. 
Clair embarked his little army upon the lake, and they might have 
escaped untouched but for the light of a burning house that told 
the story of the flight. Before the coining of dawn Fraser and 



2170 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Riedesel were in hot pursuit, and the British flag was waving again 
over the walls of the noble fort from which it had been so uncere- 
moniously dragged by Ethan Allen two years before. After several 
days of flight and a few sharp encounters with their pursuers, the 
Americans joined Schuyler with the main army at Fort Edward. 

The news of the fall of this citadel of the Hudson Valley soon 
reached England, and occasioned the greatest rejoicing among the 
Tory party. The end of the rebellion was believed to be at hand. 
The king lost his self-control and, rushing into the queen's apart- 
ment, clapped his hands and shouted, " I have beat them ! I have 
beat all the Americans ! " ^ On the other hand, the Americans were 
deeply depressed by the news. Schuyler and St. Clair were fiercely 
denounced for not having fortified Mount Defiance, and St. Clair 
was tried the next ye?r by court-martial, but acquitted. 

The strange fact remained, which neither the English nor the 
Americans at that moment saw, that Burgoyne had done nothing 
toward conquering the Hudson Valley. He had done himself injury 
rather than good. He had captured the great fort, but the Ameri- 
cans did not need it ; and it became a burden to its possessor, as a 
goodly portion of his army was required to hold it.^ 

But, what was still more important, the people of New York and 
New England were aroused as never before since the battle of Lexing- 
ton, and they soon began pouring into Schuyler's camp by hundreds. 
Washington sent Arnold and Lincoln with reenforcements and Daniel 
Morgan with his five hundred Virginia sharpshooters. Schuyler 
rose to the occasion. He removed all the cattle and provisions from 
the country round and forced the enemy to draw his daily bread from 
Canada and England ; he felled trees and otherwise obstructed the 
roads, destroyed all bridges, and placed great stones and logs in the 
fords of the streams. Thus he obstructed the progress of the enemy, 
while his own army was daily increasing. Burgoyne was twenty- 
four days marching twenty-six miles, and every soldier that fell by 
the way — and they were many — was a net loss, for none could be 
replaced. It was now the middle of August, and ere the close of 
that month an irreparable double calamity befell the British in the 
battles of Oriskany and Bennington. 

Oriskany was, without exception, the bloodiest single conflict in 
the war of the Revolution. It occurred near Fort Stanwix, at the 
liead waters of the Mohawk, and General Nicholas Herkimer was its 

» Flake's " American Revolution," Vol. I, p. 271. ^ Ibid., p. 272. 




Scene of War in the Northern and Middle States. 



ORISKANY AND BENNINGTON 271 

hero. Herkimer was an aged German resident of that country, a 
veteran of the French War and now commander of the county 
militia. Hearing of the approach of St. Leger, he raised an army of 
eight hundred men for the relief of Fort Stanwix. He started toward 
the fort and fell into an ambush at Oriskany, about eight miles from 
the place. It was in a deep ravine crossing the road. Here the 
army of St. Leger, led by Sir John Johnson, son of the famous Sir 
William of earlier days, and Joseph Brant, the great oriskany 
Mohawk chieftain, met the army of Herkimer. Noth- August 6, 
ing more horrible than the carnage of that battle has ^TTT- 
ever occurred in the history of warfare. Men grappled and shot 
and stabbed and cursed and dashed out one another's brains. To 
add to the lurid horror of the scene, a terrific electric storm broke 
forth, and the thunders of heaven pealed answers to the booming 
artillery below. The livid lightning lit up the scene in quick flashes, 
and the rain poured in torrents ; but the men fought on like demons. 
A ball killed Herkimer's horse and gave him a mortal wound ; but 
he placed his saddle at the root of a tree, sat on it, and continued 
shouting his orders to the end of the battle.^ 

At length, when both armies were exhausted and one third of 
each had been cut down, the British and Indians left the Americans 
in possession of the field. Two weeks later Benedict Arnold came 
to the rescue of the fort, and, by a most clever ruse, frightened St. 
Leger and his Indian allies from the country. So scared they were, it 
was said, that they scarcely stopped running till they reached Canada. 

Burgoyne's army was beginning to suffer from hunger. At the 
foot of the Green Mountains, in the village of Bennington, were 
patriot stores and ammunition, and the British commander decided 
that he must have them. On August 13th he sent five hundred Ger- 
mans and one hundred Indians with two cannon to make the capture. 
Perhaps Burgoyne did not know that John Stark was in the neigli- 
borhood. Stark had done valiant service at Bunker Hill and Trenton, 
but he had retired to his New Hampshire home because Congress had 
promoted others and not him, as it should have done. But now he 
redeemed himself, and posterity remembers him more for Bennington 
than for anything else. His speech to his men is well known, " They 
are ours to-night, or Molly Stark is a widow " — and so they were, 
and Molly Stark's husband survived the battle for forty-five years. 

The British troops were attacked on three sides, Baum, theii 
1 Ibid., p. 290. 



272 HISTOKY OF THE UNITED STATES 

commander, was mortally wounded, and the whole force was made 
captive after a desperate battle. Meanwhile Colonel Breyman had 
been sent with several hundred men to the rescue of Baum. But at 
the moment of his arrival Colonel Seth Warner reached 
Bennm^on, ^^iq scene with five hundred more Green Mountain boys 
eager for battle. The fight was renewed and lasted till 
uight, when Breyman, with hut sixty or seventy men, escaped in the 
darkness. The Americans captured in all seven hundred men and a 
thousand stand of arms. Forty Americans and two hundred of the 
enemy were killed. 

Burgoyne's difficulties were now multiplying. His provisions 
were well-nigh exhausted, and his ranks were diminishing while 
those of his enemy were increasing. Now came the news of the 
disaster at Bennington, and ere he had recovered from the shock he 
heard of Oriskany and of the disgraceful flight of St. Leger. His 
only salvation lay in cooperation from the South, and for news from 
that quarter he waited daily, but he waited in vain. 

"With sincere regret we must now record an act of Congress by 
which Schuyler was superseded by Gates in command of the army. 
Gates 8UC- "^^^ latter was a self-seeker, and his intrigues in Con. 
ceeds gress had at last been successful. Schuyler was a truer 

Schuyler. patriot, an abler soldier ; but he had enemies, and they 
now gained the object they had sought. So perfectly had Schuyler 
managed that the Americans must have won, even without a com- 
mander, and Gates came only to receive the laurels that had been 
gathered by other hands. Schuyler bore the humiliation like a true 
patriot and offered to serve Gates in any capacity. 

Burgoyne's condition grew worse day by day. Lincoln harassed 
him from the rear, the main army of the patriots confronted him, 
while the men of New Hampshire " hung," to use his own words, 
" like a gathering storm on the left." To retreat to Canada was 
impossible; to risk a battle was perilous, as the Americans now 
numbered fifteen thousand ; and he longed for Howe, — but Howe 
was far away on the banks of the Brandy wine. At length, in despera- 
tion, the gallant Burgoyne determined to hazard a battle. He led 
his army across the Hudson in mid-September, and on the 19th a des- 
perate battle was fought. The Americans were strongly intrenched 
at Bemis Heights, which had been fortified by the Polish patriot, 
Kosciusko. Gates had intended to act wholly on the defensive, but 
the dashing Arnold begged and received permission to advance 



BATTLES AT SARATOGA 



273 



upon the enemy. With three thousand men 
he met the British, at Freeman's Farm.^ 
After a sharp fight Fraser attacked Arnold 
fiercely, and later in the day Riedesel joined 
First battle ^^°^- Arnold sent to Gates for 
of Saratoga, reenforcements, but the latter, 
September 19. ^^i^h more than ten thousand 
idle troops about him, refused ; and Arnold, 
though with inferior numbers, again dashed 
into the battle and kept it up till nightfall. 
Neither side could claim a victory; but the 
advantage lay with the Americans, who had 
lost but three hundred men, while the enemy's 
loss was nearly twice that number.* 

The conduct of Gates in refusing Arnold 
reenforcements was outrageous, and can be 
explained only on the ground of jealousy. 
In the account of the battle he sent to Con- 
gress, Gates took the entire credit to him- 
self, and did not even mention Arnold's 
name ! The army, however, sounded his 
praises, and this awakened the envy of Gates. 
A quarrel arose between the two, and Gates 
dismissed Arnold from his command. The 
latter was about to leave for Pennsylvania, 
but his brother officers begged him to remain, 
and he did so. 

Eighteen days after this battle a second 
took place on the same ground as the first. 
Burgoyne found that he must cut his way 
out of the trap in which he was placed, or 
perish, and he had a little hope of success. 
He had heard that the dashing Arnold was 
now without a command, and he had little 
respect for Gates, whom he called "an old 
midwife." "With fifteen hundred picked men 
he attempted to turn the American left, but 




Crown Ptfini 



il»t%>gtO 



1 Of the four names by which this battle is known the reader can take his choice : 
Saratoga, Stillwater, Bemis Heights, and Freeman's Farm. 

2 Some writers make the losses much greater. 



274 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

was driven back at every point by Morgan's sharpshooters and the 
New England regulars. 

Arnold was watching the conflict from a distance and could 
endure being a spectator no longer ; he leaped upon his charger and 
was soon in the midst of the battle. The men shouted 
er 9. £^^ j^y ^^ ^j^g sight of their old commander, and from 
then to the end of the day it was Arnold's voice that they obeyed. 
The British were thoroughly defeated, and General Fraser, one of 
Burgoyne's ablest commanders, was mortally wounded. As evening 
was closing the battle, a wounded German soldier lying on the 
ground fired at Arnold and shattered his left leg, 
ArnoW * *^® same that had been wounded at Quebec. A 

rifleman who saw the incident rushed upon the Ger- 
man with his bayonet and would have run him through the body, 
but Arnold cried, " For God's sake, don't hurt him ! he's a fine 
fellow ! " and the man was spared. It has been well said that this 
was the hour when Benedict Arnold should have died.^ Had it been 
so, what a name he would have left in the annals of America! but 
how painful for the historian to record the later career of this dar- 
ing, brilliant soldier. 

The British army was now weary unto death, and a braver army 
never wielded the sword. The Hudson was guarded at every point 
by the Americans, who were fast closing around their intrepid foes. 
The wife of General Riedesel, with her three little children, had 
followed the fortunes of her husband through the war. For six 
days she crouched in the cellar of a large house with her children, 
her maids, and several wounded ofiicers, while the Americans, think- 
ing the place a lodging for officers, trained their guns on the house, 
and eleven cannon balls passed through it in one night. 

General Fraser died soon after the battle. He had requested 
that his body be buried at the twilight hour on a green hill not far 
from the river. This was done, and as the little group of officers 
stood sadly around the grave of their fallen comrade, the scene was 
rendered more solemn and awful by the peals of the American artil- 
lery that mingled with the broken voice of the chaplain.* 

What now could the British army do but surrender? It was 
practically surrounded by the Americans, whose cannonade was 
incessant, day and night ; its supplies were cut off, and there was no 

^ I have borrowed the account of this incident from Fiske. 
2 Baroness Riedesel's diary. 



FOREIGN AID 275 



hope of rescue. Sir Henry Clinton ^ was at last moving up the Hud- 
son with a small army, and had won some successes ; but it was not 
possible for him to reach Burgoyne before the surrender. Had he 
done so the result might have been the surrender of two British 
armies instead of one, for the patriots were now twenty thousand 
strong and were still swarming in from the valleys and the hills. 

Burgoyne asked for a conference with Gates on October 12. The 
latter at first demanded unconditional surrender, but the English 
general refused and declared that his men would first fall upon their 
foe and accept no quarter.^ Gates then gave better terms. The Brit- 
ish were permitted to stack their own arms and were „ d f 
promised transportation to England on the condition Burgoyne, 
that they must not serve again during the war.^ The October 17, 
number of men surrendered was 5799, with ill the can- ^'^^'^■ 
non, muskets, and munitions of war ; but the entire British losses 
from the beginning of the campaign exceeded ten thousand men. 

After the surrender the American army melted away as rapidly 
as it had assembled, leaving but an nucleus of regulars. The militia 
returned to their homes, feeling confident (and this feeling was shared 
throughout the country) that the crisis of the war was past and that 
the complete independence of America must in the end be achieved. 

FOREIGN AID 

The crisis of the Revolution had passed before the colonists 
received any substantial military aid from abroad, and they would 
probably have won their independence had they been left wholly to 
themselves. Nevertheless the help that at length came was received 
most gratefully. France was the first to stretch forth a helping hand. 
But the motive of the French was not the noblest of motives. It 
was not a feeling of friendliness that prompted their action ; they 
scarcely knew the Americans except as a foe whom they had met 
on the field of battle. Nor was it a desire to strike a blow in the 
cause of Liberty struggling to be born ; France was at that moment 

1 Clin';on had sent a messenger to Burgoyne with a letter written on very thin 
paper and encased in a silver bullet. At Kingston the messenger was caught. He 
swallowed the bullet, but it wus recovered by means of an emetic. The messenger 
was hanged, and Burgoyne waited in vain for the news from Clinton. 

2 See Creasy's " Fifteen Decisive Battles," " Saratoga." 

* Congress declined to carry out these terms fully. See note at the end of 
the chapter. 



276 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

the most king-ridden country in Europe. What prompted the French 
government to interfere in behalf of the patriot cause in America 
was chiefly a desire to cripple and wound her oldeneray, who had 
robbed her of her own fair dominion in the New World. 

This was the chief motive of the French ; but there was another. 
In addition to a certain romantic interest in the American struggle, 
felt in the higher circles of French society, there was a spirit of 
unrest throughout the nation that only waited an opportunity to 
vent itself. Taught by such men as Voltaire and Rousseau, Montes- 
quieu and Turgot, the French people had come to that state of 
discontent which first found expression in a desire to aid the strug- 
gling Americans, and later in the violent Revolution that swept over 
their own land. 

Scarcely had the breach between England and her colonies begun 

when the French sought to widen it. Early in the contest Arthur 

Lee, then living in London as the agent of Virginia, 

athv secured f x'om the French government, under the name of 

a fictitious business firm, military stores to the amount 

of $200,000. Congress then sent Silas Deane to join Lee, and it was 

not long' until French vessels had landed in America two hund. ed 

heavy guns, four thousand tents, a large supply of small arms, and 

clothing for thirty thousand men. This was done secretly, as France 

was not yet ready to break with England. 

Soon after the Declaration of Independence had been adopted 
Congress sent Franklin to join Lee and Deane in Paris. Before the 
opening of the war Benjamin Franklin alone, of all the 
Par's ^^ American people, enjoyed a fame bounded only by civil- 
ization. He had won a great name as' a philosopher 
and a writer of epigrams, and now he was about to prove himself 
one of the leading diplomats of his generation. Every class of 
French society, from the nobility to the peasant, now paid homage to 
the genius who could '' snatch the lightning from the sky and the 
scepter from tyrants." ^ It was certainly a fortunate hour for 
America when Franklin was chosen for this important mission. 

For more than a year he labored with unwearied zeal at the 
French court to secure the recognition of the United States. At 
first the French were unwilling to go to such lengths, but Ver- 
gennes, the foreign minister, made a secret arrangement to convey 
to America two million francs a year in quarterly payments, to be 
1 It was Turgot who said of Franklin, Eripuit cwlo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis. 



TREATY WITH FRANCE 277 

repaid eventually in merchandise. Three ships laden with army 
stores were also sent; two of them arrived in safety, but the third 
was captured by the British. 

A year passed, and during this time Franklin and his com- 
panions were steadily molding French opinion in favor of America. 
At length, late in the autumn of 1777, the news of the surrender of 
Burgoyne reached Paris, and the excitement was scarcely less there 
than in America. The popular enthusiasm reached the court, and 
ere the close of December the king sent word to Franklin that he 
was ready to acknowledge the independence of the United States. 
His haste was doubtless caused by a fear that the English would 
now offer terms acceptable to the Americans. Negotiations were 
immediately begun, and on February 6, 1778, a secret treaty was 
concluded between the two countries — a compact of friendship to 
be made public, and a treaty of alliance to be made public only 
when England declared war against France. By this treaty the 
United States made a solemn agreement not to make terras with 
England until that country had acknowledged its independence. 

And France won the American heart. For long years before the 
Eevolution, the filial love of the colonists for Great Britain was 
unbroken, while there was a feeling of dislike toward France, the 
rival claimant of the soil of North America, and toward Frenchmen, 
whom they had often met on the field of battle. But in the fifteen 
years following the Stamp Act, this feeling was reversed, and the 
effects of that change have not been eradicated to this day.^ It is 
true that America has come to love old England again, as it should; 
but France has never been forgotten for her timely aid in this trying 
hour. And this sympathetic bond is strengthened by the remem- 
brance of the personal service of that brilliant young French noble- 
man, the Marquis de Lafayette. 

At a dinner party in Germany he heard of the revolted colonies 
battling for freedom in America. His inborn love of liberty was 
aroused, and he determined to offer his life and his for- 
tune in the glorious cause, believing, as he said, that ^^ 
"the welfare of America is closely bound up with the welfare of 
mankind." He had inherited a great fortune, and, fitting out a ves- 
sel secretly at his own expense, he embarked on the sea and reached 
the shore of South Carolina — two years to the day after the battle 

1 A monument was recently erected in Washington to commemorate French aid 
in the Bevolution. 



mSTOBY OF THE UXTTED STATES 



of Lexington. Proceeding to Philadelphia, he entered to Congres* 
his services without pay. was made a major g^mend by that b>>iy. 
became a menibei of the military family of Washingttm. and soon 
entered the depths of thar great man's heart. Valiantly he served 
throagh the \r3Lr : and he leramed. rejoicing at its close, to rej€an his 
yoathfol wife in his native land. In the course of onr history many 
o&er foreigners have won the appla ase and homage of the American 
people ; but the name of no other stands, or can ever stand, so high 
as the name of Lafayette. 

There were a few others also fr>L»m foreign shores whose services 
in the War for Independence cannot be forgotten by a grateful peo- 
ple. Among these was another liberty-loving Fi>?nciniaii. the Baron 
de Kalb. who eame in the same ship with Lafayetre. Faithfully he 
served as a major general in New Jersey and Maryland and later in 
the South, where he fell at Camden with eleven wounds, and died 
soc«i after the battle. Among the names not to be forgotten is that 

of the Polish patriot. Thaddeus Koseiusia A youth 
K+M!iis». ^ ^^^jj^ years, he joined the army in 177t>, and as an 
engineer became one of the most useful men in the service. At the 
elose of the war he returned to his native land and became the leader 
of his countrymen against the combined attack of the powers that had 
determined on the division of Poland. But his little tand w:is 
routed at Macieowioe by a vast army, and Koseiusio fell, covered 
with wounds, uttering the sadly prophetic words, ** This is the end 
of Poland." * Still another brave defender of liberty we must note 

from this same unhappy Poland. Count Pulaski, the 

sea erf a rich nobleman who perished in the defense of 
his cooLntry. Pulaski made his way to America, became an elective 
leader of cavalry, and at last, in the siege of Savannah, gave his life 
to the cause that he loved above all things — the cause of Liberty. 
One of the most useful of our for>?ign helpers was the German noble- 
^^ man. Baron Steuben. He joined the army late in 1777. 

was made inspector geneiaL and grieatly raised the e5ec- 
tiveness of the army. I :iag diseipMne and drill according 

to the best European - ^ At the close oi the war St^ib^i 

I To this fall d» po«?T C^s - - -- : ^ ■ — 

-I". 



PEATH OF CHATHAM »» 

wais gmited ai pi^ksioQ by Cwigwss, and a larg^ tract of land near 
tlte site of the battle of OiisksuiT by the state of New York. On 
this txaet he boilt a house and liTvd happily among his serrants and 
tenants until his death in 17^4. Among the friends of America at 
this p«iod ve eannot omit the name of Fiedeiiek the Greats kii^ of 
Prassia.* Ftediaiek vas then the mot>c powerful peisiMiage in Europe. 
fle hadbeee gnatly aided by England daring the Seren Years' War; 
but he eould not eoneeal his sympathy with the patriots^ and he 
pvored it by opening the port of l>uit2ig to Ameriean cruisers and 
by refusing to permit any more Hessians to pass through his d<^ 
minjonis en route to America. He lefiosed, however, to negotiate a 
treaty at that time with the Ftiited States^ 

Another item of foreign news is very interestii]^ at ^lis point 
The astonishing tidings of Burgoyne's surrender spread dismay in the 
royal party in En^and, and in Febmary, 177$, Lord Xorth arvse in 
ti^ Commons and proposed that every p«ftut for which the Ameri- 
cans contended in the beginning be yielded by Parliament. This 
humiliating act passed both houses and was signed by ^he king in 
March. But it was too late, and the commissioners sent to treat with 
Congress wa« received with seoin^ as America refused all overtures 
except on the ground of independence. 

Two days after King George had signed this act. the news of the 
French treaty with America was made known to England, and war 
was soon declared against France. Lord Xorth then determined to 
resign his office, and the nation, in its distre^ turned to the GreaU: 
Commoner. It was believed that he and he alone could yet concili- 
ate America. The Ung, with his usual obstinacy, hesitated to put the 
govemm«Dit into the hands of his old enemy. He would probably 
have been foarced to do so by pulilic (pinion had not death oome to 
his i^scue by removing Chatham. The Cireat Commoner was mak- 
i]]^ Ms last speech before the L(Hds> and his subject was tiiat Amer- 
ica must not be lost to England. Bandaged in flannels and leaning 
on erutehes, he awak^ied to his theme, and the light of other days 
shone from his eyes. He finished, but soon rose again to answer a 
reply, when he fell to the floor in a swoon. He was canned to his 
hcnoe by loving hands, and a few weeks later he passed away, at the 
age of threescore years and ten. Xorth was now prevailed on to ccxk- 
tiuue as premier, and tiie war went on. 

l»kefli;tkieaL Sm Omftnry Jr4i««c»«, Vol. X£S. pw 913. 



280 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



FROM MORRISTOWN TO GERMANTOWN 

We must now go back and take up the thread of the story of the 
war in America. During the year 1777 the military operations 
were carried on in two parallel lines. The one we have traced to 
its culmination in the surrender at Saratoga. The other lay in a 
different field and with different surroundings, and although no 
brilliant victory rewarded the American commander, his general- 
ship was this year, as usual, superior to that of any of his fellow- 
commanders. 

We left Washington encamped for the winter at Morristown. 
With the opening of spring new recruits began to arrive, and when 
the commander broke camp on the 28th of May his army numbered 
some eight thousand men. General Howe had spent the winter at 
New York, and his plan now seemed to be to dash across New Jer- 
sey, capture Philadelphia, and return in time to assist Burgoyne. 
Washington, divining this, planted his army stubbornly in the way. 
His army was but half the size of Howe's, and he refused to be 
drawn into open battle; but he harassed his enemy from every 
side, and after eighteen days of this watchdog policy, actually drove 
Howe back to Staten Island.^ Washington, supposing that Howe 
would proceed up the Hudson, prepared to cooperate with Schuy- 
ler. But Howe embarked upon the sea and sailed for the mouth of 
the Delaware. Finding that river too well guarded, as he supposed, 
he sailed around the peninsula and up Chesapeake Bay, landing near 
Elkton, Maryland, the last of August. 

Washington was amazed to discover that Howe had abandoned 
Burgoyne ; such a military blunder was almost inconceivable. And 
besides, the possession of Philadelphia could be of little advantage to 
the British, as the city was not a military, nor even an administra- 
tive, center. Congress could easily fly to a neighboring town and 
continue its business. But Howe acted as though the goal of the 
war was to take the " rebel capital." Soon after he landed at the 
head of the Chesapeake, however, Washington was there to confront 
him with an army now raised to eleven thousand. Howe's army 
was much larger and better drilled, but Washington determined 
to risk a battle. He was driven to this, it may be said, by public 
sentiment. The people could not understand the Fabian policy, of 

1 John Fiske, our ablest writer on the Revolution, pronounces this feat of Wash- 
ington's as remarkable as anything he ever did, and I do not hesitate to agree with him. 



CAPTURE OF PHILADELPHIA 



281 



which he was such a master ; and had he given up Philadelphia 
without striking a blow, he would have been severely censured by 
the public. As Fiske says, he saw that it was better to suffer a 
defeat than to yield the city without a struggle, and he met Howe 
in southern Pennsylvania, on the banks of the Brandywine. 

Washington took a strong position at Chadd's Ford, his center 
protected in front by artillery under General Anthony Wayne, while 
Greene remained in the background as a reserve. The right wing 




Elktcm%. I «J ^e 



-^^\^ 



VALIET FORGE, PH;rL,AX)KU»HXA.j 

AND 

BR ANT) Y WIND . 



Borjjiay ir Ca.,!f.T. 



under Sullivan was then thrown up the stream for two miles. A 
portion of the British army, under Knyphausen, the ablest of the 
Hessian commanders except Riedesel, occupied Washington's front, 
while Cornwallis, with great skill, made a flank movement by 
marching up the Lancaster road, crossing the Brandywine, and strik- 
ing Sullivan in the rear. Washington had expected «„4.4.ig .* 
this movement, but was thrown off his guard by a false Brandywine, 
report. Sullivan made a desperate fight at the church, September 

111 *7*7'7 

but was slowly forced back. Knyphausen then crossed ' 

the creek to attack Wayne, who, fighting as he went, made an orderly 



282 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



retreat upon Chester, as Sullivan and Greene had done. The loss on 
the American side exceeded one thousand men, while the enemy lost 
nearly six hundred. The British were justified in claiming a victory, 
as they drove the patriot army from the field. 

Brandywine decided the fate of Philadelphia. Washington 
knew that the capital must be given up, but he determined to harass 
and detain the enemy as much as possible, his chief object being to 
prevent aid being sent to Burgoyne on the Hudson. There were 
frequent skirmishes, in one of which Wayne lost three hundred men, 
and a regular battle was prevented at Chester Valley 
PhTVl^M^ °^^^-^ ^^ ^ violent storm. So vigilant was Washington 
in retarding the British that it required fifteen days 
for them to march twenty-five miles. They entered the capital 
on September 26. Congress had fled to Lancaster, after again mak- 
ing Washington dictator — this time for sixty days. Howe encamped 
his main army at Germantown, then a village of one long street a 
few miles north of Philadelphia; and here, on the 4th of October, 
Washington again gave battle. 

This battle might have proved a glorious victory for the Ameri- 
cans but for an unfortunate accident caused by a dense fog. Wash- 
ington had planned the battle admirably. His army was to advance 
by four different roads, and to meet at daybreak and open the battle 
at different points. Sullivan, in command of the main army, swept 
down from Chestnut Hill and met the British advance guard at Mount 
Airy, a slight elevation between Chestnut Hill and Germantown. 
Joining with Wayne at this point, Sullivan charged the guard, 
Germantown Pressing them back on the light infantry, and both were 
October 4, ' soon put to flight. A portion of the British took refuge 
1777. ill Judge Chew's stone mansion, which the Americans 

bombarded for some hours without effect. Sullivan had passed on 
down the main street, and was now supported by Greene, who had 
come up with the American left wing. The British were thrown 
into confusion, and there was every promise of a brilliant American 
victory, when, in the dense fog that enveloped the entire surrounding 
country. General Stephen, who commanded a brigade of Greene's 
division, fired on Wayne's men, mistaking them for the enemy. A 
panic soon spread through the army, and a general retreat was 
ordered. The British saw their sudden advantage, re-formed, and 
pursued the Americans for several miles. The latter, however, re- 
treated in good order, saving their wounded and their artillery 



SUFFERING AT VALLEY FORGE 283 



The respective losses were nearly the same as at the battle of 
Brandy wine. ^ 

This battle, which occurred thirteen days before the surrender of 
Burgoyne at Saratoga, though resulting in a defeat, came so near being 
a victory that the American aru:y was rather elated than depressed 
by the result. The British general, after opening the Delaware to his 
brother's fleet by reducing forts Mercer and Mifflin at the cost of 
half a thousand men, settled snugly in Philadelphia for the winter ; 
while Washington, after hovering threateningly about for some 
weeks, led his army to Valley Forge. 

VALLEY FORGE AND MONMOUTH 

Every American reader is familiar with the story of the sufferings 
of the patriot army at Valley Forge. To this valley among the hills 
that border the winding Schuylkill, some twent}'" miles from Phila- 
delphia, AVashington led his half-clad army of eleven thousand men 
about the middle of December, 1777. As the men marched to this 
retreat their route could be traced in the snow by the blood that had 
oozed from broken shoes. On reaching the place they found it 
shelterless, and for two weeks they toiled in the bitter weather, build- 
ing huts in which to spend the winter. Many were without blankets, 
and had to sit by the fire all night to keep from freezing. Washing- 
ton informed Congress, on December 23, that he had in camp 2898 
men "unfit for duty because they are barefoot, and otherwise 
naked." The rudely built liospitals were soon crowded with the 
sick and dying. Some died for want of straw to make a bed on the 
frozen ground, others for want of sufficient nourishment. " The 
unfortunate soldiers were in want of everything," wrote Lafayette 
years afterward ; " they had neither coats, hats, shirts, nor shoes, 
their feet and legs froze till they became black, and it was often 
necessary to amputate them." Thus that long aiid dreary winter was 
spent by the patriots who won for us the independence of America, 
and the fewness of the desertions of that trying hour attest the 
depths of their patriotism. 

But our pity is mingled with indignation when we consider that 
most of this suffering arose from mismanagement and the incom- 

1 General Stephen was accused of drunkenness during the battle, was tried by 
court-martial, and was dismissed from the service. As to the losses at Germantown, 
as in most of the battles, the records are incomplete, and it is difficult to get at the 
exact truth. 



284 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

petency of Congress. The country was full of clothing and provi 
sions ; " hogsheads of shoes, stockings, and clothing were lying at 
different places on the roads and in the woods, perishing for want 
of teams, or of money to pay the teamsters." Congress had degen- 
erated woefully since the passing of the great Declaration. Franklin 
was in Paris, Henry was governor of Virginia, Jefferson, Rutledge, 
and Jay were no longer on the roll. The wily politician was too 
often chosen instead of the statesman and the patriot, and his bane- 
ful influence has not ceased to be felt from that time to the present. 
Incompetent men were promoted in the army by Congress, in 
spite of the protests of the commander in chief, and the result 
was mismanagement and wide"spread demoralization. 

It was during this fateful winter also that the detestable plot 
known as the " Conway Cabal " took place. Thomas Conway was 

an Irishman who had long been in the service of France, 
Conway ^^^^ ^^^ ^^ officer of some reputation. He had been in 

the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, and was 
about to be promoted when Washington, believing the movement 
unwise, protested. Conway was highly offended, and in a short 
time he had concocted a scheme to overthrow Washington, and 
to elevate Gates to his place. Conway's chief fellow-conspirators 
were Thomas Mifflin and Dr. Rush of Pennsylvania, and James 
Lovell, a member of Congress from Massachusetts. Anonymous 
letters, attacking Washington and comparing his failure in Penn- 
sylvania with the success of Gates at Saratoga, were spread about, 
and many of the uncritical were won over. Even Congress seemed 
to favor the plotters ; it reorganized the Board of War, made Gates 
its president, Mifflin a member, and Conway inspector general 
of the army.' This board was given much power that properly 
belonged to the commander in chief. Thus matters seemed to be 
moving to a focus, when suddenly the whole scheme exploded and 
came to naught. Young James Wilkinson, a member of Gates's staff, 
while merry with wine, disclosed the secret correspondence between 
Conway and Gates ; and the information reached the ears of Wash- 
ington, who set about probing the scheme with a quiet dignity that 
won the admiration of all. In a few weeks public 'sentiment was so 
changed that no one could be found who would acknowledge having 
had anything to do with the plot. Even Conway, being wounded in 
a duel and expecting to die, wrote Washington a letter expressing 
his sincere grief at what he had done. 



CLINTON LEAVES PHILADELPHIA 28S 

One thing more must be mentioned in connection with this winter 
at Valley Forge — the coming of Steuben. The army was but half 
trained until it was taken in hand by this noble old Ger- 
man, who had been schooled on the staff of Frederick the y ®,j^®^** 
Great. With infinite pains he drilled the men day after 
day. Losing his patience at times, it is said that he would exhaust 
his vocabulary of French and German oaths, and then call on his aid 
to curse the blockheads in English.^ He acknowledged afterward, 
however, that the Americans were wonderfully quick to learn ; and 
it is certain that from this time to the end of the war the patriot 
soldiers could measure up almost, if not fully, to the standard of 
the British regulars. 

While the Americans were enduring the hardships of Valley 
Forge, the British were living in luxury in Philadelphia. Most of 
the patriots had fled from the city, and the loyalists and the soldiers 
spent the winter in a round of gayeties, — theaters, balls, and parties, 
— and to these were added gambling, cockfighting, and horse racing. 
Franklin wrote from Paris that Howe had not taken Philadelphia, 
but Philadelphia had taken Howe. While the army at Valley Forge 
was drilling and becoming more inured to the hardships of war, that 
at Philadelphia was deteriorating through luxury and idleness ; and 
their relative efficiency was greatly changed when they met again 
on the battlefield. 

General Howe had undertaken the task of subjugating the 
colonies with much reluctance, and he never proved himself a 
vigorous, dashing commander. Neither his operations during the 
preceding summer nor his winter of pleasure in Philadelphia wag 
pleasing to the authorities, and his recall was determined upon. Sir 
Henry Clinton was chosen to succeed him, and he at once decided to 
evacuate Philadelphia and move his army to New York. Three thou- 
sand loyalist residents, afraid to face their countrymen, ^g British 
begged to be taken away, and Clinton sent them to New leave 
York by sea, while he proceeded to cross New Jersey Philadelphia. 
with his army. The ever-vigilant Washington was on the alert, and 
his army, after the long winter of privation, took courage with the 
dawning of spring and with the glorious news of the French alliance, 
and came forth with the vigor of a well-trained athlete. It was the 
18th of June when Clinton's rear guard left Philadelphia, and before 
sunset of that day the Americans occupied it; two weeks later Coa- 

1 Fiske, Vol. II, p. 54. 



286 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



gress had returned and was sitting in its accustomed place. But 
Washington was not content to occupy the city; he determined to 
strike the British ere they reached New York. 

Clinton was greatly encumbered with a baggage train twelve 
miles long, and Washington soon overtook him. The two armies 
were about equal in strength, each containing some fifteen thousand 
men ; and for once — thanks to Baron Steuben — the Americans 
were equal to the enemy in fighting qualities. Clinton would gladly 
have avoided an engagement, but Washington was eager to attack 
him. The battle would probably have been the greatest of the war 
— a fight to the finish between two armies of equal strength — but 
for the disobedience and treachery of one man, Charles Lee, who 
had lately been exchanged. As stated before, Lee was a traitor to 
the patriot cause ; but Washington, not suspecting this, gave him his 
old command as senior major general. Lee now opposed an attack 
on Clinton and, being overruled, he sullenly refused to lead the 
attack. Lafayette was appointed to take his place, but next day 
Lee, professing to have changed his mind, requested to be allowed to 
lead the charge, as his rank entitled him to do. Washington, with 
the consent of Lafayette, magnanimously, but very unfortunately, 
granted the request. 

The 28th of June, 1778, became the fateful day of the com- 
ing together of the two armies. The British left wing under 

Cornwallis had encamped the preceding night near 
M^^mouth Monmouth Courthouse, while the right wing under 

Knyphausen lay near on the road toward Middletown. 
In the early morning Washington sent Lee forward to attack Corn- 
wallis in flank, while he, with the main army, would come up and 
make the attack general. Lee advanced and took a strong position, 
partially surrounding Cornwallis, when, to the astonishment of the 
enemy as well as of his own men, Lee ordered a retreat across a 
swamp. Wayne, who had already begun the attack, was thunder- 
struck at this command, but could do nothing but obey his superioi, 
Clinton saw the strange movement and was quick to follow up the 
advantage it gave him. Lafayette was about to dash his force 
against Clinton when Lee stopped the movement. Everything now 
pointed to a complete English victory, and so it would have been but 
for the arrival of the commander in chief. Washington, amazed at 
hearing of Lee's retreat, galloped to the front, and, meeting Lee at 
the head of the retreating column, demanded in a terrific voice an 



MONMOUTH 287 



explanation of his conduct. Lee quailed at the impetuous anger of 
his chief, who was usually so calm and self-contained. He muttered 
something about his not having favored a general engagement, when 
Washington, losing all self-restraint, shouted that he must be obeyed. 
He then wheeled about and put a stop to the disgraceful retreat, and, 
meeting Lee again, ordered him to the rear and himself took imme- 
diate command of the battle. 

The mercury mounted to ninety-six degrees in the shade on that 
scorching Sunday when the battle of Monmouth was fought, and 
more than fifty men on each side who escaped the enemy's bullets 
fell by sunstroke. Scarcely fifteen minutes elapsed after Washing- 
ton reached the front, before the Americans, while under fire, had 
formed into line of battle. Greene commanded the right wing and 
Lord Stirling the left, while Wayne held the center, and Knox 
managed the artillery. The British were soon checked, and then 
steadily pushed back until the Americans occupied the high ground 
from which Lee had retreated in the morning. At one time during 
the conflict the British colonel, Monckton, seeing the necessity of 
dislodging Wayne, advanced at the head of his troops for a des- 
perate charge with the bayonet ; but Wayne's bullets flew like hail, 
the column was driven back, and nearly every officer, including 
Monckton, was slain. The battle raged until nightfall, when the 
darkness ended it. Washington determined to renew the attack 
at daybreak ; but Clinton silently withdrew in the night, and at the 
coming of dawn was far on his way toward the seacoast. 

The battle of Monmouth was the last general engagement on 
northern soil. English historians have usually pronounced this a 
drawn battle ; but while it was not a decisive victory, the advantage 
lay clearly with the Americans. The British loss was over four 
hundred, and exceeded the American loss by nearly a hundred. 
Within a week after the battle some two thousand of Clinton's 
soldiers, mostly Germans, deserted him, and most of them became 
substantial American citizens. 

The extraordinary conduct of Lee at this battle can be explained 
only on the assumption that he was a traitor to his adopted country. 
Most historians have sought to condone Lee's action and to claim 
him still among the patriots. This view we would gladly accept 
were it not for the discovery, many years later, of his private cor- 
respondence with Howe, in which he advises the latter as to the best 
means of conquering the colonies. His aim at Monmouth was, doubt- 



288 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

less, to compass the def«»at of the Americans and to throw the blame 
on Washington for not taking his advice. If then Congress had 
honored him for his superior wisdom with the chief command, he 
would probably have opened peace negotiations with 
Clinton. But Lee's plan was frustrated, and he soon 
found himself under arrest for writing an impertinent letter to his 
chief. A court-martial suspended him from command for a year, 
and ere its close he got into a broil with Congress and was expelled 
from the army. Lee retired to a plantation which he had in Virginia, 
surrounded himself with pet dogs, and lived among them, apart from 
humanity, until 1782, when he made a trip to Philadelphia, where 
he suddenly died of fever. He was buried at Christ Church, and 
thus his last wish, that he might not be buried within a mile of a 
church, was disregarded. 

A few weeks after the battle of Monmouth we find Washington 
encamped at White Plains, east of the Hudson, while Clinton occu- 
pied the city of New York ; and here the two commanders remained 
watching each other for three years while the seat of war was 
transferred to the South. 

NOTES AND ANECDOTES 

The Baroness Riedesel. — The wife of Baron Riedesel, one of Burgoyne's 
ablest generals, who accompanied her husband throughout the memorable Sara- 
toga campaign, was a woman of rare beauty a.nd accomplishments. She kept 
an elaborate diary that gives a remarkable insight into the daily life of the 
army. She tells how the soldiers at first were " very merry, singing songs, and 
panting for action," and how terrible was the suffering just before the surrender. 
From this diary, describing incidents of the surrender, we take the following : 
"As I passed through the American [lines] I observed, and this was a great con- 
solation to me, that no one eyed us with looks of resentment ; but they all 
greeted us and even showed compassion. When I drew near the tents, a hand- 
some man approached me, took my children and hugged and kissed them. 
' You tremble,' said he, addressing himself to me, ' be not afraid. . . . You 
will be very much embarrassed to eat with all these gentlemen ; come with your 
children to my tent. . . .' ' You are certainly a husband and a father,' I an- 
swered ; ' you have shown me so much kindness. ' I now found that he was 
General Schuyler. Some days after this we arrived at Albany, where we so 
often wished ourselves ; but we did not enter it as we expected we should — 
victors I "We were received by the good General Schuyler, his wife, and daugh- 
ters, not as enemies, but kind friends ; and they treated us with the most 
marked attention and politeness, as they did General Burgoyne, who had caused 
General Schuyler's beautifully finished house to be burnt. In fact, they behaved 
like persons of exalted minds, who determined to bury all recollections of their 



NOTES 289 

own injuries in the contemplation of our misfortunes. General Burgoyne was 
struck with General Schuyler's generosity, and said to him, ' You show me great 
kindness, though I have done you much injury.' 'That was the fate of war,' 
replied the brave man ; ' let us say no more about it.' " 

Arnold's Strategy. — Immediately after the battle of Oriskany, Schuyler 
sent Benedict Arnold with twelve hundred men to the rescue of Fort Stanwix. 
While en route he captured several Tory spies, among whom was a half-witted 
fellow named Yan Yost Cuyler. All were condemned to death. The mother 
and brother of Cuyler, hearing of this, hastened to the camp to plead for his 
life. At length Arnold offered him his freedom if he would go to the camp of 
St. Leger and spread the report that Burgoyne was totally defeated and that a 
great American army was coming to the rescue of Fort Stanwix. Cuyler agreed, 
and his brother was detained as a hostage to be put to death in case of his 
failure. Cuyler did his part well. With a dozen bullet holes in his coat he ran 
into the British camp and declared that a great American host was close at 
hand, and that he had barely escaped with his life. He was known to many of 
the British as a Tory, and they readily believed his story. The Indians instantly 
took fright and began to desert. The panic soon spread to the regulars, the 
camp became a pandemonium, and, ere noon of next day, the whole army was 
in full flight to Canada. See Fiske, Vol. I, p. 294. 

The Surrendered Army. — In the convention between Gates and Burgoyne, 
the former agreed that the British soldiers be transported to England on the 
condition that they were not to serve again during the war. But erelong the 
belief gained ground that they would be used in Europe to take the place of 
other troops who would be sent to America. Congress, therefore, found one 
excuse after another for not carrying out the convention. First, it demanded 
pay for the soldiers' subsistence since the surrender, not in Continental money, 
but in British gold. Congress thus made a spectacle to the world by refusing to 
accept its own money. It next imposed an impossible condition by demanding 
that Burgoyne make out a descriptive list of all the officers and men of the 
army. So in various ways Congress evaded carrying out the agreement. The 
British soldiers were in fact never sent home. After being kept a year in New 
England they were sent to Charlotteville in Virginia, making the overland march 
of seven hundred miles in midwinter. Here a village of cottages was built for 
them. When, in 1780, Virginia became the seat of war, they were scattered, 
some being sent to Maryland, and others to Pennsylvania. Meantime their 
number had constantly diminished by desertion, death, and exchange. At the 
close of the war most of the Germans remained in America. Burgoyne was per- 
mitted to return to England soon -after the surrender. He resumed his seat in 
Parliament, where he proved himself a gentleman of the highest honor. If not 
an open friend of the Americans, he at least never failed to do them justice. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE REVOLUTION — THE FRONTIER, THE OCEAN, AND THE 

SOUTH 

The story of the Revolution would be incomplete without some 
notice of the border warfare that raged at intervals through the half- 
settled wilderness of the frontier. The dreadful massacre of the 
innocents during that period by the savage natives of the forest 
is usually laid at the door of George III, and it is certain that 
the bloody work was approved by him and instigated by his still 
more heartless minister, Lord George Germain ; but in fairness to the 
British people it must be said that most of them, on both sides of 
the Atlantic, were not in sympathy with this cruel business. Nor 
can we believe that the hellish work was carried on usually from a 
spirit of vindictive cruelty, as many think, but rather to terrify the 
patriots into submission and to break the spirit of rebellion.^ The 
result, however, was favorable to the Americans, for it unified them, 
and even turned many loyalists against the English cause. 

BORDER WAR IN THE SOUTH AND WEST 

At the very threshold of the long war, even before the battle of 
Lexington, there occurred at Point Pleasant, on the Great Kanawha 
River, near its junction with the Ohio, one of the most desperate 
battles with the Indians ever fought on American soil. A thousand 
Virginians lay sleeping under the trees, when at daybreak they were 
surprised by a larger body of Indians who had crept with catlike 
tread upon the sleeping army. They were led by the fierce warrior, 
Cornstalk, and his lieutenant, the famous and eloquent Logan,^ chief 

1 The patriots enlisted some Indians also in the war ; hut in no case are they 
known to have aided or encouraged the massacre of women and children, as was 
frequently done by the enemy. 

* Logan's famous speech is well known. It was not Colonel Cresap, as ht 
believed, that murdered his family, but a hc;irtle«s wretch named Greathouse. 

290 



WAR WITH THE INDIANS 291 

of the Mingos, The battle raged till toward evening, when a detach- 
ment of the whites gained the rear of the Indians and opened a 
deadly fire. The Indians, panic-stricken, broke and fled in every 
direction. About one fifth of each army was slain ; but the rout of 
the red men was complete. 

The Indians were now willing to make peace, and five months 
after the battle, on a sunny day in March, twelve hundred warriors 
gathered on the green at the white settlement of Watauga; and 
here they were met by some hundreds of white men, among whom 
were, John Sevier and James Robertson, the great colony builders of 
the Southwest, and Daniel Boone, the most famous of American 
pioneers.^ Here again the children of the forest promised to live at 
peace with their pale-faced brethren, and they ceded to the latter the 
broad and beautiful tract south of the Ohio, the paradise of the 
buffalo, Kentucky. But the peace was short-lived. A month after 
it was made came the fight at Lexington; the royal governor of 
North Carolina declared the treaty illegal, and soon again the Indians 
were on the warpath. A desperate attack was made on the Watauga 
settlement by the Cherokees and loyalists in 1777, but Sevier and 
Robertson saved the colony from destruction, and at length forced 
the Indians to give up all their lands between the Tennessee and 
Cumberland rivers. A stream of emigration soon began to pour into 
the great Tennessee Valley, and the memory of General Nash, who 
perished in the battle of Germantown, has been kept green by the 
beautiful town founded on the Cumberland, and called, after him, 
Nashville. 

The temporary peace after the Point Pleasant affair enabled 
Daniel Boone to move into Kentucky with his family, where he 
founded a settlement and built the fort called Boones- 
borough. Born and reared in the forest, Boone loved 
above all things a wild life in the wilderness, untrammeled by the 
restraints of civilization. The roaring of the wild beast and the 
yells of the Indian had no terrors for Boone, and the screaming 
of the wild bird in the lonely night was music to his ears. He 
lived in the wilderness because he loved it; and when civilized 
society grew up about him, he moved farther into the vast solitudes 
of the unbroken forest. Boone was not a colony builder nor a state 
founder in the true sense, nor had he a thought, perhaps, of leaving 
a name in history. He was simply a frontiersman, a hunter, an In- 
1 See Qilmore's " Rearguard of the Revolution," p. 97. 



292 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

dian fighter ; and in these respects, and in woodcraft, his skill was so 
marvelous as to attract the attention of the world. During the last 
years of the Revolution Boone figured in various battles with the 
Indians, the most destructive of which was the battle of the Blue 
Licks, fought on the banks of the Licking River, in 
Blue Licka. j^^^g^g^^ ijg2. Soon after this George Rogers Clark led 
a thousand men into the Indian country of western Ohio and spread 
havoc on every hand. So weakened were the Indians by this raid 
that they never again led an army into Kentucky. But the greatest 
achievement of Clark, and that which gave him a permanent name 
in our history, had already been won. Late in the autumn of 1777 
the thrilling news of Burgoyne's surrender spread through the 
South. At this time, George Rogers Clark, a young surveyor, a 
member of the Virginia assembly, stalwart, brave, and patriotic, 
conceived the plan of conquering the Illinois country from the Brit- 
ish. His plan was approved by Patrick Henry, then governor of 
Virginia ; and in the following May Clark floated down the Ohio, 
from Pittsburg to its mouth, with one hundred and eighty picked 
riflemen. After an incredible march across the prairie and through 
swamps, this little band captured, without bloodshed, Kaskaskia, 
Vincennes, and adjacent posts, and the country was annexed to Vir- 
ginia as the county of Illinois. The inhabitants were chiefly Prench, 
and they welcomed the change of rulers when they learned of the 
American alliance with France. This achievement of Clark was of 
the greatest importance, for it enabled the Americans at the close of 
the war to claim successfully the vast prairie region of Illinois as a 
possession of the United States. 



THE WYOMING VALLEY AND OTHER VALLEYS 

In north-central Pennsylvania there lies a beautiful valley, 
nestled between two mountain ranges that rise high on either side, 
as if nature had chosen to guard the lovely spot from the outer 
world. This valley of Wyoming, watered by the sparkling Susque- 
hanna that winds among the hills like a belt of silver, seems from 
a distant view like a dream of Eden ; and yet this beautiful spot, 
where " all save the spirit of man was divine," became the scene of 
the most fiendish massacre of the long and bloody war. 

•The Wyoming Valley was claimed by Connecticut by right of 
her charter of 1662, and her people had begun settling there more 



THE VALLEY OF WYOMING 29i 

than a decade before the war with England began. Pennsylvania 
also claimed this territory, and there was strife between the sister 
colonies ; but the family quarrel was hushed for a season in the pres- 
ence of a common foe. 

It was midsummer, 1778, less than a week after the battle of 
Monmouth, when a force of eight hundred Tories and Indians^ under 
Colonel John Butler swooped down from New York upon the settle- 
ment of New Englanders in the Wyoming Valley. The settlers, 
dwelling mostly in peaceful hamlets with their schools and churches, 
numbered something more than three thousand souls ; but they were 
ill prepared for defense, as most of their young men had joined the 
Continental army. Nevertheless, a force of some three hundred 
men, commanded by Colonel Zebulon Butler, a resident of the valley, 
offered battle on July 3, near the site of Wilkesbarre. After an hour 
of fierce fighting, the Americans broke and fled for their lives, but 
more than half of them were slain in the battle or in Wyoming 
the massacre that followed. The British commander Massacre, 
afterward reported the taking of "227 scalps," and of ^^^^ ^' ^''"^^• 
course laid all the blame on the Indians. During the night the 
Indian thirst for blood seemed to increase, and next day they began 
anew the massacre. Dreadful was the scene in the Wyoming Val- 
ley on that fateful day. The fort in which many had taken refuge 
surrendered, and the lives of the occupants were spared by the Eng- 
lish commander ; but the savages put many of the others to the toma- 
hawk. All who could do so fled to the woods, and a large number 
perished in crossing a swamp, which has since been called the 
" Shades of Death." Others perished of starvation in the moun- 
tains. The country was abandoned for the season, and the blooming 
valley became a field of desolation. 

The barbarities of Wyoming were long attributed to the great 
Mohawk chieftain, Joseph Brant, whom we have already met at the 
battle of Oriskany. But he was not present at the 
Wyoming massacre. Brant, who was known to his 3°^^^ 
own race as Tha-yen-dan-e-gea, was a very remarkable 
character,^ a full-blooded Mohawk, a man of powerful physique, 
handsome, affable, and well educated. He was a devoted Episcopa- 
lian, served for a time as missionary among his own people, and 

1 Some historians say a thousand or more. 

2 Fiske pronounces Brant the greatest Indian of whom we have any knowledge; 
but I cannot agree to place him above, or even equal to, Pontiac or Tecumseh. 



294 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

translated the prayer book into his native tongue. Brant was pas- 
sionately devoted to the British cause in the Kevolution, but the 
stories of his heartless cruelty are not generally true. In fact, he 
spared women and children from the scalping-knife when it was in 
his power to do so. While Brant was not at the Wyoming massacre, 
he figured in another scarcely less dreadful at Cherry Valley, Otsego 
County, New York, in November of the same year. During a heavy 
storm, a band of Indians led by Brant and of Tories led by Walter 
Butler, son of the Butler who commanded at Wyoming, fell upon 
the peaceful settlement without warning. Brant endeavored to save 
the helpless, but the fiend Butler encouraged the massacre, and 
thirty-two of the inhabitants, mostly women and children, were 
barbarously put to death, while sixteen of the garrison had fallen 
during the siege. After this bloody work was over, the invaders 
burned the village, drove away the cattle, and carried forty of the 
people into captivity. 

General Washington was exasperated at these continued outrages, 
and he determined to strike a blow in defense of the northern set- 
tlers. He sent General Sullivan into the Indian country 
raid^^"'^ with five thousand men. Late in August, 1779, this 
army met fifteen thousand Tories and Indians, led by 
Sir John Johnson, the two Butlers, and Brant, at Newtown, on the 
site of the present city of Elmira. A terrific battle ensued, and the 
Tories and Indians suffered a fearful defeat, while the American 
loss was slight. Sullivan then laid waste the country, destroyed 
the growing crops on all sides, laid more than forty Indian vil- 
lages in ashes, and returned after a march of seven hundred miles. 
For two years longer the settlers were harassed by prowling Indian 
bands, but the Iroquois as a nation never recovered from the scourge 
of Sullivan's raid. A similar raid in the Alleghany Valley by Colo- 
nel Brodhead, with six hundred men, curbed the Indian power in 
western Pennsylvania, and henceforth the country was compara- 
tively free from border warfare. 



WAR ON THE SEA 

Let us now take a glance at the naval operations. The United 
States at first had no navy, but many private vessels were employed 
as privateers, and the destruction of British merchant shipping was 
enormous. From nearly all the states privateers were sent against 



FIGHTING ON THE SEA 295 

the enemy, Massachusetts leading with over five hundred, Pennsyl- 
vania following with nearly that number. It is estimated that 
seventy thousand Americans were at one time engaged on the sea 
against the enemy.^ In 1775 Congress ordered the building of a 
national navy, and the following year thirteen vessels were com- 
pleted. Some of these never succeeded in getting out to sea ; most 
of the rest were captured or burned before the end of the war, but 
not until after they had done great service for the country. 

The men who achieved the greatest success for America were: 
Lambert Wickes, who made many prizes off the Irish and English 
coasts, and who was himself drowned off the coast of Newfoundland ; 
Gustavus Conyngham, whose bold captures in the English Channel 
astonished everybody ; and John Paul Jones, who alone of all the 
naval heroes of the war has left a permanent and conspicuous name 
in our history. Jones ^ was a native of Scotland and a resident of 
Virginia. He became the hero of one of the most 
famous naval duels in history. AVith a squadron of jones 
three ships led by the Bonhovime Bichaixl^ he met Cap- 
tain Pearson with the Sercqyis and Scarborough convoying a fleet of 
merchant vessels off the coast of Elamborough Head, England, and 
at once the two flagships engaged in a desperate conflict. It was 
the evening of September 23, 1779, when the battle opened, and 
during the long hours of the night the boom of cannon rolled across 
the waters. In the midst of the battle Jones ran his vessel into 
her antagonist and ceased firing for the moment, when Captain Pear- 
son called out. " Have you struck your colors ? " "I have not yet 
begun to fight," was the now famous answer of Jones. At length 
the two ships were lashed together by the commander of the Richard, 
and the bloody fight went on until the decks of both were covered 
with dead and dying. The crisis came about ten o'clock, when a 
hand grenade from the Richard was throAvn into the hatchway of 
the Serapis, where it ignited a row of cartridges, and in the frightful 
explosion that followed twenty men were blown to pieces. Still the 
two commanders doggedly continued the battle until both ships were 
on fire, and half their crews were dead or wounded, when at last the 

1 Sloane, p. 373. 

2 His name was John Paul and he added the name Jones after migrating to 
America. After the Revolution he entered the service of Russia, became an 
admiral, and was knighted. He died in Paris in 1792. His burial place was un- 
known for more than a century, when it was discovered, and the remains were 
brought to the United States (1905) and interred at Annapolis. 

* French for " Poor Richard " of Franklin's almanac. 



296 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Serapis surrendered.^ Both vessels were ruined, and tlie Bonhomme 
Richard sank the next morning. Meantime the Pallas had captured 
the Scarborough, and the American victory was complete. The news 
of the victory made a profound sensation on the continent, as it 
was told and retold in every language in Europe. Nothing before, 
except the surrender of Burgoyne, had called the world's attention 
to the rising nation in the West as did this signal victory in sight 
of the British coast. 

The American privateers did immeasurable damage to British 
shipping, many hundred merchantmen being captured. After the 
alliance with France the powerful navy of that nation was employed 
in the patriot cause, and to this was added the navy of Spain, for 
Spain declared war against England in the summer of 1779. This 
_ . , action of the Spanish government was not taken out 
Holland de- 0^ ^o^e for the Americans and their cause, nor did Spain 
Clare war make a treaty with the United States. Indeed, a self- 
agamst governing people in North America would forever be a 

menace to the peaceful possession of Mexico and South 
America by Spain; nor had the Spaniards the slightest sympathy with 
the spirit of religious freedom that prevailed in the United States. 
Spain declared war in the hope of regaining possession of Gibraltar, 
and from a feeling of revenge cherished for two hundred years against 
the island kingdom that had robbed her of her proud eminence as 
mistress of the seas. Still another was to be added to the enemies 
of England. Late in the year 1780 war was declared between that 
country and Holland, and henceforth the Britons had to fight three 
of the great European powers in addition to America. It was not 
possible for England to win against such odds, nor to regain her 
colonies in America, but the courage the British displayed must elicit 
the admiration of the world. 



THE TREASON OF ARNOLD 

Two years have elapsed since we left Washington at White 
Plains, where he encamped soon after the battle of Monmouth. 
During the two years little was done in the North but watch Clinton, 
who held the city of New York. A few minor operations, however, 
were not without significance. Sullivan's raid into the Indian 

1 The Bonhomme Richard carried forty guns and the Serapis forty-four. Jones 
towed his prize to Holland. 



CAPTURE OF STONY POINT 297 

Bountry we have noticed. Another exploit of this same general, 
occurring at an earlier date, was less successful. The only part of the 
United States held .by the British in the autumn of 
1778, aside from Manhattan Island and a few western ^ 
posts on the frontier, was Newport, with the island on which it stands. 
This was occupied by Sir Robert Pigott with a garrison of six 
thousand men, and Washington determined to make an effort for its 
recovery. He sent Sullivan with fifteen hundred picked men, who 
were to cooperate with a French fleet under Count d'Estaing, lately 
arrived in American waters. Sullivan's army was increased to 
several thousand by New England volunteers, and success seemed 
to be in reach when a terrific storm crippled and scattered the fleet, 
and the project came to naught. 

Far more picturesque was the capture of Stony Point the follow- 
ing year by Anthony Wayne. Stony Point is a bold, roeky prom- 
ontory within a sharp curve of the Hudson River a few 
miles below West Point. The Americans had deter- 
mined to fortify this gateway to the Highlands, and while they were 
engaged in doing this Clinton came up the river in May, 1779, and 
captured it. He then erected powerful fortifications, manned them 
with six hundred men, and believed the place impregnable. So it 
might have been by regular sieges; but the Yankee finds the way, 
if there is a way. 

At midnight on July 15, 1779, "Mad Anthony" Wayne, with 
twelve hundred light infantry, crept stealthily along the causeway 
that led from the mainland to Stony Point. The assault was to 
be a pure bayonet charge, and to prevent a possible betrayal by a 
random shot, Wayne did not permit his men to load their muskets. 
To guard further against noise, every dog for miles around was 
killed.* The sleeping garrison was awakened by the impetuous rush 
of the Americans. The British sprang to arms, but scarcely did 
they fire the first volleywhen the Americans were at their throats. 
A fierce encounter ensued, in which fifteen of Wayne's men and over 
sixty of the enemy were killed. But the British soon gave way, and 
the fort was surrendered. Washington did not, however, choose to 
hold the place against an attack that Clinton prepared to make. He 
ordered the fortifications destroyed and the prisoners, stores, and can- 
non removed to the Highlands, and Clinton was left to occupy the 
demolished works at his leisure. Now, with the mere mention of 
1 Fiske, Vol. II, p. 112. 



298 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

the bold dash of " Light Horse Harry " Lee upon the British fort at 
Paulus Hook, and his capture of one liundred and fifty-nine pris- 
oners, the mutiny and desertion of thirteen hundred Pennsylvania 
troops, afterward pacified and sent back to the army, 
and a similar movement of the New Jersey troops 
which resulted in the execution of two of the ringleaders, we pass 
on to the most painful episode of the Revolution. 

We have seen and admired the intrepid Arnold at Quebec and 
Saratoga. The wound he received at the latter place incapacitated 
him for a season; but by the time the British evacuated Philadelphia, 
in the spring of 1778, Arnold had recovered, and he was placed in 
command of the city. From this moment his downward course 
seems to have begun. He soon had a quarrel Avith the state govern 
ment and another with Congress. He was accused of extravagant 
living, and even of fraudulent transactions, and was censured for in- 
viting loyalists to his entertainments. Arnold was a high-spirited, 
sensitive soul, and he chafed under public criticism. At length 
formal charges were brought against him. He demanded an investi- 
gation, which was granted, and he was acquitted by a committee of 
Congress. But the charges were renewed, other evidence was adduced, 
and at a second trial by a court-martial he was sentenced to a repri- 
mand from the commander in chief for " imprudence." Washington 
was a true friend of Arnold, and he carried out the sentence in the 
mildest manner consistent with the dignity that the case required. 

Up to this point our sympathies are with Arnold. We regret 
with his friends that he did not receive the promotion that was 
his due ; we feel indignant at his enemies that they could so 
readily forget his noble service to his coimtry, and pursue him with 
such hatred, when a rigorous court-martial, sitting for five weeks, 
could find him guilty of only a little imprudence ; we rejoice with 
his friends that Washington administered the reprimand so gra- 
ciously as to show his confidence at the same moment. 
But 'here we must part company with Benedict Arnold. 
Whatever his grievances, his means of revenge wei-e altogether un- 
warranted and utterl}^ to be condemned. His crime is one of the 
blackest in history. He sought to betray his country into the hands 
of its enemy, and to do this he must first betray the confidence of the 
one unswerving friend who had ever trusted him, — the commander 
in chief. 

At what time Arnold contemplated treason is not known, nor can 



TREASON OF ARNOLD 299 

it be proved that his beautiful loyalist wife, whom he had married in 
Philadelphia, had anything to do with his perfidy ; but it is quite 
possible that she unconsciously influenced him to take this step. 
His correspondence with Clinton, under an assumed name, began 
early in the spring of 1780, and in midsummer he received, at his 
own urgent request, the command of the powerful fortress of West 
Point, the gateway of the Hudson Valley. This he determined to 
hand over to the enemy, together with the great valley for which 
Burgoyne had fought and lost. No doubt Arnold believed that the 
possession of the Hudson, with the foothold the British had gained 
in the South, would speedily terminate the war in their favor, and 
that he would be the hero of the hour. 

On a dark night in September, 1780, Benedict Arnold lay crouch- 
ing beneath the trees on the bank of the Hudson a few miles belov; 
Stony Point, just outside the American lines. Pres- 
ently the plash of oars from the dark, silent river broke The midnight 
1 ■•, meeting, 

the stillness, and a little boat bearing four men came to 

the shore. Two were ignorant oarsmen who knew not what they 
did, the third was the steersman, one Joshua Smith, who lived 
in the neighborhood, while the fourth was a young and handsome 
man who concealed beneath his great overcoat the brilliant uniform 
of a British officer. The young man, Major John Andre, adjutant 
general of the British army, was put ashore, and he and Arnold, 
who had long been secret correspondents, spent the night in the 
dense darkness beneath the trees. Here the plot to place West 
Point into British hands was consummated ; and at the coming of 
dawn Andre did not return, as at first intended, to the English sloop 
of war, the Vulture, which was lying in the river waiting for him, 
but accompanied Arnold to the house of Smith, the steersman, 
a few miles away. Arnold returned to West Point, and Andre 
waited his opportunity to reach the Vulture ; but shore .batteries 
began firing on her, and Smith refused to venture out in his little 
boat. At length it was decided that Andre return to New York by 
land. It was a perilous journey, but the first part was made in 
safety. The lonely traveler was nearing Tarrytown and his hopes 
were rising, when suddenly three men with muskets sprang from 
the thicket, stood in his path, and ordered him to stop. One of 
the men wore a Hessian coat, and Andre, thinking them his country- 
men, frankly informed them that he was a British officer. To his 
dismay he then discovered that the men were Americans and that 



i<00 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

he was under arrest.^ ]S"o offers of money, threats, nor etitreatiea 
could move the men, and Andre was disarmed and searched; and 

beneath his feet, within the soles of his stockings, were 
Arrest of found important papers in the handwriting of Arnold. 

The prisoner was taken np the river to Colonel Jameson, 
who, all unsuspicious of Arnold, decided to send Andre to him with 
an explanatory letter, while the papers found on A.ndre were sent 
to Washington, who had gone to Connecticut for a conference with 
Rochambeau. Before Andre under an escort had reached West 
Point, Jameson was persuaded to recall him. This was done, but the 
letter to Arnold was allowed to go on its way, and it was this letter 
that saved the traitor's life. Washington returned from Connecticut 
sooner than was expected. Near Fishkill he sat down to supper at an 
inn and chatted with the same Joshua Smith who had but the day be- 
fore sent Andre down the river; and he sent to Arnold at the Robinson 
house near West Point, stating that he and his staff would be there 
for breakfast next morning. In the morning, however, Washington 
sent Alexander Hamilton and others of his staff to take breakfast 
with Arnold, while he stopped to examine some redoubts. Arnold 
was annoyed at the near approach of Washington, but his counte- 
nance remained unperturbed. As they sat at the table a messenger 
entered and handed Arnold a letter. It was the one sent by Colonel 
Jameson stating that a British officer had been caught with certain 
papers in his possession, which had been forwarded to Washington. 
Arnold showed little emotion ; he quietly folded the paper and put 
it into his pocket without betraying to any of the company that there 
was anything wrong. He then rose and left the room, saying that 
he was suddenly called to West Point, but that he would soon be 
back to meet Washington. 

The quick eye of his wife detected something wrong, and she 
followed him. Going to their bedroom, he informed her that he was 
ruined and must fly for his life. She swooned and fell fainting in 

1 The names of these men were John Paulding, David "Williams, and Isaac Van 
Wert. Paulding alone could read. Each was rewarded by Congress with a silver 
medal and an annual pension of f 200, and the name of each was given to a county 
in Ohio. Mr. S. G. Fisher, in his "True History of the Revolution," asserts that 
these men were stragglers devoid of true patriotism, and that they held Andre only 
because they saw no way of his paying the large sum he offered for liis release. Aiidre 
testified at the trial that the men searched him for the purpose of robbing him. The 
matter was fully discussed in Congress in 1817, when Paulding, then an aged man, 
was denied an increased pension for which he bad applied. See Sargent's "Life of 
Major Andre'," p. 462. 



EXECUTION OF ANDRife 301 

his arms. He laid her across the bed, called a maid to care for her, 
kissed their sleeping babe, and a minute later was galloping toward 
the river. ^ In a few hours he had boarded the British sloop of war, 
the Vultm-e, having protected himself from the Ameri- 
can shore batteries with a white flag made of a haudker- fp^ o?l 
chief tied to a cane. The stupid blunder of Colonel 
Jameson had saved Arnold from the most ignominious death that can 
come to a soldier — the death of the gallows. 

" Arnold is a traitor, and has fled to the British ! Whom can we 
trust now ? " said Washington to his officers a few hours later, 
while the tears rolled down his cheeks. He soon recovered from his 
emotion and sent oificers to intercept Arnold ; but it was too late, and 
the following morning the traitor was safely landed in the city of 
New York. Ho received the price of his perfidy — six thousand 
pounds sterling and a command in the British army. 

Andre was duly tried by a court-martial of which General Greene 
was president, was convicted as a spy, and was sentenced to be hanged. 
Clinton exhausted every method in trying to save his brilliant young 
subordinate. It was intimated that in one way only could Andre be 
saved — that he would be exchanged for Arnold. But this Clinton 
could not in honor consent to, and Andre was executed. Clinton 
had instructed Andre not to go within the Americans lines and not 
to carry compromising papers of any sort, but Andre disobeyed and 
did both, and the forfeit of his life was the penalty. His death was 
deplored on both sides of the Atlantic, but even British 
writers generally agree that the sentence was just and ^^^j-e" 
necessary. Andre died like a hero, calling on those about 
him to witness that he faced death without a tremor. We admire 
physical courage, especially in a soldier; yet how meaningless and 
insipid the final request of Andre when compared with the dying words 
of Nathan Hale. 

WAR IN THE SOUTH 

The seat of war was transferred to the South late in the year 
1778. Even before the battle of Lexington the strife had begun south 
of Mason and Dixon's line. There was Dunmore's War, and the battle 
at Moore's Creek, and the valiant defense of Fort Moultrie. But the 
foe soon departed and the Southland had rest for nearly three years, 
when he came again and made it the scene of the final conflict. 

1 See the fuller account of Fiske (Vol. II, p. 216 sq.) from which a number of 
these incidents have been taken. See also Winsor, VI, p. 458 sq. 



302 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

For nearly four years the power of the British had been thrown 
against the great states of the North. " They had destroyed much 
property and taken many lives ; they had overrun vast tracts. But 
the game had been a losing one ; a fine army had been sacrificed in 
the Hudson Valley, and now at the end of the four years the British 
commander had not possession of a single foot of territory except 
Manhattan Island and Newport. He therefore determined, while 
still holding New York as his base, to send his legions to the weaker 
communities of the South, to conquer Georgia, then the Carolinas, 
and perchance the Old Dominion, and to hold these until terms could 
be made with their powerful neighbors to the North. The plan is 
supposed to have originated in the brain of Lord George Germain. 

In December, 1778, a force of thirty-five hundred British regulars 
under Colonel Campbell landed near Savannah, Georgia. The 
American force there, commanded by General Robert 
Savaima^h °^ Howe, was less than twelve hundred in number. The 
two forces met in battle; the Americans were routed, 
losing five hundred in prisoners, and the city of Savannah sur- 
rendered with its guns and stores. General Prevost soon arrived 
with British reenforcements from Florida, and he and Campbell 
pressed their advantage with vigor; they captured Augusta and 
other points, and within ten days proclaimed their conquest of the 
state of Georgia. General Benjamin Lincoln was now made com- 
mander in the South, instead of Howe. General Moultrie had just 
won a signal victory in defending Fort Royal, but the advantage was 
soon lost, for fifteen hundred men under General Ashe, who were 
sent by Lincoln against Augusta, suffered a crushing defeat at Briar 
Greek at the hands of the English. Prevost then crossed the Savan- 
nah River and began a march toward Charleston, spreading devasta- 
tion in his trail ; but his course was checked in a skirmish with 
Lincoln, and he turned back. The summer of 1779 passed, and the 
British as yet had no foothold north of Georgia. 

Early in September D'Estaing arrived at the mouth of the 
Savannah from the West Indies with a powerful French fleet, and 
American hopes in the South rose with a bound. The first thought 
was to recapture Savannah, and the siege was begun on Septem- 
ber 23. For three weeks, day and night, Lincoln's artillery from the 
shore joined with that of the French commander from the harbor. 
But Prevost gave no sign of surrendering the city, and D'Estaing 
proposed a combined assault. This was made with desperate valor 



SURRENDER OF CHARLESTON 



303 



on October 9, but it failed. The French and Americans lost heavily, 
and, saddest of all, the brave Pulaski was numbered with the slain. 
D'Estaing, fearing the October gales, sailed away, and the coast was 
clear for two mouths, when another fleet hove into view. This fleet 
was not that of a friend ; it bore Sir Henry Clinton from New York 
and Earl Charles Cornwallis with eight thousand soldiers for the 
subjugation of the South. 

Clinton landed at Savannah, but his aim was to capture Charles- 
ton, the chief seaport of the South. Adding the force of Prevost to 
his own, he began the march overland to Charleston, which was now 
occupied by Lincoln with 7000 men. Clinton began engirdling the 
city about the 1st of April, 1780, and a week later the British fleet ran 
by Fort Moultrie and entered the harbor. Soon after this Lord Eaw- 




don arrived from New York with three thousand more troops, and 
the doom of the southern metropolis wa?; sealed. Lincoln should 
have fled and saved his army, but he lacked the sagacity of a Wash- 
ington or a Greene ; he prepared for defense, while day by day the 
coil of the anaconda tightened about the doomed city, p^^^j ^f 
Lincoln surrendered, and Charleston, with its stores, its Charleston, 
advantages, and the army that defended it, fell into the May 12, 1780. 
hands of the British commander.^ 

The fall of Charleston was a sad blow to the patriot cause — the 
most disastrous event of the war, except the fall of Fort Washington 

1 One regiment, not present at the surrender, was soon afterward captured by 
Colonel Banastre Tarleton. 



304 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

on the Hudson four years before. It gave Clinton control of South 
Carolina as well as of Georgia, and that officer now sailed away for 
New York, leaving Cornwallis in command with five thousand men. 
During the following months the scene in the Carolinas and Georgia 
was one of wild disorder and anarchy. A large portion of the 
people were loyalists, and scarcely a day passed without hand to hand 
encounters, bloodshed, and murder. The patriots were without an 
army, but bands of roving volunteers annoyed the British incessantly. 

The most daring and successful leader of these bands was Francis 
Marion, the " Swamp Fox." With a handful of followers he would 
creep like a tiger from the coverts of the woods or the fastnesses 
of the mountains, strilie a deadly blow, and disappear again like 
Marion ^ shadow. Scarcely inferior to Marion was Thomas 

Sumter, and Sumter, the "South Carolina Gamecock," who was to 
Pickens. outlive all his fellow-officers of the Revolution, and to 

leave his name upon that famous fort which was destined to be the 
scene of the opening of that greater war, to be fought by a later 
generation of Americans, After the war Sumter became a states- 
man, sat in the United States Senate, was minister to Brazil, and 
died in 1832 at the great age of ninety-eight years. Next to Sumter 
must be ranked Andrew Pickens, who also lived many years under 
the Constitution, and served his state in Congress. These and a few 
other kindred spirits kept alive the patriot cause in the South after 
the fall of Charleston, until a new army could be organized. 

The summer had not passed before the clouds began to break 
away. Washington had sent De Kalb, who was hastening south- 
ward with over fifteen hundred veterans ; the call for militia from 
Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina met with a considerable 
response ; and a commander to succeed Lincoln was to be sent from 
the North. Washington preferred Greene for this responsible duty, 
but the people called for Gates, " the hero of Saratoga," whom pub- 
lic opinion still clothed with the glamour of a great genius. Gates 
arrived upon the scene late in July, and again the hopes 
of the lovers of liberty rose — to be ruthlessly dashed 
to the ground once more — only once more. 

This final disaster was to occur at Camden, South Carolina, 
whither Gates hastened by forced marches. Reaching a point near 
the town, he found Lord Rawdon blocking his way with a force 
smaller than his own. Gates should have struck an immediate 
blow, but he hesitated for two days, and by that time Cornwallis with 



WAR IN THE SOUTH 805 

the main army had joined Kawdon. Now occurred an unusual coin- 
cidence. On the night of the 15th of August, Gates decided to march 
through a wood for ten miles and surprise the enemy at daybreak. 
It happened that Cornwallis, on the same night and at the same 
hour, began a march over the same route for the purpose Battle of 
of surprising Gates. The two armies met midway and Camden, 
both were equally surprised. They waited till daylight, ■^^^S'lst 16. 
and then came the battle of Camden. The American force was largely 
composed of raw militia, who broke and fled at the first fire, throwing 
their loaded muskets to the ground. The regulars fought with great 
bravery, but the odds were against them, and the American army was 
totally routed. The noble De Kalb, bleeding from eleven wounds, fell 
into the enemy's hands and died soon afterward. Gates was borne from 
the field in the mad retreat, and he kept on galloping, and by night he 
had covered sixty miles. But he did not stop here; three days later 
he was at Hillsborough, North Carolina, nearly two hundred miles 
from the scene of the battle. His " northern laurels were changed to 
southern willows," as the cynical Charles Lee put it. Gates made 
an effort to recruit an army, but with little success. He saw that his 
career was over, and he made a piteous appeal to the commander in 
chief. Washington wrote him a consoling letter, expressing confi- 
dence, and even suggesting that he might be able to place Gates in 
command of one wing of the Continental army. The broken old general 
cherished this letter to the end of his days. The writing of this by 
Washington, in the face of the memory of the Conway Cabal, dis- 
played a magnanimity with which few of the human race are gifted. 

A few days after the crushing defeat of the Americans at Cam- 
den, another disaster, but of minor importance, was added to it. 
Samter, with four hundred men, had captured a British baggage 
train, but Tarleton overtook him, recaptured the baggage, and made 
prisoners of three hundred of his men. 

These were the darkest hours of the Eevolution, save only the 
few weeks preceding the battle of Trenton. 

But soon the light began to dawn; and never again, from that 
hour until now, has it been so nearly obscured as in the dark days 
that followed the battle of Camden. Scarcely had Tarleton won 
his victory, when Colonel Williams defeated five hundred British 
and Tories with great slaughter ; and a few days later, on the banks 
of the Santee, Marion, with a handful of men, dashed upon a portion 
of the British army, captured twenty-six, set one hundred and fifty 

X 



306 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

prisoners free, and darted into the forest without losing a man.' 
This was a beginning ; King's Mountain was soon to follow. 

Cornwallis sent Major Ferguson, one of his best officers, with 
twelve hundred men, five sixths of whom were loyalists, to scour 
'the back country, gather recruits, and strike terror into the hearts of 
the patriots. The news of his raid spread beyond the mountains, 
and the frontier settlements were soon roused to fury ; and, like the 
farmers at Lexington and Bennington, these hardy backwoodsmen 
seized their muskets, and hastened to meet the foe. Without orders, 
without hope of reward, these men, led by such heroes as John Sevier 
and Isaac Shelby, William Campbell and James Williams, poured 
like a torrent from the slopes and glens of the mountains, more than 
a thousand strong. A motley crowd they were, Indian fighters and 
hunters, farmers and mountain rangers, dressed in their hunting shirts, 
with sprigs of hemlock in their hats, fearless and patriotic, and every 
man a dead shot with the rifle. So eager were they for the fray 
that the few hundred that were needed to guard the settlements had 
to be drafted for the purpose.^ Ferguson heard of the coming of the 
" dirty mongrels," as he called them, and he planted his army on a 
spur of King's Mountain near the boundary between the Carolinas. 

The mountaineers, now numbering over thirteen hundred, came 
upon Ferguson on the afternoon of October 7, hungry and worn with 
an all-night march. They chose Campbell as their leader, but in 
truth the battle, like that at Lexington, was fought without a leader. 
Ferguson had chosen a strong position, but the pioneers were used 
to mountain climbing. They chose the only plan that could have 
Battle of succeeded: they surrounded the hill and, pressing up the 

King's slopes, attacked the British from every side. The latter 

Mountain, fought with a courage worthy of a better cause. They 
fired volley after volley, they rushed upon the foe with 
the bayonet and pressed them down the hillside. But the Americans 
instantly re-formed and renewed the attack. At one moment the 
false cry ran along the American line that Tarleton was in the rear, 
and about to attack them. It created a panic and several hundred 
started to run, when John Sevier, whose " eyes were flames of fire, 
and his words electric bolts," rode among the fleeing men, and, with 
the magnetic power of a Sheridan, turned them back to duty and to 
victory. Three times the assaulting columns surged up the hill only 
to be driven back at the point of the bayonet. But they always 
1 Gilmore's " Rearguard of the Revolution," p. 210. 2 Jbi^, 




Scene of War in the South. 



WAR IN THE SOUTH 307 

came again, and a*: length the British were exhausted ; they huddled 
together on the hill, their ranks melting before the sharpshooters' 
bullets like snow beneath a summer's sun. Ferguson was a man of 
desperate valor. He refused to surrender. A white flag, raised by 
one of his men, he struck down with his sword. Then with fool- 
hardy daring he made a dash through the encircling columns for 
liberty. Five sharpshooters leveled their pieces, and the British 
officer fell with five mortal wounds in his body. The remnant of the 
force surrendered; 456 ' of their number lay dead upon the field, to say 
nothing of the wounded, while but 28 of the Americans Avere slain. 

The battle over, the men who had won it, taking their prisoners 
with them, hied away again to their crude civilization beyond the 
Alleghanies, disappearing as suddenly and noiselessly as they came. 
This was their only service in the war, but it was a noble service. 
At King's Mountain they turned the tide of the war, and insured 
the ultimate independence of America. 

During the following months Marion and Sumter were extremely 
energetic in their peculiar mode of warfare, and the latter gained a 
victory over Tarleton. But this was not all ; Daniel Morgan came 
down from the North, — Morgan, whose romantic career we have 
noticed, — and at his hands the scourge of the South, Tarleton, was 
to suffer the most crushing defeat of his life. General Nathanael 
Greene was appointed to succeed Gates at the South. He arrived in 
December, 1780, and with the aid of Thomas Jefferson, Governor of 
Virginia, raised some two thousand men from that state, and these, 
with fifteen hundrgd whom Gates had collected after Camden, gave 
him a respectable army. Greene's first important move was to send 
the free lance, Daniel Morgan, to raid the back country. Morgan, with 
nine hundred men, was soon confronted by eleven hundred under Tarle- 
ton. The two met at the Cowpens, not far from King's 
Mountain. Morgan's tactics were perfect ; the battle cowTjens 
was furious, and Tarleton's army was almost anni- 
hilated, he and a few followers alone escaping through the swamps 
on horseback. Greene had the services of some of the best men of 
tha Continental army — Steuben, whom he left in Virginia to watch 
the traitor Arnold, Kosciusko, and the brilliant cavalry leaders, Henry 
Lee and William Washington, the latter a distant relative of the com- 
mander in chief. Cornwallis was greatly weakened by the defeat 

1 Sloane gives this number. 



308 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

at the Cowpens, and he determined to strike Greene as soon as 
possible and revive the waning spirits of tlie regulars and loyalists. 
Perceiving this, Greene decided to lure the British general as far as 
possible from his base of supplies, and then to give him battle. He 
began an apparent retreat northward. Cornwallis fell into the trap, 
destroyed his heavy baggage, and followed. The chase continued for 
two hundred miles. At Guilford Courthouse, but thirty miles from 
the Virginia border, Greene, having joined Morgan's forces with his 
own, wheeled about, and, after some days of sparring for position, 
offered battle.^ Greene placed his raw militia in front with orders to 
fire two or three volleys before giving way, after which the brunt of 

the battle was to be borne by the regulars. This plan 
Courthouse ^^'^ been adopted by Morgan at the Cowpens with great 

success, and Greene found it highly useful. At one time 
during the battle the Americans were on the point of being routed 
when they were saved by a cavalry charge of Colonel Washington. 
After the battle had continued for some hours the British planted 
their columns on a hill, from which they fought with great valor and 
could not be dislodged, and at nightfall they were left in possession 
of the field. From this cause the battle of Guilford has been con- 
sidered a British victory. But the real victory lay with Greene. 
He had lured his enemy far from his base of supplies, and had 
destroyed one fourth of his army, six hundred men, himself losing but 
four hundred. Cornwallis saw that he was entrapped, refused Greene's 
challenge for a second battle, and marched in all haste to the sea- 
coast, leaving his wounded behind. 

By the flight of Cornwallis North Carolina was, left in the hands of 
the Americans, and South Carolina was soon to share the same good 
fortune; for Greene, instead of pursuing the enemy toward Wil- 
mington, turned to the latter state, and in three months he and his 
subordinates had driven the enemy from every stronghold — Cam- 
den, Augusta, Forte Motte, Orangeburg, Ninety-six — all except 
Charleston ; ^ and all the energy that the British had expended in 
two and a half years to possess those states came to naught. 

1 Greene's flight was prompted also by the fact that he did not feel able, without 
reenforcements, to fight Cornwallis. He offered battle only after making a detour 
into Virginia and gathering several hundred recruits. 

2 Colonel Stewart, however, who succeeded Lord Rawdon, remained in South 
Carolina till September 8, when occurred the battle of Eutaw Springs. This has 
been pronounced a British victory ; but, strange to say, the victors fled and were 
pursued for thirty miles by the vanquished. 



THE FINAL SCENES 309 



YORKTOWN 

On reaching Wilmington, North Carolina, Cornwallis did not go 
southward and begiu a reconquest of the state he had lost ; he pro- 
ceeded, without orders from Clinton, into Virginia, in the hope of 
conquering that state, and in the belief that if he did so the Caro- 
linas would easily fall again Into his possession. Lafayette, with a 
thousand men, had come down from the North to join Steuben and 
watch Arnold and Phillips, while Wayne, with an equal number, 
was moving south from Pennsylvania. With great skill the young 
French marquis, with an inferior army, held the enemy in check for 
a month, when he was joined by Wayne. Cornwallis arrived on 
May 20. Arnold was sent back to New York, and Phillips died of 
fever. Then began a long series of maneuvers, marches, and coun- 
termarches, Lafayette harassing the enemy in every way, but avoid- 
ing an engagement. The British general expected to make a 
brilliant stroke. " The boy cannot escape me," said he ; but the boy 
had been schooled under Washington for four years, and no strategy 
of Cornwallis could entrap him. In one of Tarleton's raids Gov- 
ernor Jefferson was barely able to escape from his house at Monti- 
cello before it was surrounded by cavalry. Lafayette's army steadily 
increased. Early in August Cornwallis moved down the York River 
and occupied Yorktown, while the marquis stationed his army at 
Malvern Hill ; and here they remained until the inaugurating of a 
great and unexpected movement that was to end the campaign and 
the war. 

For three years, since the battle of Monmouth, Washington had 
held his army as a watchdog, guarding the great valley of the Hud- 
son, while Clinton, in the city of New York, was ever threatening to 
invade it. Washington longed to attack the. enemy in his strong- 
hold, and would have done so during Clinton's brief absence in the 
South, but for the fact that he had weakened his own army by send- 
ing -troops southward. During the spring of 1781 this scheme of 
attacking the city was revived. Count Rochambeau had arrived in 
Rhode Island the year before with six thousand French troops, and 
now, after nearly a year of enforced idleness, this army was to be 
joined to that of Washington for a combined attack. The two com- 
manders conferred with this end in view, when suddenly the news 
reached them that Count de Grasse, with a powerful French fleet of 
twenty-eight ships of the line and six frigates, bearing twenty 



310 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

thousand men, was about to sail from the West Indies to Chesa- 
peake Bay. The whole plan was at once changed. Washington 
determined to take a French-American army to Virginia, and to 
endeavor with the support of the fleet to capture the British army. 

So necessary was it to deceive Clinton that Washington and 
Rochambeau kept their plan secret even from their officers until 
■Washington secrecy was no longer possible. Leaving General Heath 
moves south- with four thousand men to guard the Hudson, they 
^^^^- crossed that river with four thousand Frenchmen and 

two thousand Americans on the 19th of August. Moving down the 
Jersey shore, they made a feint on Staten Island and led Clinton to 
believe that the intention was to attack it ; but suddenly the army 
wheeled to the west, and it almost reached the Delaware before the 
object of the expedition was known. By the time the army reached 
Philadelphia it was generally known that the aim was to capture 
Cornwallis, and the rejoicing of the people of the city was loud and 
long. While en route to the South, Washington made a flying visit 
to his home at Mt. Vernon, which he had not seen for six j^ears. 

Meantime De Grasse reached the mouth of the York River and 
sent four thousand men ashore to augment the army of Lafayette. 
^ The British also had a powerful fleet in the West Indies, 

under the command of Admiral Rodney, a very able 
man ; but Rodney returned to England, owing to sickness, and sent 
the fleet northward under Admiral Hood. Reaching Sandy Hook, 
Hood joined his fleet to that of Admiral Graves, and the two sailed 
for the Chesapeake to meet De Grasse. An action took place on 
September 5 in which several of the English vessels were so dam- 
aged that Graves and Hood sailed to New York for repairs and left 
De Grasse complete master in the Chesapeake. This was a matter 
of vital importance to Washington, as it prevented the escape of 
Cornwallis by sea. His only escape lay in a retreat upon North 
Carolina, but this was prevented by Lafayette, who lay across thtj 
peninsula with eight thousand men. Clinton, hearing of Washington's 
departure for the South, was deeply perplexed. In the hope of luring 
Washington back, he sent Arnold to harass the coast of Connecticut, 
but the traitor was driven away by the swarming minute men. 

The allied armies reached the vicinity of Yorktown late in 
August. The approaches were made by means of parallel trenches, 
the first of which was completed on October 6, when the bombard- 
ment of the city began. Side by side labored the French chasseurs 



THE FINAL SCENES 



31! 



jind the American continentals and militia, tightening the coils 
about the imprisoned British army. On the river bank below the 
town were two strong redoubts. One of these was cap- 
tured by Baron de Viomenil, and the other by the Yoikutwu 
youthful Alexander Hamilton, who was destined yet to 
play a great part in American history. Day by day the British 
works crumbled beneath the incessant fire of the allied cannon, and 
on the 17th of October, four years to a day after the surrender of 
Burgoyne, the white flag was seen waving above the parapet at York- 
town. The cannonade ceased and the surrender was effected two 
days later, the terms being exactly those accorded to Lin- surrender 
coin at Charleston. And it was Lincoln who was now October 19, 
sent to receive the sword of Cornwallis, who, playing ^T^^- 
sick, sent it by the hand of General O'Hara. The British arms 
were soon stacked, and the entire army of more than eight thousand 
includinar 



THE SIEGE OF 

TOBKTOWN 



GLOUOES'TER 



men, 

a few hundred 
seamen, became 
prisoners of war. 
Everybody 
knew, on both 
sides of the At- 
lantic, that this 
master stroke 
had ended the 
war and that 
America had 
won. Clinton 
held New York 
for two years 
longer ; but hos- 
tilities had 
ceased, and he 

only waited for peace to be arranged by treaty.^ The rejoicing over 
the surrender of Cornwallis was unbounded throughout America. 
The news reached Philadelphia in the early morning hours of the 
24th, and the German watchman, continuing his rounds, added to 

1 Soon aftei- •the surrender Washington returned to the Hudson Valley. The 
French array embarked for France in December. Guerrilla warfare continued in 
parts of the South and on the frontier for some time, but Yorktown ended hostilities 
between the regular armies. 




AMERICAN FORCES 



518 HISTOKY OF THE UNITED STATES 

ills " Basht dree o'glock," the further information, " und Gorn-val 
lis ist da-ken."^ Wild scenes of rejoicing greeted the coming day, 
and Congress repaired to the Lutheran Church to thank God for the 
deliverance. When the news reached Paris the victory was cele- 
brated with a brilliant illumination of the city. Even in England 
many of the anti-war party rejoiced; but Lord North, on hearing 
the news, paced the floor of his room, threw his arms wildly about, 
and repeated again and again, " God, it is all over, it is all over." 

It was not until April 19, 1783, exactly eight years after Lexing- 
ton, that Washington proclaimed the war at an end, and discharged 
the army. Some time later he took impressive leave of his ofiicers 
and retired to his Mt. Vernon home, a private citizen. 

The very important business of concluding a treaty of peace 
was now in progress. The treaty was arranged in Paris, and the 
American commissioners were Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and 
John Adams. Franklin was already in Paris, Jay was at Madrid, 
and Adams was in Holland trying to place a loan. American inde- 
pendence was a foregone conclusion, and every country in Europe 
was pleased with this outcome, except Spain, which foresaw that 
the United States as an independent power would become a menace 
to her American possessions. The North ministry had fallen, and 
the Marquis of Rockingham was now premier, with Shelburne and 
Charles James Fox as members of his Cabinet. All of these had 
been the friends of America from the beginning. In July, 1782, 
Rockingham died, and Shelburae, succeeding him as premier, became 
the one who, through his agents, treated with the Americans. Our 
commissioners had been instructed not to deal separately with Eng- 
land without the consent of France, and by these instructions Frank- 
lin was ready to abide. But Jay discovered, or thought he discovered, 
that the French minister, Vergennes, had proposed secretly to Eng- 
land that the United States be deprived of all the region between 
the Alleghany Mountains and the Mississippi River in the inter- 
ests of Spain, and also that American fishermen be prohibited from 
Canadian waters, and he offered to treat with England secretly with- 
out the consent of France. 

The proposition was gladly accepted by Shelburne. 

of peace ^ Franklin did not approve of Jay's course, but Adams, 

arriving from Holland about this time, sided with Jay, 

and Franklin yielded. They therefore arranged with Shelburne a 

1 Fiske, Vol. II, p. 286. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE WAR 311 

preliminary treaty, which was signed November 30, 1782, while the 
definitive treaty was not signed until the 3d of September, 1783, the 
long delay being caused by the European situation. 

By the treaty the independence of the United States was acknowl- 
edged, and the boundaries were Florida on the south, the Mississippi 
on the west, and the southern boundary of Canada on the north. 
The northern boundary could not be absolutely fixed, owing to im* 
perfect geographical knowledge. This was done sixty years later, 
and a child born among the New Hampshire hills the 
same year that marked the signing of the preliminary ® ^ ®'' 
treaty became the American agent in completing this work that was 
left unfinished. 

The Mississippi was left open to both American and British 
shipping ; the right of the Americans to fish on the coast of New- 
foundland and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence was continued, while 
British subjects were not granted fishing rights on the 
coasts of the United States. The other two questions ^j^g treaty 
to be disposed of were those relating to the loyalists 
and to the payment of private debts to British subjects, contracted 
by Americans before the war. Of these the former is the subject 
of a note at the end of this chapter ; the latter was decided in the 
only right way to decide such a question — every debt must be paid 
to its full extent in sterling money. 

The treaty on the whole was a great diplomatic victory for the 
United States. As Mr. Lecky says, nothing that we could reasonably 
have expected was denied us. Aside from independence, the one 
abiding triumph of incalculable importance was the securing the 
Mississippi, instead of the Alleghanies, as the western boundary of 
the United States. Of scarcely greater importance was the purchase 
of Louisiana, twenty years later, than was this first step toward the 
expansion of the new republic to the western ocean. 



OBSERVATIONS 

To the " Eevolution," by which the war as well as the change 
of government is often designated, I have given considerable space 
because of its great importance in the world's history. It gave birth 
to the greatest of modern nations. It also ended a long and blood- 
less strife in England between two political parties, or opposing 
principles of government, and resulted in the restoration of Parlia* 



314 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

. I , 

mentary rule as distinguished from that of the royal prerogative. 
During the war the belief was widespread that the success of the 
Americans would bring ruin to the British Empire and relegate it to 
a second place among the powers, but such a result did not follow. 
England, now in the hands of Parliament and not of the king, rose 
like a wounded giant and smote her enemies right and left. Admiral 
Rodney, the greatest of English seamen except Nelson and Blake,* 
in a tremendous naval battle in the West Indies in 1782, destroyed 
the French fleet and made a prisoner of De Grasse ; and before the 
end of the year the English won a great victory over the Spaniards 
at Gibraltar. England now became the mother of nations and rose 
to a greater height than ever before, reaching the acme of her power 
a generation later at Waterloo. 

America was not greatly weakened by the Revolution. It is 
true that the fishing industry and the shipping business were tem- 
porarily destroyed, but in spite of this fact the country continued to 
prosper during the war, and gained three hundred thousand inhabit- 
ants.^ In fact, the war did not continue long in any one place. The 
wealth of the country lay chiefly in its farm products, and so exten- 
sive was the territory that the invading ?rmies overran less than one 
tenth of it during the whole war. When a foreign army was quartered 
for a long season in any place, it was a benefit rather than a detriment 
to the community, as the farmers received better prices, and usually 
in specie, for their products. In short, the country was richer and 
stronger in resources at the end of the war than at its beginning. 
Nevertheless, the patriot armies were often barefoot, but half clothed, 
and actually suffering for food. This arose wholly from a want of 
government. The country was laden with harvests and fruits, with 
shoes and clothing ; but Congress was powerless, — it could not supply 
the army, it had no power of taxation. In one way alone, the 
worst way of all, could Congress tax the people — by issuing paper 
money ; and this it did lavishly. This Continental money depreci- 
ated in the hands of the people until it became valueless. A pound 
of sugar sold for $10, and a barrel of flour for $1500. To say 
that a thing was "not worth a continental" was to express the 
utmost contempt for its value. This inflation of the currency 

1 Greene. 

2 Rhode Island and Georgia alone lost in population. See Channing's "United 
States of America," p. 105. 

3 The various issues by Congress (all before the close of 1779) aggregated 
$242,000,000. Lossing's " Cyclopedia," Vol. II, p. 321. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE WAR 31S 

caused much annoyance in business, but the people deserved it for 
their tardy support of the war. Had Congress wielded true govern, 
mental powers, or had the people acted all through with the vigor 
displayed at Lexington, at Saratoga, and at King's Mountain, the 
war would have been short and the result never doubtful. 

As to foreign aid, aside from the moral effect of the French 
alliance and the individual services of such men as Lafayette and 
Steuben, it amounted to little until the last campaign. Twice did 
the French make an honest effort — at Newport and at Savannah — 
to assist the Americans, but in each case the result was failure. At 
Yorktown, however, the aid of the French was necessary to success. 
But for the fleet of De Grasse, Cornwallis would have escaped by 
sea; and but for the French land forces he might have broken 
through the encircling lines. For this service the Americans should 
never cease to be profoundly grateful to France. 

Perhaps the greatest mistake made by the British was presuming 
too much on the strength of the loyalists. There were many, it is 
true, in northern New York and in the South, but in both sections 
the patriots outnumbered them, while in New England and Penn- 
sylvania the Tory element was insignificant. Burgoyne seriously 
miscalculated in expecting the people of the Hudson Valley to rise 
up for the king, and the same mistake was made by Cornwallis in 
his hapless, final campaign in Virginia. 

Among the British commanders we find no really great soldier. 
The ablest of them all was Cornwallis, a man of much vigor, honest, 
conscientious, and not without strategic ability. Had Cornwallis 
been made commander in chief from the beginning, the history of 
the war might have been different from what it is. Next to him 
stands Lord Rawdon ; and both of these men afterward rose high in 
the councils of their nation, each becoming governor of India. 
Tarleton exhibited much dash and brilliancy, but he was wanting 
in the humane qualities that usually characterize modern warfare. 
Gage was incompetent, as British writers acknowledge. Howe was 
abler, but he was dilatory and never seemed to have heart in the 
work.^ Burgoyne and Clinton were men of considerable ability, and 

1 General Howe was accused by his political enemies of not trying to conquer 
the Americans because of his sympathy with them. To these accusations he made 
a sweeping denial. Mr. S. G. Fisher, in his "True History of the Revohition " 
(p. 296 sq.), makes a strong argument that Howe was not true to the British cause: 
that his sailing to Halifax on leaving Boston, instead of going direct to the vicinity 
of New York,- his leaving great stores and many cannon at Boston, when he could 



316 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

of the most honorable instincts ; but while the former in his single 
campaign had little opportunity to exhibit any great qualities, the 
latter was usually just too late in making any important movement. 
Long after the war was over Clinton and Cornwallis had a sharp 
controversy concerning the Virginia campaign, the sympathy of 
Parliament remaining chiefly with the latter. 

Turning to the American side, we find in George Washington a 
great military commander. It is true that he actually won but few 
battles, but this fact will not affect his reputation when one consid- 
ers the conditions. An army of regulars, of professional soldiers, is 
worth at least three times its number of untrained militia; and not 
only was Washington's army composed largely of militia, as against 
the British regulars, but it was also usually far inferior in numbers, 
and was badly equipped in comparison. We do not class Washing- 
ton among the greatest warriors of history ; he lacked the brilliant 
genius of a Hannibal, a Caesar, or a Napoleon. He is especially 
remembered for his Fabian policy ; and yet his operations at Tren- 
ton and Princeton, his well-planned attack at Germantown, so soon 
after the defeat at Brandywine, and his stealthy march upon York- 
town, — all must be classed among the most brilliant military move- 
ments in the history of warfare. Other valiant leaders there were 
in the field and in the State, but any one of them could have been 
spared. Not so with Washington. Without him — judging from a 
human standpoint — the Kevolution could not have succeeded. 

Next to Washington stands Nathanael Greene. Singular it is 
that Greene never won a battle ; but he always won the campaign, 
which was the vital thing after all. Lafayette made a name for 
himself in American history, and his fame will endure for many gen- 
erations; but he never displayed, in this war or later in life, the 
qualities of a great military genius. A few of the commanders are 
famous for some single act — Ethan Allen for the capture of Ticon- 
deroga, Stark for Bennington, and Wayne for his capture of Stony 
Point ; while others, equally deserving, are scarcely remembered 

have destroyed them; his failure to capture the American army on Long Island; 
his loitering ou Murray Hill and losing a great opportunity in New York ; his sailing 
for the Chesapeake, when he should have cooperated with Burgoyne, even without 
instructions, — abundantly prove this. The argument is strong, but as Howe was 
always known to be a man of the highest honor and pirobity, and as such a theory 
impeaches his character and makes him a traitor to his country while pretending to 
be its friend and defender, the theory is impossible to accept. And yet, as General 
Howe was a stanch Whig, it can easily be believed that his campaigns were less 
vigorous than they would have been had he belonged to the opposite party. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE WAR 317 

by the masses. Among these are Schuyler, who was robbed of his 
laurels at Saratoga ; Knox, whose name was redeemed by his being 
chosen to sit in the first Cabinet ; Daniel Morgan, the hero of many 
battles and especially of the Cowpens; and Sullivan, who was a con- 
spicuous figure in nearly every battle fought on northern soil. 



NOTES 

Washington's Farewell. — On November 25, 1783, the British army under 
Sir Guy Carleton, who had succeeded Clinton, departed from New York, and 
the same day the American army entered the city. The day was celebrated for 
many years as Evacuation Day. Nine days after the entrance of the army 
Washington gathered his officers about him at Fraunce's Tavern and gave them 
an affectionate fai'ewell. In deep emotion he raised a glass of water with trem- 
bling hand to his lips, drank to their health, and said : " With a heart full of 
love and gratitude I now take leave of you, and most devoutly wish your latter 
days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones liave been glorious 
and honorable." He then invited each to shake him by the hand, and as they 
did so he kissed each one on the forehead. From New York he went to Phila- 
delphia and deposited with the comptroller an account of his expenses during 
the war (some $64,000), and then proceeded to Annapolis, where Congress was 
sitting. In the towns along the route great numbers of people gathered to 
do honor to the hero and to assure him of their undying devotion. In the state- 
house at Annapolis, at noon on December 23, Washington appeared before Con- 
gress in special session for the purpose, returned his eommission as commander 
of the army to General Mifflin, the president, and uttered a speech full of feeling 
and wisdom. Two days latei", on Christmas, this " Cincinnatus of the West" 
was resting amid the rural scenes of his Mt. Vernon home. 

The Treaty and the Loyalists. — The most serious immediate question 
before the American people after the conclusion of the treaty was what to do 
with the Tories or loyalists. In framing the treaty, England had insisted on 
favorable terms for them ; but our commissioners, Franklin, Jay, and John 
Adams, were inexorable in their refusal. They agreed, however, that Congress 
recommend that the states deal mildly with the loyalists. Congress did this, 
but the states paid no heed to the request. Many of them fled the country at 
the close of the war, some to England, some to Canada, while others found refuge 
in Florida. Many were reduced to poverty by confiscation. Some in New 
Jersey were tarred and feathered, while numbers in the South were put to death. 
One man, named Love, who had been notorious for killing wounded patriots, was 
tried in Georgia and was acquitted ; but the people seized him as he walked out 
of the court room and hanged him to the nearest tree. A great many of the 
milder Tories were permitted to remain in the country, and they eventually 
became useful citizens. It is claimed that about 60,000 fled the country and 
made their homes in England or Canada. For those who had lost their property 
and left the country, Parliament appropriated a large sum of money, $16,000,OOOli 



CHAPTER XV 

THE TEMPORARY GOVERNMENT 

The war of the Ee volution was now over, and the people rejoiced 
in their newly won independence ; but the more serious problem of 
self-government was yet unsolved. We have seen how at the begin- 
ning of the war the people came together in the common defense, 
how they created a Congress with undefined powers and through 
it declared their independence, and how at length they lost interest 
in it and refused to obey its mandates. It is true that Congress had 
degenerated ; some of the best men of the first Congress had gone into 
the army, others had become ministers abroad, while still others had 
accepted office in their respective states. No longer was that body 
composed of the best men of the country, nor were its motives 
always above suspicion. The people had learned, through their long 
experience in colonial days, how to govern their states ; but to join 
them together into a nation was the vital question that had not yet 
reached a solution. 

Nevertheless Congress made an honest effort to form a permanent 
union. On the same day that the committee was appointed to draw 
up a Declaration of Independence another committee was intrusted 
with the more arduous duty of preparing a form of government. 
The leading man in this committee was John Dickinson, who, one 
week after the great Declaration had been passed, reported a plan 
of government. This instrument was taken up and debated at 
intervals for some weeks, when it was laid upon the table ; and there 
it rested for eight months. In the early spring of 1777 these articles 
were again taken up, and, after a desultory discussion covering half 
a year, they were adopted by Congress. This plan of government, 
or constitution, is known in history as the Articles of Confed 
eration. 

The Articles as finally adopted were much weaker than was the 
original draft of Dickinson, and the weak and inefficient govern- 
ment created by them was little better than a *' rope of sand," as it 

318 



THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 319 

has frequently been called. The causes which contributed to this result 
were various. The outburst of national feeling at the opening of 
the Revolution, born of necessity and of the spirit of rebellion against 
England, had now subsided, while the feeling of state pride, which 
had its roots in the far past, was again in the ascendency. The 
states had moreover formed governments and assumed governmental 
powers, and they were loath to yield these powers to a general govern- 
ment. They were also jealous of one another, and this jealousy of 
states and sections played its part in preventing their union into a 
stronger government. To these causes — excessive state pride and 
a dearth of national patriotism, the jealousy of the states and un- 
willingness to yield any of their powers — another must be added, 
namely, a widespread fear that a strong central government would 
become tyrannical and oppressive and would eventually subvert the 
liberties of the people. From these causes our first attempt at 
national government, under a written constitution, ended almost in 
failure. 

THE "ARTICLES" AND THE LAND CESSIONS 

Immediately on adopting the Articles Congress sent them to the 
various states for ratification. Most of the states ratified them within 
a year, but a few hesitated, and three and a half years passed before 
the union was formed. The chief cause for delay is found in the 
possession of western lands by some of the states and not by the 
others. Anticipating the cession by Great Britain of all the territory 
east of the Mississippi from Florida to the Great Lakes, the various 
states laid claim to it, mostly on the ground of their royal charters.^ 
Massachusetts claimed all the lands westward from New York, and 
Connecticut laid claim to a broad strip south of the Massachusetts 
line. Virginia, by right of her charters and on the ground of the 
conquest of the Illinois country by George Rogers Clark, laid claim 
to almost the entire Ohio Valley and to parts of what is now Wis- 
consin and Michigan. The claims of the southern states extended 
from their respective western boundaries to the Mississippi. The 
claims of New York, however, were the most extravagant of all ; and 
they were not based on a royal charter, but on the possession of the 

1 These charters, extending to the " South Sea," which now became the Missis- 
sippi River, had nearly all been canceled by the same power that had issued them, 
but the states ignored this fact and stuck to their extravagant claims to the western 
lands. 



320 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Iroquois. The Six Nations had deeded all their lands to the gov- 
ernor of New York, and these Indians had pretended to extend their 
authority over nearly all the tribes between the Tennessee River and 
the Great Lakes. On this ground New York claimed all this vast 
region as her own. 

It will be seen that these claims frequently conflict, and here lay 

the seeds of serious future trouble among the states ; but happily 

the discussion of the Articles of Confederation fur- 

^^^^ nished the means of a final settlement. Six of the 

cessions. 

states — Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New Jersey, 

Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland — had no claim to western 
lands, and these now called upon the others to surrender their claims 
to the general government. Maryland, indeed, made a determined 
stand, and refused to adopt the Articles and join the Union until 
the cessions were made. The matter hung fire for several years 
and began to attract attention even in Europe ; but at length, early" 
in 1781, New York generously took the lead and offered to cede her 
claims to the general government. Some of the others signified their 
willingness to follow this example, and Maryland signed the Articles 
in March, 1781. 

This experiment in government was the first of its kind in his- 
tory, and it was not then known, as it now is, that such a confed- 
eracy cannot endure. The Articles embodied a few good points, 
such as the provision that freemen of any state should be entitled 
to all the privileges and immunities of freemen of any other state, 
and that the records, acts, and judicial decisions of one state should 
be valid in all. But on the whole the Articles were exceedingly 
defective. They left the government without a Supreme Court to 
interpret the laws, without an Executive to enforce them, and with 
but one House of Congress, in which each state had one vote, regard- 
less of its size, x^opulation, or wealth. Each state had at least two 
and not more than seven representatives, the majority 
the ArtiSes casting the vote of the state, and no man could rep- 
resent his state more than three years out of six. Con- 
gress had no power over commerce; each state had power to put a 
tariff on foreign goods, or on goods from the other states. The 
government acted on the state and not on the individual : thus a 
citizen had no direct relations with his government, which seemed 
to him almost as a foreign power ; he was responsible to his state, 
and the state to the general government. 



THE TEMPORARY GOVERNMENT 32» 

The most glaring defect in the Articles lay in the fact that Con- 
gress had no power over taxation. It could only apportion to the 
states the amount necessary for each to raise, and if they refused, 
as some of them did, there was no power to force them. Eighteen 
months were required to collect one fifth of the taxes laid by Con- 
gress in 1783.^ It is plain that a government which has not the 
power to tax its own citizens, or to enforce its own laws, or to 
regulate commerce, lacks the vital essentials of sovereignty ; and in 
this condition was the United States under the Articles of Confed- 
eration. 

DRIFTING TOWARD ANARCHY 

The Articles of Confederation were perhaps the best attainable 
at the time of their adoption, as the people were not yet ready for 
a soli^ union ; and they taught the people as nothing 
else could have done that a stronger government was * ^n-els 
necessary. But they were truly " a rope of sand." 
Any refractory state among the thirteen had the power to nullify 
a national law. Our agents in Europe made treaties of commerce 
which could be set at naught by any state in the Union. The Euro- 
pean powers did not know whether they were treating with one nation 
or with thirteen. Matters at home were in a still worse condition. 
The states habitually violated the Articles and disobeyed the acts 
of Congress, and they quarreled with one another like petulant chil- 
dren. Pennsylvania and Connecticut came to blows over the Wyo- 
ming Valley, until at length the matter was settled by arbitration. 
Pennsylvania won, and Connecticut went on westward and took a 
slice out of northern Ohio, now called the Western Reserve. New 
York and New Hampshire quarreled over the territory of Vermont. 
Washington became peacemaker, and Vermont afterward joined 
the Union as the fourteenth state. New York was in dispute with 
New Jersey and Connecticut concerning trade. Various states kept 
troops, or entered into compacts in direct violation of the Articles. 

The national treasury was in a deplorable condition. A great war 
debt hung over the country, and the soldiers were clamoring for their 
pay ; but Congress was powerless. In March, 1783, the congress flees 
army was inflamed by a series of articles, known as the from the 
"Newburg Addresses," by Major John Armstrong, soldiers, 
which set forth the grievances of the army and indirectly counseled 

iFrom November 1, 1781, to January 1, 1786, Congress made requisition foi 
more than $10,000,000 and secured less than one fourth of that sum. 

T 



322 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

violent measures to obtain redress. The addresses soon bore fruit. 
In June of the same year a band of eighty soldiers broke camp at 
Lancaster, marched upon Philadelphia, drew up before the state- 
house where Congress sat, and demanded their pay at the point of 
the bayonet. Congress appealed to the state for protection, but 
neither the state nor the city was able or inclined to furnish it; and 
this august body of lawmakers, Avhich had raised armies to grapple 
with the British Empire, had issued the Beclaration of Independence, 
and had concluded treaties with the greatest nations of the earth, — 
this body now fled from a few of its own soldiers and found refuge 
in the college at Princeton. Rioting was rampant in many parts of 
the country. At Concord, Massachusetts, the judges were driven 
from the court by an armed mob, and the same thing occurred at 
iSTorthampton and other towns. 

The states were supreme. Congress was held in contempt, yet 
that body made an honest effort to manage the government and to 
pay the national debt. In 1781 Congress proposed an impost duty 
of five per cent on certain articles, in order to raise money to pay 
the public debt. But the consent of all the states was necessary. 
Twelve consented, but Rhode Island refused, and the project fell to 
the ground. In 1783 a strenuous effort was made to amend the 
Articles so as to give Congress the power of laying imposts. Twelve 
states again consented, including Rhode Island ; but New York, 
swayed by George Clinton, whose statesmanship was too narrow to 
expand beyond his own state, refused, and again the project came to 
nothing. A third attempt was made in 1784 — an attempt to get the 
states to give Congress power to exclude from our ports vessels 
whose respective governments did not have commercial treaties with 
us ; but this effort also ended in failure. 

Deplorable indeed was the condition of the countiy during the 
years just preceding the breaking of the dawn. Our credit in Europe 

was dead. Jefferson, who had succeeded Franklin as 
reUti^s minister to France, labored in vain to secure further 

loans and more favorable trade conditions with that 
country ; and John Adams and John Jay had similar experiences at 
London and Madrid. The half-barbarous hordes of North Africa in- 
sulted our flag with impunity, destroyed our shipping in the Medi- 
terranean, and openly sold American citizens into slavery in the 
markets of Tripoli and Algiers. But Congress could not protect its 
citizens at home — how could it do so in lands beyond the seas ? One 



A FEW YEARS OF ANARCHY 323 

of the most serious menaces to the country came from the far South- 
west. Spain, through her envoy, Gardoqui, decided to close the lower 
Mississippi to American shipping ; and John Jay, our foreign secre- 
tary, after a year's protest, agreed to the project in order to win a 
commercial treaty from Spain. Instantly the settlers of the great 
valley were up in arms. The closing of the great waterway, they 
declared, would ruin them, and rather than submit to it, they would 
secede from the Union and throw themselves upon Great Britain for 
protection. But New England wanted the commercial treaty and 
cared little for the navigation of the Mississippi. That section now 
talked secession, if the Jay-Gardoqui treaty were not accepted by 
Congress. Pennsylvania and New Jersey were neutral and held the 
balance of power, but at length they threw their weight with the South, 
and the treaty was rejected. 

In 1786 the country was again deluged with paper money, issued, 
not by Congress, but by the several states. The people clamored for 
it as Israel cried for quail in the wilderness, and the issue was so pro- 
fuse as to ruin trade and business. Most of the states yielded to 
theiiemand of the people; and the refusal of Massachusetts to do so, 
coupled with a decision to pay her quota to Congress, caused an 
uprising led by Daniel Shays, known as Shays's Rebellion. Shays 
had a following of some two thousand men, mostly debtor-farmers, 
and Governor Bowdoin was obliged to send General Lincoln to dis- 
perse them. This rebellion, perhaps, did more than anything else to 
arouse in the lovers of peace and order a sense of the need of a stronger 
government. 

Such was the condition of national affairs under che Confedera- 
tion. Congress had but the shadow of power, and the national author- 
ity was a dream. But the seeds of discontent were taking root in 
many hearts. Wise men saw that unless a stronger government 
were formed, the fruits of the Revolution would be lost and the 
opportunity of the new civilization in the Western World would be 
fatally impaired. Washington looked with dismay upon the drifting 
of the -people toward anarchy. As early as June, 1783, he had written 
a long circular letter to the governors of all the states, in which he 
urgently recommended " an indissoluble union of the states, under 
one federal head." But in one thing there was already an im^^ortant 
nucleus of nationality ; one solid foundation stone had been laid, and 
that consisted in the possession by the general government of the 
western lands, a vast tract equal in extent to all the thirteen states 



324 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

combined.^ In July, 1787, an ordinance was passed by Congress to 
govern the Northwest Territory, between the Ohio River and the lakes. 
This famous " Ordinance of 1787 " provided for the temporary gov- 
ernment of the territory and for its ultimate division into states ; it 
provided for personal and religious liberty and for the means of edu- 
cation; it guaranteed civil rights and the proper treatment of the 
Indians, and above all, it excluded slavery forever from the territory.^ 
By this act Congress exercised sovereign power which had not been 
granted by the Articles, and yet there was little outcry against it. 
Its acceptance was one of the signs that pointed to a closer union and 
a stronger government. This ordinance, which was ratified by the 
first Congress under the Constitution, has been rightfully pronounced 
next in importance to the Declaration of Independence and the fed- 
eral Constitution in its results for the United States.^ 

THE ANNAPOLIS CONVENTION 

While governmental affairs were in this almost chaotic condition, 
while the country was in a state of distraction over the New England 
riots, the flood of paper money, and the pending Jay-Gardoqui treaty, 
— early in the year 1786, — a very important step was taken in the 
right direction. The legislature of Virginia called a convention to 
be held at Annapolis, — or rather invited the other states to join in 
such a convention, — for the purpose of considering trade condi- 
tions. This call, occasioned by the commercial problem, originated 
with James Madison, one of the ablest among the nation builders 
of that period. 

At the little city by the Chesapeake the convention met in 
September, 1786. But twelve delegates were present, representing 
five states, neither New England nor the extreme South being repre- 
sented.'* The convention, too small to be truly a representation of 
the whole country, did not discuss the condition of trade, and it 
would scarcely be remembered but for the one thing it did — it called 

1 Not all the states owning western lands had yet ceded them, but they were 
morally bound to do so, as it was understood that they would follow the example of 
New York and Virginia. The last cession, by Georgia, was made in 1801. 

2 An ordinance, framed by Jefferson, for the government of the western territory 
both north and south of the Ohio, was adopted by Congress in 1784, after an anti-slav- 
ery clause had been lost by a single vote. This ordinance did not go into operation. 

3 Channing's " United States," p. 113. 

4 Delegates from various other states were on their way to Annapolis when they 
heard that the convention had adjourned. 



THE TEMPORARY GOVERNMENT 825 

another convention, to be held the following spring in Philadelphia. 
The call was drawn up by the brilliant young delegate from New 
York, Alexander Hamilton. 

There was much doubt as to what would be the response to this 
call, so widespread was the passion for state rights, and so little did 
the masses realize that the ills of the country were largely due to a 
want of government. Congress, then sittiug in New York, hesitated 
long before sanctioning the movement, and gave its approval only 
after six states had elected delegates. Virginia took the lead, and 
Virginia was led by Madison, who made a master stroke by having 
Washington put first on the list of delegates. This, it was well 
^nown, would give tone and dignity to the movement, as Washing- 
ton was the popular idol in every state. But Virginia did nothing 
better than to send Madison himself to the convention. The other 
states followed her example, until twelve of them had chosen dele- 
gates, Rhode Island alone refusing to take any part in the pro- 
ceeding. 

The approach of the time for the Philadelphia convention was 
marked by a general interest among the people. The convention was 
called ostensibly to amend the Articles of Confederation; but it 
was generally felt that it would go beyond its instructions and pro- 
pose a new government. What would be the outcome no one could 
surmise. Some favored a monarchy;^ a larger number preferred that 
three republics be set up — one comprising New England, a second 
the Middle states, and a thir4 the Southern states ; but the great 
mass of the people preferred that there be one government, and that 
a republic. The people were in a quiver of uncertainty as to what 
would be done or should be done; they only knew that something must 
be done, and that soon, if the country was to be preserved. Mean- 
time the Constitutional Convention met, and after a four months' 
labor it gave birth to that great document which still is, and will 
doubtless be for many generations to come, the supreme law of the 
land — a document that the great British statesman, Gladstone, pro- 
nounced the " greatest work ever struck off at any one time by the 
mind and purpose of man " ; and to the story of the making of this 
instrument we shall devote the next chapter. 

1 Colonel Louis Nicola, who favored a kingdom, had written to "Washington in 
1782, urging him to accept the crown at the hands of the American people. Washing- 
ton answered that the scheme was odious to him, and enjoined Nicola aa his friend 
to mention it no more. 



^26 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



NOTES 

Society of the Cincinnati. — The society known as the Cincinnati was first 
suggested by General Knox, and was organized at the headquarters of Baron 
Steuben, near Fishkill, New York. Washington was made the first president, 
and he continued to hold the oflice until his death. The society was composed of 
the officers of the Continental army, and its object was to promote friendship 
and to aid any of the members that might be in want. To perpetuate the society 
it was provided that the eldest male descendant of each of its members should 
be entitled to membership. The badge of the order was the figure of ar eagle 
in gold, on the breast of which was a medallion representing Cincinnatus at his 
plow receiving the Roman senators. There was a great outcry from the people 
against the Cincinnati. It was believed that this was the beginning of an order 
of nobility, or at least of an aristocracy that would ever hold itself above the 
common people. But this fear was all unnecessary, for while the society still 
exists, it plays but a small part in the social life of America. 

State Governments. — The states had been authorized by Congress, as 
stated before, to form governments ; and each had adopted a constitution, except 
Rhode Island and Connecticut, which merely dropped the king's name from 
their public documents. The states, thus suddenly clothed with unusual powers, 
naturally took much pride in their new condition ; and this state pride, as noted 
in the text, made the forming of a union exceedingly difficult. But it is a 
remarkable fact that in few cases was this newly acquired liberty so abused as 
to produce anarchy or violence. The cause of this cool-headed, conservative 
manner in which the states set about governing themselves is twofold : first, 
the fact that the people had long enjoyed a large measure of liberty and 
knew how to use it ; second, the instinct for order and the reign of law that 
characterizes the Anglo-Saxon race. The legislative assemblies of the old days 
were continued by the states, the members representing the counties, except in 
New England, where they represented the townships. There was also an upper 
House or Senate (added in Pennsylvania and Georgia a few years after the war) 
in each state, and a governor, except in a few states where an executive council 
at first took the place of governor. But in framing their first state constitutions 
the people remembered their troubles with the old royal governors, and gave 
the new governors but little power. The judicial systems remained much the 
same as under the colonies. In every state a property qualification was required 
of voters, and in many a religious test was applied. Universal manhood suffrage 
was a gradual growth, and came with a later generation. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE CONSTITUTION 

The Constitutional Convention met in the same city, the same 
buikling, and the same room from which had issued the great Declara- 
tion of Independence eleven years before. It was composed of the best 
brains of the land, though a few of the leading characters were con- 
spicuously absent. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were serv- 
ing their country in Europe ; Patrick Henry had been elected, but he 
refused to serve, so wedded was he to state rights ; and we look in 
vain for Kichard Henry Lee, for Samuel Adams, and for John Han- 
cock, all of whom feared a stronger government, lest the sovereignty 
of the states and the liberty of the people be endangered. 

THE MEN THAT MADE IT 

An abler body of statesmen has not assembled in modern times 
than that which made our Constitution in 1787, nor has any assembly 
met with truer motives, or produced a grander result. The whole 
number of delegates was fifty-five,^ and there was scarcely a man 
among them who had not been distinguished in the state or in the 
field, who had not been a governor, a member of Congress, or a com- 
mander in the army. A few had served in the Stamp Act Congress 
in 1765, others had set their names to the immortal Declaration in 
1776, and one had framed the plan of union at Albany in 1754. 
Could these men have looked into the future, they would have seen 
two of their own number become Presidents of the United States, 
one a Vice President, and many others foreign ministers, members of 
the Supreme Court, Cabinet officials, and United States senators. 
These were the men who founded the Kepublic and started it upon 
its marvelous course of prosperity. 

First among the framers of our Constitution stands Washington, 
the soldier-statesman, and next to him we must place Franklin, th« 

1 A few others bad been elected wbo did not attend. 
327 



828 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

philosopher and diplomat, and the oldest member of the convention 
Among the most conspicuous members was John Dickinson, who was 
remembered for having honestly oj)posed the Declaration in 1776, 
but whose sincere patriotism could never be questioned. The most 
learned lawyer in the convention was James Wilson of Pennsylvania, 
afterward justice of the Supreme Court. For profound knowledge 
of constitutional law few surpassed the youthful Madison of Virginia, 
who came to be called the '* Father of the Constitution" — not that 
he framed it, for it was the work of many, but because he had 
perhaps more to do in making it what it is than any other man. 
Scarcely below Madison stood the still more youthful Hamilton of 
New York, destined to a brief, brilliant political career, to be ended in 
its noonday at the hands of the duelist. In this convention we find 
Kobert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, and Gouverneur Morris, 
the author of our decimal system of money. We find here Edmund 
Randolph, the popular governor of Virginia, who, as a patriot youth 
with a Tory father, had run away from his home, joined the army, 
and served through the war, and who, returning home, had found 
himself one of the most popular men in the state. He rose to the 
governorship, and afterward became a member of the first Cabinet in 
the new government. Here also were «John Rutledge, the brilliant 
orator of South Carolina ; Charles C. Pinckney, afterward a member 
of the famous mission to France and twice candidate of his party for 
the presidency of the United States ; Roger Sherman, the shoemaker 
statesman from Connecticut; Rufus King, who was yet to spend 
many years in the forefront of political life ; Elbridge Gerry, whose 
name furnished us with the political term, "gerrymander," who spent 
many later years in public life, and who held at his death the second 
official position in the United States. These were the leaders of the 
notable assemblage that gathered at Philadelphia for the purpose of 
forming a more perfect union, of laying the foundations of a nation. 

BUSINESS OF THE CONVENTION 

On May 25, 1787, the convention held its first regular session, 
though some of the delegates did not arrive for several weeks. 
George Washington was chosen chairman, and the doors were closed 
to the public.^ As was generally expected, the convention made no 

1 The members pledged themselves to secrecy, as they wished to present theii 
work to the public, not in fragments, but as a whole. Madison, however, toot 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 829 

attempt to amend the Articles of Confederation ; it proceeded at the 
outstart to frame a new instrument. 

Many of the delegates were ready to temporize, to deal in half 
measures, to produce an instrument that would " please the people." 
Others favored doing thorough work, of abolishing the Confederac 
tion and founding a federal republic. Among these was Washington; 
and he carried the day in a brief speech — one of the noblest speeches 
he or any statesman ever uttered. " If, to please the people," said 
he, " we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward 
defend our work ? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and 
the honest can repair ; the event is in the hand of God." 

The Virginia delegates had carefully framed a form of govern- 
ment, which had been drawn up by Madison after consulting with 
others, and it was presented to the convention by Governor Ran- 
dolph. This "Virginia Plan" provided for a complete change of 
government, for the formation of a federal union, with three coordi- 
nate branches of government — a legislative, an executive, and a judi- 
cial ; and, most radical of all, it provided that the individual, and not 
the state as such, be directly responsible to the general government. 

So radical were the changes proposed by this plan that it called 
forth another known as the New Jersey Plan, or the small state 
plan. This was presented by William Paterson of New Jersey.* 
It was a mere proposal to amend the Articles of Confederation. 
It provided for a plural executive and a judicial department, and 
gave enlarged powers to Congress. But it gave the small states equal 
power in Congress with the large ones, and continued the old way 
of making the state instead of the citizen responsible to the nation. 
This plan, however, was defeated; and the Virginia plan, after 
many modifications, became the Constitution of the United States. 

The long debates, which it is needless for us to follow, often 
became bitter, and on two or three occasions the convention came 
near breaking up. So unlike were the interests of the various sec- 
tions represented that the delegates could agree only by compromis- 

elaborate notes of the proceedings, and his notes were published only after his death, 
fifty years later. Many were the speculations of the people as to what the convention 
would do, and the members were deluged with letters from their constituents. 
Would they set up a kingdom ? would the country be divided ? would Rhode 
Island be cast out of the Union for not taking part ? and many other such questions 
came from the people. 

1 Two or three other plans, or partial plans, were presented, but not considered. 
One of these, presented by Hamilton, was almost mouarcbial in its tendencies. 



S30 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

ing ; and our Constitution is founded on three great compromises, the 

first of which was between the great and the small states. 

Under the old Confederation the states had each one vote in 

Congress, regardless of size, wealth, or population ; but the Virginia 

plan now proposed that the states be represented in the Congress, 

consisting of two houses, according to population or 

^^"* ~.- - wealth. Instantly the small states were up in arms. 
coniproiiiis6. '' ^ 

The greatest state, Virginia, would then have sixteen 
votes, while Georgia or Delaware would have but one. No, they 
would submit to nothing of the sort; the large states would com- 
bine against the small ones, and the voice of the latter would not be 
heard in national affairs, and they would be reduced to a subordinate 
position. After a long, wrangling debate on this subject a compro- 
mise was reached. It was agreed that in the lower House the rep- 
resentation be based on population, while in the upper House, or 
Senate, each state be equally represented without regard to its popu- 
lation, wealth, or its territorial extent.^ Thus each state has two 
senators, while in the House of Representatives the number of its 
delegates is determined by its population. The Senate, therefore, 
was intended to represent the states, and the House the people. 

The second compromise was between free and the slave states. 

The Northern states all had slaves before the Eevolution, but they 

were now obviously drifting toward emancipation, while 

^f^^^™,-.,^. the institution was strengthening in the far South : and 
compromise. , ,. . , 

the dispute that arose in the convention over slavery was 

the beginning of that long and dreadful conflict which covered three 
fourths of a century and ended in a final appeal to the sword. The 
quarrel over this point was sharp and passionate, but it ended in com- 
promise. Before it was decided whether to base the lower House 
on population or on wealth the question arose. Are slaves population 
or wealth ? The northern delegates contended that as slaves had no 
vote and were bought aud sold like other property, they should not 
be counted in the census that made up the representation in Con- 
gress, and in laying direct taxes. The South objected to this, claim- 
ing that all the slaves should be counted ; and there was a deadlock. 
Madison suggested that, by way of compromise, three fifths of the 
slaves be counted. The South agreed to this, and the practice con- 
tinued to the Civil War. 

1 At this juncture Yates and Lansing of New York, and a little later Luther 
Martin of Maryland, all of the extreme state rights party, went home in disgust. 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 331 

The third compromise, between commercial and agricultural 
states, also touched upon the slavery question. New England de- 
sired that Congress be given full control over foreign and interstate 
commerce. The southern delegates, fearing an export tax on farm 
products and a prohibition of the slave trade, desired that each state 
control its own commerce, as under the old regime. Another deadlock 
ensued. Before this question was settled another arose : Shall the 
African slave trade be prohibited ? A large majority of the dele- 
gates opposed the foreign slave trade, and would have shut it off 
forever ; but South Carolina and Georgia objected in thunder tones. 
They must have a constant supply of blacks for the rice swamps, 
they said, and they would not join the Union if the question were 
decided against them. The debates were fierce and the convention 
seemed on the verge of dissolution, as it had been several times 
before. Could a union really be formed ? Some of the wisest men 
feared that their efforts would result in failure. Rhode Island had 
taken no part in the convention ; the New York delegates had gone 
home in anger ; Massachusetts was uncertain. If now the Southern 
states refused to join, it was certain that no union could be formed. 

Two important questions were now before the House and again 

harmony was restored by compromise. The South yielded to 

New England, and Congress was given control over 

commerce (except that it was forbidden to lay an ex- 'r™ir„„^,-„» 
^ j^ «' compromise. 

port tax) ; the North yielded to the slaveholders, and 
the African trade was left open, not forever, but until the year 1808. 
The most arduous work of the convention w^as now at an end, 
but many minor matters remained to be settled. The creating of 
a Supreme Court; the relations of the two houses of 
Congress to each other and of both to the executive; decisions 
the powers of Congress, of the executive, and of the 
judiciary ; the length of the various terms of office, — these and many 
other things were fully debated, and were at length decided as we 
have them in the Constitution.^ It was decided that there be but one 
execiitive (though some preferred a plural executive), and that he 
should be styled the President of the United States of America. 
It was also decided that he be elected by Congress for a term of 
seven years, and that he be ineligible for reelection. Thus the 
matter rested for several weeks, when it was again taken up. Many 

1 Some of these questions, however, had been debated from time to time, and 
were decided before the three great compromises were fully disposed of. 



332 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

objected to the electing of the President by Congress, as he would 
then be but a creature of that body and subservient to its will. The 
same objection was urged against his election by the state legisla- 
tures. An electing by a general vote of the people was favored by 
but one state — Pennsylvania. At length it was decided that the 
President be elected for four years, that he be eligible for reelection, 
and that the choice be made by an electoral college created for the 
purpose, and dissolved, after doing its work, into the great mass of 
the people, so that the President would be responsible to the people 
alone. This feature was borrowed from the constitution of Maryland. 

No part of the Constitution was more earnestly and honestly 
considered than the method of electing the President, and no part 
of it is now carried out with such an utter disregard of the spirit 
and intention of the framers. It was intended that the electors use 
their discretion in choosing a President ; but the people, as they 
grew more intelligent and divided into political parties, took the 
business of president-making into their own hands, retaining the 
electoral college, now a lifeless piece of machinery, only to carry out 
the letter of the law. 

The Constitution of the United States is by far the most im- 
portant production of its kind in human history. It created, with- 
out historic precedent, a federal-national government. It combined 
national strength with individual liberty in a degree so remarkable 
as to attract the world's admiration. Never before in the history 
of man had a government struck so fine a balance between liberty 
and union, between state rights and national sovereignty. The 
world had labored for ages to solve this greatest of all governmental 
problems, but it had labored in vain. Greece in her mad clamor 
for liberty had forgotten the need of the strength that union 
brings, and she perished. Kome made the opposite mistake. Rome 
fostered union — nationality — for its strength until it became a 
tyrant, and strangled the child Liberty. It was left for our own 
Revolutionary fathers to strike the balance between these opposing 
tendencies, to join them in perpetual wedlock in such a way as 
to secure the benefits of both. A century of experience, it is true, 
was needed to adjust this balance as we now have it, but the whole 
substructure to our national edifice was laid at Philadelphia in 1787. 

Yet there is little in our Constitution that was created by its 
framers. Much of it is as old as Magna Charta, says Mr. Bryce. The 
words of Mr. Gladstone, that it is the greatest work ever struck off 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 333 

at any one time by the mind and purpose of man, are in one sense 
misleading. The work was not struck off at one time. The framers 
of the Constitution gleaned from history, from the mother land, 
and especially from the various state constitutions. As noticed in a 
former chapter, the earliest colonial governments were based on the 
charters of trading corporations; the colonial governments were then 
transformed into the earliest state constitutions, and these became 
the basis of the federal Constitution.^ 

It will be interesting here to notice the sources of a few of the 
features of the national Constitution. From the constitution of 
Maryland we have a small Senate with a long term of service, and 
the idea of an electoral college for choosing a President and a Vice 
President ; ^ from the constitution of New York, the periodic re- 
adjustment of the representation after each census, and 
the Vice President's duty to preside over the Senate and const\ut on * 
to vote only in case of a tie.^ From the constitution of 
Massachusetts were derived the powers and duties of the two houses 
with respect to impeachments.* The power of the executive to veto 
an act of the legislature and the requirement of a two-thirds affirma' 
tive vote for its repassage were in use in Massachusetts. A few fe£\- 
tures, as the judiciary system, the short term for the lower House, 
and the single executive, were common to nearly all the states. 
Other features, as army appropriations limited to two years, are 
analogous to English customs;^ while the two-chambered legislature 
had its models in Parliament, and in all but two states. 

We find in the Constitution a few features original with the 
framers, such as the isolated position of the President, the basing of 
representation on population, and many minor details. But on the 
whole the instrument was a compilation, not an original production. 
It was the culmination of the institutional growth of two centuries 
— a tree with trunk and branches purely American, grafted on an 
English root. The framers of our Constitution were very wise — 
too wise to draw on their imagination, or to base the government of 
a nation on theory. No man, or body of men, can create systems of 

1 This subject is ably discussed by W. C. Moray in a series of articles in the 
" Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science," Vols. 1 and IV 

2 Maryland chose her senators through an electoral college composed of two 
persons from each county. 

8 New York's lieutenant governor had this power. 

* J. H. Robinson, in " Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social 
Science," Vol. I, p. 219. 6 " Federalist," No. 61. 



334 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

government. They must grow. Had these men attempted to create 
a chimerical structure, their work would have been valueless. But 
they displayed great wisdom in selecting the best things that had 
been tried and proved, and in but few points did they choose un- 
wisely. Hence their great success. Hence the astonishing fact 
that this same Constitution is still the supreme law of the land, and is 
more deeply imbedded in the American heart to-day than ever before. 

The new instrument differed from the old Articles chiefly in 
creating three great coordinate departments — legislative, executive, 
and judicial ; in making the citizen rather than the state amenable 
to national law; and in withholding from the states, and vesting 
in the national government, powers the exercise of which pertain 
to the whole people — to coin money, to wage war, to deal with 
foreign nations, to lay a tariff', and the like. One of the most 
important clauses in the Constitution is the " supreme law " clause, 
by virtue of which the Supreme Court came to exercise the power 
to interpret the Constitution, and to pronounce upon the constitu- 
tionality of the acts of the legislative branch of the government, a 
remarkable power, enjoyed by no other judicial body in the world. 

The great work of the convention was completed, and the docu- 
ment was signed by thirty-nine delegates on the 17th of September. 
It did not fully meet the ideas of anyone; each had yielded his con- 
victions at some point. But it was believed to be the best attainable 
at the time, and all the delegates except sixteen, all but three of 
whom had departed for their homes,^ put their names to it, not 
one of them perhaps believing that it would stand for half a century. 

After providing for amending the Constitution, and for its going 
into operation when nine states should ratify it, the delegates sent 
it to Congress, then sitting in New York. That body sent it forth 
to the various states without a word of approval or disapproval. 

THE CONSTITUTION BEFORE THE PEOPLE 

The ship Constitution had experienced a rough voyage thus far ; 
but the most dangerous breakers were still ahead. Nearly half the 
Federalists people opposed the new plan of government, and a 
andAnti- bitter contest resulted. Those favoring the Constitu- 
federalists. ^^^q^ called themselves Federalists, while they dubbed 
their opponents Anti-federalists. The cry of the Anti-federalists was 

1 Randolph and Mason of Virginia and Gerry of Massachusetts were the three 
remaining delegates who refused to sign. 



OPPOSITION TO THE CONSTITUTION 336 

that the new government would be too strong and too centralizing. 
There was a vague fear that Congress would become a tyrant, would 
crush the liberties of the people and tax them without their consent, 
as England had attempted to do before the war. The farmers cried 
out that the lawyers and men of wealth would control the govern- 
ment and would swallow the common people like a great leviathan. 
Among the opponents we find such leaders as Patrick Henry, 
Richard Henry Lee, and George Clinton ; and, in a milder degree, 
Samuel Adams and John Hancock. These men were sincerely 
honest in their opposition; but they labored at a serious disad- 
vantage in that their position was purely negative — they had 
nothing to offer instead of the plan they sought to defeat. The 
Federalists were not very enthusiastic in their praise of the Consti- 
tution ; but they asserted that it was the best attainable, that dis- 
union and anarchy would prevail if it were rejected, and that the 
fears of its opponents were groundless, as the government would 
still be in the hands of the people. The most powerful argument 
for the Constitution was brought out in a series of papers, written 
mostly by Hamilton,^ and since known collectively as " The Feder- 
alist." On the other side Eichard Henry Lee was the foremost writer. 

Some of the state conventions, chosen to consider the new plan, 
wrestled for weeks over the subject, while others ratified it after a 
few days' debate. Delaware won the honor of being first to ratify it, 
the action being unanimous. Pennsylvania came second. In this state 
the people were almost equally divided, but the Federalists held a 
"snap" convention and won the day, after a fierce contest. New 
Jersey came third and, like Delaware, ratified the plan by a unanimous 
vote. These three states had acted in December, 1787, and the new 
year brought others, month by month, into the Union. Georgia was 
bounded on the south by troublesome Spaniards, and on the west by 
hostile Indians. The people of the state therefore gladly accepted 
the promised protection of a stronger government; they ratified it 
without division on January 2, and Connecticut followed a week later. 

Thus within four months after the breaking up of the convention 
that had framed it, the new Constitution was adopted by five states. 
But now came a halt. The Anti-federalists had been half asleep. 
Now they roused themselves and formed in line of battle for a more 
determined opposition ; and many a time during the coming months 
it seemed that the new Republic would die while being born. It 
1 Madison wrote several of the papers and John Jay a few. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



was left for the great state of Massacluisetts to turn the scale. Next 
to Virginia, her weight was the greatest among the states. Her con- 
vention sat for several weeks and discussed the Constitution, article 
by article, and it would doubtless have been rejected but for two 
things — the wholesome lesson taught by the insurrection led by 
Daniel Shays, and the ultimate conversion of Samuel Adams. Adams 
was extremely democratic in his theory of government. He feared 
too much centralization of power, and at first opposed the new plan. 
But he was an honest soul ; he reflected that a rejection of the Con- 
stitution, with nothing to offer in its place, might be disastrous. 
During the early weeks of the convention he sat meditative and 
silent. Many turned to him as children to a father, to decide the 
momentous question. And further, a committee from a great meet- 
ing of artisans, headed by Paul Revere, famous for his midnight ride 
of years before, came to Adams with a series of resolutions begging 
him to favor the new government. Adams was deeply moved, and 
at length he decided for the Constitution. John Hancock experi- 
enced a similar conversion, and Massachusetts soon after ratified the 

new plan by a narrow majority, proposing at the same 
iTSs'**'^^ ®' time a series of amendments in the nature of a bill of 

rights. Maryland and South Carolina followed late in 
the spring, and but one state was now wanting to insure the forma- 
tion of the Union. The Old Dominion, which had called the Anna- 
polis convention and had taken the lead in furnishing the plan of 
government at Philadelphia, still held aloof. Even more powerful 
than in Massachusetts was the opposition in Virginia. Arrayed on 
the negative side we find George Mason, who had helped to frame 
the Constitution and had then refused to sign it, Richard Henry Lee, 
who had opposed it from the beginning, and Patrick Henry, the orator 
of the Revolution. Against these were the weighty influence of 
Washington, the keen logic of Madison, and the powerful judicial 
mind of the rising Chief Justice, John Marshall. Jefferson, who 
was then in France, wavered and hesitated to give his support, and 
the Anti-federalists were quick to claim him as their own ; but, like 
the great New England democrat, he at length came to favor the 
Constitution and gave it his hearty support, urging at the same time 
that it be carefully amended.^ His letter conveying these views 
reached Madison early in June, while the convention was in session, 
and had its weight in the final decision. The vote was taken on June 
1 Fiske's "Critical Period," p. 361. 



THE CONSTITUTION BEFORE THE PEOPLE 337 

25, and the new plan received a majority of ten in a vote of one hun- 
dred and sixty-eight delegates. But Virginia did not become the 
ninth state; New Hampshire preceded her by four days. The Union 
was now assured. The Federalists rejoiced exceedingly. The com- 
ing Fourth of July became a day of jollification, especially in Phila- 
delphia, where the street spectacle surpassed any before seen in 
America. 

The importance of New York to the Union was incalculable. It 
was the commercial center of the country. It alone bordered the 
great lakes and the ocean. A majority of the people, led by Gover- 
nor George Clinton, opposed the Union. Hamilton led the other 
side. For many months it seemed that the state would refuse to 
ratify the Constitution ; but when she was about to be isolated from 
the rest of the country, her people began to reflect more seriously, 
and late in July, 1788, the convention was carried by the Federalists. 
At the same time it called for a new national convention to frame 
a better Constitution ; but little heed was paid to this call, and it 
came to naught. 

Two states. North Carolina and Rhode Island, owing to their 
paper money heresies, still remained sullenly out of the Union, the 
former adjourning its convention without action, the latter refusing 
to call a convention. But at length, after the first amendments 
to the Constitution had been assured, and after the new government 
had been organized, and the President seated, and when the United 
States revenue laws were about to be enforced against them, these 
states sought admission to the sisterhood, and the whole thirteen 
became united in one strong government. Never before had any 
people wrought so great a political revolution without bloodshed. 
From a loosely bound confederacy that lacked the power of govern- 
ing, the people, deliberately, thoughtfully, without drawing a sword, 
with no pressure from without, banded together and founded a nation, 
and based it on a firm and abiding foundation. Never did the Ameri- 
can people so exhibit their moderation, their capacity for self-govern- 
ment, as when they adopted the Constitution. 

THE FIRST PRESIDENT 

In our days it is not possible to foretell absolutely who will be 
our next President; only the coming together at the polls of the 
great political forces of the nation can determine it. In 1789 the 



338 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

case was different. All eyes turned instinctively to the great chief- 
tain who had led the armies to victory, and who had shown himself 
a statesman as well as a soldier. The electoral colleges were made 
up of men chosen by the different states, mostly by the legislatures. 
The old Congress had decided that the electors be chosen on the first 
Wednesday in January, 1789, that they meet and choose a President 
and a Vice President on the first Wednesday in February, and that the 
new government go into operation on the first Wednesday in March 
— which happened that year to be the fourth.^ North Carolina and 
Ehode Island had not yet joined the Union ; New York had trouble 
in her legislature and failed to choose electors ; the first President 
was therefore elected by the votes of ten states. Washington 
received the votes of all — sixty -nine. The rest of the votes were 
scattered among eleven men, and John Adams, receiving the highest 
number, thirty-four, was declared Vice President.^ 

Washington was doubtless ambitious, as other men are ; but he 
had reached the goal. No other man of his age had won so great a 
fame, and now at the approach of old age he had retired to his rural 
home on the banks of the Potomac, desiring to spend there the re- 
mainder of his days, as his private correspondence shows. But the 
call of a whole people to this new duty he could not decline. 

The 4th of March came, and the boom of cannon and the ring- 
ing of bells sounded the knell of the old government that 
was dying, and announced the ushering in of the one 
that was being born. New York City had been chosen as the first 
temporary capital, and thither repaired the newly elected members 
of Congress. But the distances for many were long, and the roads 
at that season were wretched. There was not a quorum present on 
the 4th of March. It was not until the 1st of April that the new 
House held its first session, the Senate meeting five days later. 
The first business was going through the formality of notifying the 
newly chosen President and Vice President of their election. This 
done. Congress fell to discussing a tariff measure; but the discussion 
was soon interrupted by the inaugural ceremonies. 

Adams, arriving first, was quietly inaugurated on April 18. 

1 A few years later the 4th of March was made the legal inauguration day by act 
of Congress. 

2 The Constitution directed that each elector vote for two persons without desig- 
nating which should be President or Vice President. This was changed by the Twelfth 
Amendment, of 1804, which provides that the President and Vice President be elected 
separately. 



THE FIRST INAUGURATION 339 

Washington's journey from his Mount Vernon home to New York 

was like a triumphal march. The people gathered in uncounted 

numbers along the route to do honor to the hero. 

At Philadelphia and Trenton the most elaborate prep- WasMng- 

, p ,. i- 1 -D 1 • tons journey. 

arations were made tor his reception.^ Keachmg 

Elizabeth Point, in New Jersey, he was met by many distinguished 
citizens, and with an improvised fleet, Washington in the midst on 
a barge built for the occasion, they swept up the beautiful bay on 
that sunny Thursday to greet the expectant city. New York had 
donned holiday dress The streets were thronged, and thousands 
were gathered along the wharf at the Battery, eagerly awaiting the 
approaching vessels As Washington stepped from the barge he 
was greeted with an outburst of welcome, that spread like a rolling 
billow over the city. 

One week later, on Thursday, April 30, the inauguration took 
place at Federal Hall, on the corner of Broad and Wall streets. At 
noon Washington, accompanied by Livingston and Adams, stepped 
out on the balcony and stood in the presence of a vast multitude that 
filled the streets, the housetops, and the windows, and the cheers 
that arose were deafening. Just behind him stood Hamilton, Roger 
Sherman, and three Revolutionary generals — Knox, Steuben, and 
St. Clair, — and these were followed by both houses of Congress. Liv- 
ingston pronounced the oath of office ; Washington bowed and kissed 
the Bible, and said in a deeply solemn and scarcely audible voice, 
" I swear, so help me God." His countenance was grave almost to 
sadness, reported an eyewitness. Livingston turned to the crowd, 
waved his hand, and shoiited " Long live George Washington, Presi- 
dent of the United States"; and the voice of the multitude rose in 
cheer after cheer, the artillery roared from the battery, and bells were 
rung all over the city. Thus was the United States of America, 
under its first President, launched upon the ocean of national life. 

NOTES 

Constitutional Amendments. — The Constitution provides for its own amend- 
ment, but the process is so difficult that little short of a great national upheaval 
can bring about an amendment. At first, however, when nobody was satisfied 
with the Constitution, the case was different. Seven of the states on ratifying it 
proposed amendments, in the aggregate over a hundred, many being mere repe- 
titions. These were duly considered by the House, which boiled them down to 

1 For a fuller account see Elson's " Side Lights," "Vol. I, Chap. III. 



340 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

seventeen, and the Senate reduced this number to twelve. These were sent ta 
the states, which ratified ten of them. These first ten amendments were added 
to the Constitution before the close of 1791. They are practically a bill of rights, 
and their adoption was a concession to the Anti-federalists. The Eleventh Amend- 
ment was adopted in 1798 and the Twelfth in 1804. After this, the Constitution 
was not amended for sixty-one years, the last three, concerning negro slavery 
and citizenship, following the Civil War. 

Within the first hundred years more than eighteen hundred proposed amend- 
ments were introduced in Congress. Aside from the fifteen that were adopted, 
four others passed both houses, but failed of ratification by the requisite num- 
ber of states. (Ames, "Proposed Amendments," p. 300.) The difficulty of 
amending the Constitution has been partially met by its elasticity, by a method 
of interpretation by which it meets the needs of to-day almost as well as those 
of the time when it was adopted. This is clearly shown by our method of 
electing a President. But we are yet without a remedy for the obvious unfair- 
ness in counting the minority vote of any state for nothing in a presidential 
election. 

Defects in the Constitution. — A century of experience has taught us that 
there are some serious defects in the Constitution which cannot be coi-rected by 
mere custom, but the macliinery of amendment is so difficult to manipulate that 
we suffer them to remain. One of the most serious defects is that foreigners 
dwelling within the bounds of a state are subject to the jurisdiction of that state, 
as its own citizens, while the state has no foreign relations whatever. The most 
conspicuous example in history was the case of McLeod, a Canadian who was 
tried in 1841 in New York for destroying the Caroline. England was demand- 
ing his release of the United States ; but the United States had no power to com- 
mand New York to give him up, and New York had no relations with England. 
War was averted only by the acquittal of the prisoner. Another example is 
found in the massacre of a number of Italians in New Orleans in 1891. This 
defect, which arises from our dual system, could be remedied by an amendment 
authorizing the national government to take any case of a foreigner, requiring 
international correspondence, out of the hands of any state. Another defect is 
found in the clause that requires a majority, instead of a plurality, of the elec- 
toral college, to elect a President and a Vice President, and in case of its failure to 
elect, a majority of the states (each state having one vote) to elect in the House. 
Were there three instead of two great political parties, both the college and the 
House might fail to elect, and serious trouble might be the result. If a plurality 
could elect, a failure would be almost impossible. There are also minor changes 
that doubtless a majority of the people would like to see brought about, as elect- 
ing the President by direct vote of the people, giving him a longer term without 
eligibility for reelection, giving him power to veto items in appropriation bills, 
the election of United States senators by popular vote, giving Congress the con- 
trol of divorce laws, and the like. But many years will probably pass before 
such changes are made. 



CHAPTER XVII 

T"WELVE YEARS OF FEDERAL SUPREMACY 

The inauguration of Washington differed from all succeeding 
inaugurations in time, place, and ceremonies. No other was held 
in New York, no other in April,^ and no other was attended 
with such ceremony. Throughout his administration Washington 
maintained a dignity that at this day would seem ridiculous. When 
he held receptions or levees, he stood in a large reception room, clad 
in black velvet, wearing yellow gloves, and knee and shoe buckles, his 
hair heavily powdered and done up in a silken bag. In one hand he 
held a cocked hat adorned with a black feather, and at his side he 
wore a long sword in a white scabbard of polished leather. He 
bowed stiffly to his guests and did not shake hands with any one. 
He drove along the streets in a fine coach drawn by four or six 
white horses, with footmen in bright uniform. Washington's cere- 
mony did not indicate that he desired to hold himself aloof from the 
common people or to dazzle them with his person. He honestly 
believed that such a course was necessary to maintain the dignity 
of his office. Nevertheless, Washington was a natural aristocrat, 
and it was not difficult for him to assume the dignity almost of 
a European monarch. 

He took the oath of office, as we have stated, in the presence of 
the multitude, but he read the inaugural address a few minutes later 
within the senate chamber, and at its conclusion the whole body 
proceeded to St. Paul's chapel on Broadway for a religious service. 
A few days later the Senate and House marched in stately pomp to 
the President's house, and made formal replies to his inaugural. 
The same practice was followed with reference to the annual mes- 
sage ; the President delivered it orally to the assembled Congress, 
and the latter made a formal answer a few days later. This custom 
was in vogue for twelve years, when Jefferson abolished it and 

1 Except the accidentals of Tyler and Johnson. 
341 



S42 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

instituted the present method of sending a written message, requir- 
ing no answer. The practice of delivering the inaugural address 
in person and orally has, however, come down to us unchanged. 

For a hundred years no President has officially appeared be- 
fore Congress in person except at memorial services and the like. 
It was different in Washington's time, and at least on one occasion 
Washington entered the senate chamber, took the Vice President's 
chair, and urged the passage of a certain measure.^ 

THE FIRST CONGRESS 

No Congress in our history, with the possible exception of the 
one that assembled in 18G1, has had devolving upon it such vast 
responsibilities as that which assembled in the spring of 1789 — the 
First Congress. 

The Constitution was but an outline of a government, a skeleton 
to be clothed with flesh and blood, and to receive the breath of life. 
The duty of making the new government a living thing fell largely 
to the First Congress. Many acts of this Congress were of per- 
manent importance and are still in force, such as the creating of a 
Cabinet and of the judiciary system, the establishing of a financial 
basis for the country, and determining the location of the national 
capital. 

The body of men that composed the First Congress was notably 
inferior to the body that had framed the Constitution two years 
before. We note the absence of the venerable Franklin, of the 
President, of James Wilson, of Hamilton — all of whom were leading 
figures in the Constitutional Convention. Yet there were good men 
in this Congress. 

In the Senate we find Eobert Morris, Richard Henry Lee, George 
Read, and Charles Carroll, signers of the Declaration; Ellsworth 
of Connecticut, Paterson of New Jersey, Rufus King, 
Coneress — lately from Massachusetts, now of New York, — and 

General Schuyler. In the House also we find some 
strong men. There was Madison, who became the leader on the floor. 
He, a future President, had in a hot canvass defeated another future 
President, James Monroe, and the latter entered the House soon after 
to fill a vacancy caused by death. There was Frederick Muhlenberg, 
the Speaker, son of the famous Lutheran patriarch of Pennsylvania ; 

1 See Maclay's Journal ; Hart's " Contemporaries," Vol. Ill, p. 265. 



FIRST ACTS OF THE FIRST CONGRESS 343 

Jonathan Trumbull of Connecticut ; Sumter, the famous South Caro- 
lina fighter ; and Fisher Ames of Massachusetts, who was to thrill 
the nation a few years later with an outburst of eloquence unequaled 
in that generation. 

The first important business of Congress was to frame a tariff 
measure. The new government had inherited a heavy debt. Under 
the old Articles, the Congress had made repeated efforts to raise 
money by laying a duty on foreign imports, but the con- 
sent of all the states was needed, and one after another 
had objected, and every effort came to naught. But now no refractory 
state had power to thwart the will of the nation. For the raising of 
revenue, therefore, and for the encouragement of infant manufactories, 
it was proposed to lay a general tariff on foreign imports. The 
measure became a law on July 4th, and is known as the Tariff 
of 1789. With occasional amendments, generally slightly increasing 
the rates, it was in force until 1812, though inoperative during the 
embargo. Its duties were low compared with those of our own 
times, the highest being 15 per cent, with a general average of about 
8|- per cent. This tariff proved a boon to the country. In a short 
time it was yielding $200,000 a month, a sum amply adequate to 
cover the expenses of the government, and to pay the interest on the 
public debt. 

The second great act of the First Congress was the creating of a 
Cabinet. The Constitution made no provision for a President's Cabi- 
net as we now have it ; but it recognized that such was to exist,^ leav- 
ing all details to the action of Congress. Three departments were 
created at the first session of this Congress, or rather, they were con- 
tinued from the old government under new designations. The head 
of the department of foreign affairs was called the Secretary of 
State, that of the department of finance, the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, and that of the war department retained the old name, Secre- 
tary of War. Washington had decided not to call any one into his 
official family who was not well known to the people and trusted 
by them. Thomas Jefferson, who had been minister to France, was 
chosen secretary of state. Alexander Hamilton was made secre- 
tary of the treasury, and General Henry Knox, secretary of war. 
These men were not appointed until September, nearly five months 
after the inauguration. A little later Edmund Eandolph was 

1 Art. II, Sec. 2. These were intended to be simply heads of departments, but 
eustom has made them also advisers to the President. 



844 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

appointed attorney general, and he became tlie fourth member of the 
Cabinet.^ 

Another act of the First Congress that is still in force was a bill 
organizing the Supreme Court. It was drawn up by Oliver Ells- 
worth, who afterward became the second Chief Justice. The first 
Supreme Court was composed of a Chief Justice and five associates, 
the first Chief Justice being John Jay of New York. The federal 
judiciary, unlike the Cabinet, was specially provided for in the Con- 
stitution. It was created by an act of Congress, and the members 
are appointed by the President ; but the Court is independent of both, 
and even has authority to sit in judgment on the constitutionality of 
their acts.'^ 

Many other measures of this Congress, important at the time, 
were made into law, and gradually that body won the confidence of 
the people. Washington made a vacation tour to New England, and 
another to the South, and was received with universal applause. 
The crops were abundant, the people were happy, and the nation was 
rising to a point of respectability. It was left for the second session 
of Congress, beginning in December, to bring the first hitch in the 
machinery of government ; this came through the treasury report of 
Secretary Hamilton. 

Of the great financiers in the history of our country, the ablest, 
beyond a doubt, was Alexander Hamilton. By far the most difficult 
position in the first Cabinet was that of the treasury, and the Presi- 
dent made a happy choice in giving it to Hamilton. "■ He smote the 
rock of national resources," said Daniel Webster, "and copious 
streams of wealth poured forth. He touched the dead corpse of 
public credit, and it stood forth erect with life." But the recom- 
mendations of Hamilton awakened much opposition. His report to 
Congress showed that the public debt amounted to some $54,000,000, 
of which about $12,000,000 were owed to foreign creditors, chiefly 
to France, the rest to creditors at home who had loaned their money 
to the., government during the war. This seemed a great burden to 
the young Republic ; but the most surprising part was yet to come. 

1 Our present Cabinet is composed of nine members. The Secretary of the Navy 
was added in 1798 ; the Postmaster General was admitted to the Cabinet in 1829, 
though his office dated back to colonial times; the Secretary of the Interior was 
added in 1849, of Agriculture in 1889, and of Commerce and Labor in 1903. Thus the 
Cabinet has grown as the business of the country demanded. 

2 Inferior courts were also organized at this session. These are created by 
Congress as needed ; they do not enjoy the independence of the Supreme Court. 



HAMILTON'S FINANCIAL MEASURES 848 



The states had sent forth troops, each at its own expense, to fight the 
British. They had thus incurred heavy debts. Parts of these had 
been paid, but there was still unpaid an aggregate exceeding 
121,000,000. Hamilton proposed to add this to the national debt 
(making f 75,000,000 in all); and recommended that the national 
government assume the state debts, and thus relieve the states from 

payment. 

There was an immediate outcry against assumption. It arose from 
two causes. One was that some states had paid a large portion of 
their Revolutionary debts, while others had paid little. Assumption 
would therefore be unfair to the former. This objection was super- 
ficial ; the other was deep, and involved a principle. Assumption 
of the state debts would belittle the states and rob them of their 
so-called sovereignty. It would subordinate them and transfer the 
interest of the moneyed class from them to the general government, 
for " where the treasure is, there will the heart be also." 

This was exactly what Hamilton desired. He cared nothing for 
state sovereignty — not even for state rights. He wished to central- 
ize and strengthen the general government, and to do this he knew 
that there was no better method than to enlist the interest of the 
rich men of the country by making it their debtor.^ But so great 
was the opposition that the measure could not pass the House, 
and before the question was settled another one arose. The other 
question was, Where shall the national capital be located ? ^^^^^. ^^^ 
A separate city was desired. The handful of soldiers capital. 
who, a few years before, had swooped down from Lan- 
caster and driven Congress out of Philadelphia, settled that point. 
Philadelphia and Pennsylvania had refused, or were unable, to pro- 
tect the Congress. Everybody seemed to sympathize with the sol- 
diers. A separate city, therefore, governed solely by Congress and 
not by any state, was necessary. To this all agreed ; but where should 
it be built? The southern members preferred to have it m the 
South ; the northern members wanted it in the North. It was gen- 

iTo make this plainer: Suppose a number of brothers, each in business for 
himself, each owed you a sum of money. You would be anxious that they succeed 
because your money was invested. But suppose their father assumed these debts and 
made himself responsible for their payment. Your interest would at once ."e trans- 
ferred to the business of the father. Again, suppose a business man finds it dithcult 
to pay his debts and a rich friend does it for him. He is relieved of his debts, but 
he loses his independence. Thus the states would lose a portion of their importance 
if assumption were carried. One of the sources of strength in a government is a 
moderate national debt. 



346 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

erally agreed that it should be on the bank of one of the three great 
rivers — the Delaware, the Susquehanna, or the Potomac. Jefferson 
favored placing the capital in the South. Hamilton had no sectional 
pride ; his mind was still on assumption. One day he proposed a 
trade with Jefferson. He offered to favor placing the capital in the 
South, if Jefferson would favor the assumption of the 
Assumption. ^^^^^ ^^-^^^^ Jefferson agreed. Each had a strong fol- 
lowing in Congress, and it was not long till both measures were 
passed. The uational government assumed the state debts, and the 
capital was placed on the banks of the Potomac River. ^ 

Hamilton also secured the passage of a funding bill, by which the 
debt was changed into interest-bearing bonds, and with this he secured 
a guarantee from Congress that all outstanding certificates should be 
paid at their face value. These had been given out instead of cash 
during the war to men who furnished the army with supplies and 
who served in its ranks. During the intervening years many had 
sold their certificates, from necessity or distrust of the government, 
at a rate far below the face value. It was objected that the specu- 
lators, and not the old soldiers, would profit by this act, if the gov- 
ernment paid these at full value.- But Hamilton urged that it was 
necessary to establish the national credit on an u^nimpeachable basis, 
and to teach the old soldiers a lesson — not to distrust their govern- 
ment again. He carried his point, and from that day the credit of 
the United States was firmly established. 

Two more great measures must be attributed to this financial 
genius — the excise, and the establishing of a United States 
Bank. The excise, an internal revenue on distilled spirits, passed 
after a considerable opposition had been overcome. The bank 
The Excise ^^^^ ^^^^^ more seriously opposed. It was to have a 
and the Bank, capital of $10,000,000, one fifth of which was to be 
^'5'^^- subscribed by the government, the remainder by the 

people in shares of $400. The bank was to supply the people 
with a circulating medium, and to loan the government money 
when needed. The opposition was formidable, but it was borne 
down and the bill was passed. The bank was chartered for twenty 

1 New York was the temporary capital hut one year when the government was 
transferred to Philadelphia, where it remained for ten years (1790-1800). 

2 When this act was proposed, and before the news of it reached distant parts, 
speculators went around and boucht up certificates at the lowest possible price, 
some as low as one sixth of their face value. Hamilton was accused of being interested 
in this business, but the charge was altogether groundless. 



FIRST TEST OF THE CONSTITUTION 347 

years.^ Thus within a year and a half Hamilton had secured, in the 
face of the opposition of the state rights party, the passage of four 
great measures, — assumption, funding of the debt, the excise, and 
the bank charter, — all tending to the centralization of power. 

The first serious test of the Constitution came in the summer of 
1794 in the form of the Whisky Insurrection of western Pennsyl- 
vania. This episode would be of slight historic interest but for the 
fact that it became a test of national strength under the new Consti- 
tution. The internal tax on distilled spirits bore heavily on outly- 
ing communities, far from the centers of trade. Owing to the long 
distances and the bad roads it was difficult tc take 
their grain to market, and the people condensed it into ingu^ectioa 
whisky. The excise was unfair, they claimed, as it taxed 
them heavily on the main product of their farms. In various parts 
of the country the excise was unpopular, and in western Pennsylvania 
the discontent broke into open rebellion. The people held a great 
meeting on Braddock's Field, and decided to resist the law by force 
of arms.^ 

AVashington issued a proclamation commanding the malcontents 
to desist ; he also sent a commission to treat with the insurgents and 
endeavor to induce them to obey the law. These efforts being unsuc- 
cessful, the President determined to use force. He called upon 
the governors of Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and Vir- 
ginia for troops,^ and in a short time fifteen thousand men were 
marching across the Alleghanies under the lead of Governor Lee of 
Virginia. 

Hamilton accompanied the expedition and was, indeed, the soul 
of the whole movement. He was very anxious to display the strength 
of the government, to teach a lesson to all who believed that it could 
not enforce its own laws. Yet, as he afterward said, he feared at 
every mcment that the militia would throw down their arms and 
return home. The great question had been. Will the citizens of 
other states march into a sister state to enforce a national law ? 
The army marched on, however ; and on its approach the insurgents 

1 When the subscription books were opened the entire stock was sold within an 
hour. The bank was situated at Philadelphia, with branches at Boston, New York, 
Baltimore, and Charleston. Thomas Willing became the first president. 

2 The afterward famous Albert Gallatin was one of the leaders of the insurrection. 
He later repented of this " political sin." 

^ This call was made with the proclamation, but the militia were not sent till 
the coaumission had failed. 



848 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

dispersed. No blood was shed, and henceforth the excise tax wag 
collected without difficulty. Hamilton was jubilant. The Constitu- 
tion had borne the strain, and the friends of law and order had won 
a victory. 

RISE OF POLITICAL PARTIES 

With a self-governing people political parties are inevitable and, 
we may say, necessary ; for no party, however pure its motives at 
first, will govern a country long without becoming corrupt or arro- 
gant, unless it has a rival of almost equal power, watching its move- 
ments and ready to snatch from it the reins of government. 

The Anti-federalist party, if such it may be called, though it was 
never organized, fell to pieces after the adoption of the Constitution. 
It had existed for the sole purpose of preventing adoption, and when 
this was done in spite of its efforts to prevent it, the party ceased to 
exist. The Federalists, on the other hand, took the reins of govern- 
ment and continued under the old name. In a few years the whole 
people became friendly to the Constitution ; and it is a significant 
fact that from that time to the present the American people have 
shown no disposition to cast it aside for another. 

In the early part of Washington's administration a question of 
the utmost importance came up for solution, Shall the Constitution be 
construed strictly or loosely ? On the decision of this question rested 
the whole trend of the government of the future. It was this question 
that first divided the people into two great political parties, and it 
was first brought out prominently in the debate on the bank charter. 
To construe the Constitution loosely or broadly meant to give the 
general government larger powers than the letter of that document 
would indicate ; to construe it strictly meant to confine Congress to 
the strict letter, leaving all other powers to the states or -to the peo- 
ple. The Federalist party now became the party of loose construc- 
tion, and Hamilton was its leader.^ 

But there were many thousands of people who were displeased 
with the policy of Hamilton. They did not like Washington's dig- 
nified bearing, his ceremonial receptions, his driving through the 
streets with such stately pomp. All this savored of monarchy, said 
they. But it was left for Hamilton's centralizing financial measures 
to awaken a general alarm. This element soon resolved itself into 

i The reader will bear in mind that strict and loose construction were not ends 
but simply indices pointing to a weak or a strong central government. 



JEFFERSON AND HAMILTON A^ 

a political party founded on the policy of strict construction, and 
the founder and leader of this party was Thomas Jefferson. 

The two greatest statesmen of this period were these two mem- 
bers of Washington's Cabinet — Jefferson and Hamilton; and sel- 
dom since then has the equal of either appeared on our Jefferson and 
political stage. The contrast between these two remark- Hamilton 
able men is exceedingly interesting to the student of compared. 
history. Jefferson was born of the highest aristocracy of Virginia, 
but he was a natural democrat, and he despised the exclusiveness of 
his class ; Hamilton, born of ill-mated parents in an obscure corner 
of the world, was self-made in the fullest sense, but he became the 
most conspicuous aristocrat in America. Jefferson was retiring, 
studious, philosophical, original ; Hamilton was a man of the world, 
brilliant, far-sighted, imperious, but not original, — his governmental 
policy was borrowed from the English monarchy. Jefferson loved 
the multitude ; he recognized in every man a common humanity with 
himself. Hamilton stood aloof from the great crowd, which he had 
no power to win, but he was a superb leader of leaders. These two 
men were alike in one respect — in patriotism. Each loved his 
country above all things ; but here the parallel must stop. They 
differed as day differs from night in their methods of construing the 
Constitution, in their ideas of what the government should be. 

Jefferson loved liberty with a passionate devotion, and his faith 
in the people's capacity for self-government was implicit and abid- 
ing. Hamilton loved liberty also, but the first law of his mind was 
order, and it called for stability of government. Jefferson studied 
the people, understood them as no other man of his times; he 
believed in universal education, as that alone would bring intelligent 
self-government and happiness. Hamilton did not understand the 
people ; he called them " a great beast," he felt that they could be 
kept within proper bounds only by the strong hand of a centralized 
government. Jefferson feared that a strong government would 
endanger liberty, Hamilton feared that a weak government would 
encourage anarchy. Of Shays's insurrection Jefferson simply stated, 
" Whenever our affairs go obviously wrong, the good sense of the 
people will interpose and set them right ; " while Hamilton was hor- 
rified at that episode, and would have crushed all such rebellions 
with a hand of iron. 

These two men were in Washington's Cabinet. They could not 
agree. They became political, then personal, enemies, and were con 



350 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

stantly quarreling across the table of their chief. It was a battle 
of the giants, and their strife was an unselfish one for the future of 
a nation, each sincerely believing that the policy of the other would 
be ruinous to the country. The contest was one of vast importance 
because it must now be decided how the new Constitution should be 
operated — whether the country should be strong or weak, should 
be ruled by the democracy or by an aristocracy. Which of the giants 
won ? Both. Hamilton won first. Jefferson won last. Hamilton's 
victory resulted in assumption, in the funding of the debt, in an excise 
tax, in the founding of the bank — all in accordance with his broad 
constructive theories. This was all done before Jefferson had gath- 
ered his forces into battle line. At length Jefferson won a final 
victory over Hamilton and overthrew his party forever. But it 
was too late to undo the work of Hamilton. To this day we have 
liberal construction of the Constitution, and the initiative of this 
we owe to Hamilton. Even Jefferson, when he obtained control of 
the government, in his maturer years, had no desire to undo the 
chief work of his great rival, for he looked upon it and saw that it 
was good. 

Yet Jefferson's victory was greater than that of Hamilton. He 
retained the nationality of Hamilton, but he infused into it a de- 
mocracy that destroyed forever the possibility of aristocratic gov- 
ernment. We have to this day, except where the political " boss " 
gains a temporary sway, a rule of the people, a government of the 
democracy — and for this we are greatly indebted to Jefferson. It 
required long years for these opposing tendencies to blend together 
in right proportion. But we have them, not in perfect form, but in 
better form than the world has hitherto known, and we owe this 
union, or at least its inception, to the two great rival secretaries of 
Washington's Cabinet. 

Jefferson named his new party "Republican."^ It is not to be 
identified with the Anti-federalist party, though many of the 
fragments of that party were gathered into its fold. Jefferson's 
following at first was chiefly from the South, but it was not 
long until he had won Pennsylvania and other northern states. 

1 This was the origin of the present Democratic party. The name " Democratic," 
borrowed from French politics, was first used hy small Democratic societies, as they 
called themselves, and was applied to Jefferson and his followers by their enemies. 
Though Jefferson never accepted it, the name encroached on the name " Republican " 
for more than thirty years when it was adopted by the party. The official nama 
however, is still Democratic-Republican. 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 361 

Jefferson was a leader of marvelous skill. He made a master 
stroke at the outstart by winning Madison, and the two were ever 
after the most intimate political and personal friends. He next 
made a follower of Albert Gallatin, the doughty Swiss who became 
one of our greatest financiers. But the bulk of the new party was 
made up of the middle and lower classes, while the majority of the 
more aristocratic classes remained with the Federalists. 

Washington was supposed to be above party lines, and he made 
some effort to hold a neutral ground, but he could not conceal the 
fact that his sympathies were generally with Hamilton, -washing- 
His sincere desire was to retire from public life at the ton's second 
end of his first term ; but Jefferson and Hamilton both election. 
begged him to stand for reelection, as parties were then in a state 
so chaotic as to render a national contest injurious to the country, 
and he alone could be elected without a contest. Washington con- 
sented, and he was elected a second time by a unanimous vote of the 
electoral college. Jefferson left the cabinet early in 1794, and 
Hamilton a year later ; but both continued at the head of their re- 
spective parties. Each was an idealist, an extremist, and each 
made the serious blunder of misunderstanding the other. Jefferson 
believed that Hamilton was at the head of a great conspiracy, the 
object of which was to merge the Republic into a monarchy. Ham- 
ilton believed that his rival was at the head of a party of fanatics 
who might rise at any time and seize the government, even with 
bloody hands, as the people of France had done in that unhappy 
country, and that Jefferson was capable of encouraging anarchy and 
disunion. Both were wrong. Both were friends of order and good 
government, but they differed widely in their methods of adminis- 
tering it. 

AMERICA AND FRANCE 

During the period that we are now treating there was a move- 
ment of vast significance in progress in France, one that has no 
parallel in history, one that shook the throne of every 
monarch in Europe. It is known as the French Revolu- ngyoi^^oa 
tion. The peasantry of France had been trodden in the 
dust for centuries by tyrannical kings and a profligate nobility. At 
last the worm turned upon its oppressor. The people, driven to 
madness by tyranny, had risen in their fury, dashed their oppressors 
to the ground, and taken the government into their own hands. 



862 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

The French Eevolution promised at first to be a bloodless 
one. The States-General met in 1789 for the first time in 175 
years. It framed a constitution greatly curtailing the power 
of the king and changing the government to a limited mon- 
archy. This the king accepted, and all things seemed to prom- 
ise a peaceful continuance of his reign. But when the other 
monarchs of Europe banded together and determined to restore the 
French king by force of arms to his former position as absolute 
monarch, and to reduce the people to their former condition of servi- 
tude, their passion became unbounded. When it was known that 
the allied Powers had sent the Duke of Brunswick into France 
with an army to restore the king, and when it was believed that the 
king himself sympathized with the movement, the people of Paris 
became delirious with fury. They raised a great army and won a 
great victory over the Allies ; they beheaded their king, destroyed 
many of the nobles, and proclaimed a republic ; they lost all self- 
control and put hundreds to death on suspicion ; they spread carnage 
on every hand till the whole land of France was drenched in blood. 

The French Revolution made a profound impression on American 
politics. Hamilton was shocked at the lawlessness and excesses of 
the French, while Jefferson sympathized with them in their struggle 
for liberty. Jefferson deplored the excesses, for he was not a man 
of violence ; but of the Eevolution as a whole he wrote, " Rather 
than it should have failed, I would have seen half the earth deso- 
lated ; were there but an Adam and Eve left in every country, and 
left free, it would be better than it is now." 

The Federalists had no sympathy with the violent French. They 
leaned rather toward the stable monarchy of England, and they 
came to be called the "English party," while Jefferson and his 
following were called the ''French party." Such was the condition 
of American politics, the chief issue being foreign, when in the 
spring of 1793 the new French Republic sent its first minister to the 
United States. 

His name was Edmond Charles GenSt, and his title was " Citizen," 
for the French had abolished all titles except citizen and citizeness. 
He was a youth of twenty-eight years, but he had made a 
record in annexing Geneva to the French Republic. He 
landed at Charleston in April, and his overland journey to Philadel- 
phia was one unbroken ovation. But he was not surprised ; he had 
expected a warm reception by the sister republic whom France had 



k 



WASHINGTON PROCLAIMS NEUTRALITY 353 

aided so generously a few years before. He even expected America 
to declare war against the Allies in behalf of France. Did not the 
Treaty of 1778 between France and the United States bind each to 
become the ally of the other in case of war ? 

Reaching Philadelphia, Genet encountered an obstacle, a very 
seriovis one, in the attitude of the President. Washington received 
him without enthusiasm, assuring him of the friendly feeling of 
America toward France without giving him the slightest hope of 
assistance in the. war. Washington had weighed the matter well. 
Hearing of the declaration of war between England and France, he 
had submitted the matter to his Cabinet, and with their approval he 
had issued his now famous Proclamation of Neutralit}'". 
But Genet was not discomfited. He had begun fitting out of^neutralitv 
privateers the moment he had landed at Charleston. He 
pronounced the government " timid and wavering," acted on his own 
interpretation of the Treaty of 1778, in defiance of the wishes of the 
administration, and even declared that the President was exceeding 
his powers in j^roclaiming neutrality. Genet had much encourage- 
ment. Philadelphia had received him with great applause. Men 
on fast horses had met him as he approached and had galloped into 
the city to spread the news of the coming of this true son of liberty. 
Great banquets were held in his honor. Democratic societies were 
formed to advocate the French cause, and they rapidly spread over 
the states. The Republican newspapers not only took the side of 
Genet against the government, they also attacked the character of 
Washington most virulently. It was said that ten thousand men in 
Philadelphia banded together, determined to force the President to 
resign his office or espouse the cause of the French ; and for the 
first time since the Conway Cabal, the popularity of Washington 
suffered a partial eclipse. 

The President was greatly annoyed at the attacks upon his 
character. He declared before his Cabinet that "he would rather 
be in his grave than in his present situation." But on the question 
at issue, he was as immovable as adamant. He saw that a crisis 
in the life of the Republic was at hand, that a precedent for the 
future must be established. He believed that the Republic would 
be short-lived if it did not make a stand against taking sides in the 
wars and political broils of Europe. Yet there was the Treaty of 
1778. But that was made with the French monarchy, which had 
ceased to exist. It was made with the French king, who was guil- 
2a 



354 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

lotined, and who had no successor. The treaty of alliance was also 
construed to refer only to defensive wars, and France was waging 
an offensive war. With these considerations Washington deter- 
mined to make a stand against a French alliance, and the courage 
required to make such a decision in the face of the popular clamor 
is not less admirable than that displayed years before by the same 
noble soul at Princeton and at Monmouth. 

Meantime Genet had overstepped the bounds of public decency. 

He had sent the Little Sarah, a captured British merchantman, now 

changed to a French privateer, down the Delaware and 

Genets ^ ^ against the protest of Governor Mifflin and 

projects. ' ° ^ 

of Secretary of State Jefferson. He had threatened to 

appeal from the decision of the President to the people. He had 

projected an invasion of Florida from South Carolina and Georgia, 

and a movement against New Orleans from Kentucky. He had 

written a dictatorial letter to Washington, and had received a cold 

reply from Jefferson, stating that it was not customary for a foreign 

diplomat to have direct correspondence Avith the President, that 

the proper channel through which such notes should pass was the 

secretary of state. The President again called a Cabinet meeting, 

and they decided that it was unlawful to fit out privateers and take 

captives in American waters, and they also determined to demand 

the recall of Genet. 

The popularity of the French minister now took a sudden turn, 

and collapsed like a punctured balloon. The national pride had 

been touched, and the public esteem for the hero of Trenton, of 

Valley Forge, and of Yorktown again approached the zenith. 



AMERICA AND ENGLAND; THE JAY TREATY 

Our relations with England during the nineties were scarcely 
better than those with France, and they began to absorb public 
attention about the time the French craze subsided. The British 
monarchy had shown little respect for the new nation formed of her 
sometime colonies. So the Americans felt at least, and they had a 
series of grievances against the mother country. 

First, a source of irritation arose from our trade with the French 
West Indies. Fi-ance had thrown open her colonies to the trade of 
neutrals, — a thing they did not usually enjoy in time of peace, — 
and our merchants soon had a flourishing trade with the French 



RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND 355 

West Indies. But Great Britain then, to cripple France and in con- 
tempt of the neutrals, revived an old rule known as the Rule of 
1756 — that trade which was unlawful in peace was unlawful in war.^ 
Several American vessels were seized under an order in council ; and 
when the news reached America, in the spring of 1794, there was an 
outburst of fury on all sides. The British party sank into insignifi- 
cance ; an embargo laid for thirty days on. all foreign-bound vessels 
was now extended for thirty days more. 

Second, the British consul at Algiers had connived with Portugal, 
now in league with England against France, to turn loose upon the 
Atlantic a number of piratical Algerine vessels for the purpose of 
preying on American sailors and shipping, or at least with the knowl- 
edge that they would do so.^ There was much indignation against 
England as well as against Algiers. Congress voted to build a navy 
to send to the Mediterranean, and the work was begun ; but peace 
was soon made with the Dey, and the navy-building was stopped. 

In addition to these points of irritation, there were other griev- 
ances of long standing against the British. They still held the west- 
ern posts — Detroit, Michilimackinac, Niagara, Oswego — and refused 
to give them up ; nor would they pay for the slaves carried off at 
the close of the Revolution. It is true that the laws against loyalists 
had not been repealed, but Congress had recommended that the states 
repeal them, as promised in the treaty. As the states had not heeded 
the recommendation, England still refused to carry out the treaty. 

The source of greatest irritation, however, was found in the 
impressment of seamen. Many English sailors, abandoning their 
country in time of need, had taken refuge in American 
vessels. These men were impressed into the British ^^^^^^^^ 
service, frequently from American ships held up for 
that purpose on the high seas. Some were English born, but natu- 
ralized Americans. But England would not acknowledge the right 
of expatriation. Once an Englishman, always an Englishman, was 
her motto,^ and she seized these men at every opportunity. And 

1 England's avowed object in doing this was plausible. The order in council 
was issued in aid of an expedition to be sent to conquer the French West Indies, but 
the Americans could see in it only an attempt to cripple their shipping. Strictly 
speaking, this affair did not come under the Rule of 1756, as France had, in 1784, 
prior to this war with England, opened the West India trade to United States vessels 
of sixty tons or over. See " Annals of August," 1794, p. 192. 

2 Schouler, Vol. I, p. 265. 

8 The right of expatriation was not acknowledged by the British government 
until 1870. 



356 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

native-born Americans were often taken by mistake. To the pro 
tests of our government the English paid no heed, and the people 
became exasperated at the continued outrages. War seemed immi- 
nent. The Federalists began to talk of raising armies and of 
building a navy. The Republicans were in a dilemma. They 
heartily disliked England, but they did not desire war, because 
war meant the raising of armies, and the creating of a navy ; these 
would tend to strengthen the national government ; and to pre- 
vent this was the chief corner stone on which their party was 
founded. 

Washington greatly desired peace — not to please any party, 
but because he knew that a disastrous war at that time would seri- 
ously injure the country, if not destroy its independence. And here 
came a rift in the clouds. The British ministry so modified its 
offensive order as to leave American trade in the West Indies un- 
molested, except in respect of French products carried to France, or 
property belonging to French subjects. This concession was proba- 
bly induced by the threatening attitude of Congress, and by the sum- 
mary treatment of Genet. Washington was pleased with this slight 
concession. He felt that now he could make overtures for an adjust- 
ment of the differences Avithout compromising the national honor. 
He therefore determined to send an envoy to London to frame a 
commercial treaty on the best terms attainable, and for this diffi- 
cult task he nominated John Jay, Chief Justice of the United 
States Supreme Court. 

Jay sailed late in April, 1794, reached London early in June, 
concluded the treaty late in November, and laid it before President 
Washington in March of the following year. During 
M'sslon ^^^ absence the two siibjects that absorbed public atten- 

tion were, the Whisky Insurrection, which has been 
noticed, and the operations of St. Clair and Wayne against the In- 
dians in Ohio, which will be noticed on a future page. At present 
we must follow up our subject — the famous Jay Treaty. 

To make any treaty with the enemy of the French Eepublic 
was galling to the Republicans; and to send John Jay, the most 
pro-British American in the country, except Hamilton,^ was more 
than they could bear. They began their tirade as soon as Jay 

1 About this time Washington sent James Monroe to succeed Gouverneur Morris 
as minister to France, while another future President, the youthful John Quincy 
Adams, became minister at The Hague. 



THE JAY TREATY 357 



started for England, and it was evident long before his return that 
any treaty he might make would be bitterly opposed by them. 
When they learned that Jay had been well received, they said that 
he had sold himself for British gold ; ^ when it was known that he 
had kissed the queen's hand, he was accused of prostrating the 
sovereignty of the people at the feet of majesty. 

After a long delay on the voyage the treaty was put into the 
President's hands in March, a few days after the session of Congress 
had closed, and Washington called the Senate in secret session to 
consider it. The Senate met in June, and after a short debate rati- 
fied the treaty by a two thirds majority, and not a vote to spare.^ 

The treaty, which had not yet been made public, was the best 

attainable from England at that time, and there is not a doubt that 

Jay had been truly patriotic, and that he had done as 

TI16 treatv 
well as any other man could have done. Yet the treaty '' 

was not generally an advantageous one to the Americans. The first 
ten articles were intended to be permanent, the rest of a temporary 
nature. The western posts were to be evacuated by June, 1796 ; but not 
a dollar was to be paid for having held them so long, and the Mississippi 
River was to be open to British shipping. American citizens were to 
be indemnified by the British government for recent captures in the 
West Indies. This was the inost favorable stipulation of all, but it 
was balanced by another binding the United States to compensate 
Great Britain for confiscated debts. No recompense for the slaves car- 
ried off at the close of the Revolution, no redress for the impressment 
of seamen, nor any promise that the practice should be abandoned, 
"jould Jay get into the treaty. Most of the temporary articles dealt 
with subjects growing out of England's war with I'rance — trade 
with the Indies, and between the two countries, foreign enlistments, 
rights of reprisal, and the like — and they were generally unfavor- 
able to the United States. Privateers of nations at war with either 
of the parties were not to be armed in the ports of the other nor to sell 
prizes there. The articles pronounced any American citizen a pirate 
who accepted a French commission against England ; they even 
made the goods of an enemy on board the vessel of a friend liable 
to capture. This was a terrible blow to the French party, but there 

1 McMaster, Vol. II, p. 213. 

2 Even Hamilton at first pronounced the treaty "an old woman's treaty." In 
England it was unpopular for the opposite reason — that it conceded too much to 
America. 



358 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

it was in the Jay Treaty. Jay had conceded much — too much foi 
the national dignity. But he did so because he believed this the 
only means of avoiding war. The treaty could be defended only on 
the ground that it was preferable to war.^ Washington disliked the 
treaty, but his dislike of war at this time was greater, and he signed 
the treaty and proclaimed it the law of the land. 

Meantime the public was anxious to know what was in the treaty, 
and early in July the Philadelphia Aurora obtained a copy, pub- 
lished it in pamphlet form, and sent it broadcast over 
to ''treaty ^^® land. The wrath of the Republicans was unbounded. 
Jay was denounced as a traitor to his country, and was 
burned in effigy from Maine to Georgia. At Faneuil Hall in Bos- 
ton, an immense mass meeting condemned the treaty unanimously. 
At an open-air meeting in New York, Hamilton was stoned for at- 
tempting to defend it.^ At Philadelphia a copy of the treaty was 
burned in the street before the house of the English minister, while 
at Charleston the British flag, after being dragged through the 
streets, was burned in front of the British consul's door. When it 
was known that Washington had set his name to the disgraceful 
treaty, he was shamefully abused in the Republican press. He 
was accused of overdrawing his salary, of having retired at the 
close of the Revolution only because the conntry could offer him no 
position that would satisfy his ambition, of being an American 
Caesar, a tyrant, and a despot, and of having violated his oath of 
office. 

The treaty was by no means safe because it had passed the 
Senate, and had been signed by the President. The Constitution 
gives the treaty-making power to the President and the 
House ^ Senate, it is true; but this treaty required a money 
appropriation to put it into operation, and the House 
must originate all revenue bills. The House at this time was Repub- 
lican by a small majority. The President laid the subject of the 
Jay Treaty before it in March, 1796 ; and one of the greatest con- 
stitutional debates ever held in Congress immediately followed. 
The House, after a three weeks' debate, asked Washington for the 
papers and correspondence in connection with the making of the 
treaty, but Washington refused the request. The Republicans were 

1 Gordy's "History of Political Parties " (1st ed.), I, 188. 

* Hamilton's wit did not desert him. " If you use such striking arguments, 1 
shall retire," said he, as he left the platforni. 



FISHER AMES 369 



staggered at the firmness of the President, but they did not give 
up; they determined to defeat the appropriation. Their leaders 
on the floor were Madison and Gallatin. The debate dragged on, 
and the speeches on either side were many ; but there was only one 
that became famous in our history. It was no doubt the most elo- 
quent speech listened to by that generation of Americans, and it 
was never equaled in Congress until" the rise of Webster. It was 
made by Fisher Ames of Massachusetts. 

Ames was a man of frail body. His life was one long disease, 
and against the advice of his physician he rose to speak on the great 
question before the House. He was a Federalist of the great apeech 
Federalists, and he fully believed that a rejection of the of Fisher 
treaty meant immediate war with the British Empire, Ames, 
and the dissolution of the Union. He depicted with all his nervous 
emotion the horrors that would follow a rejection of the treaty. 
For three hours he held the House and the gallery in the spell of 
his burning eloquence, and closed with these pathetic words : " Even 
the minutes I have spent in expostulating have their value, because 
they protract the crisis and the short period in which alone we may 
resolve to escape it. Yet I have, perhaps, as little personal interest 
in the event as any one here. There is, I believe, no member who 
will not think his chance to be a witness of the consequences, greater 
than mine. If, however, the vote should pass to reject — even I, 
slender and almost broken as my hold on life is, may outlive the 
government and Constitution of my country." 

The speech of Ames brought tears to nearly every eye. Vice 
President Adams sat in the gallery, and with tears rolling down his 
cheeks exclaimed to a friend by his side, " My God, how great he 
is ! " Above all, Ames carried the day. Before his speech the 
Republicans counted on a majority of six ; when the vote was taken 
the next day the Federalists won by a majority of three. 

Thus the Jay Treaty went into effect. It was humiliating to 
American pride, but necessary. It postponed for sixteen years the 
inevitable second war with England ; had it been rejected, the War 
of 1812 would have been the War of 1796. But the treaty was 
staggering to France. The proclamation of neutrality, in the 
memory of Yorktown, was bad enough, but this treaty was like a 
blow in the face from a supposed friend ; and never again did Franc* 
presume on the brotherly feeling engendered between the two 
nations durinsr the Revolution. 



360 HISTORY OF THE rSTTED STATES 

RELAT10>'S WITH PRA^XE 

Still another serious episode in orir foreign relations belongs t<s 
this period. France was greatly displeased with the Jay Treaty, and 
naturally so. James Monroe had been sent as minister 
Monroe in ^^ France, but his sympathies were so obviously with 
the French that he was unable to rise to the dignity 
of a diplomat. He spoke of France as •• our ally and sister re- 
public," and of the "wisdom and firmness'' of the revolutionary 
government at a time when the guillotine was still rolliug the heads 
of the best citizens into the basket. It was at this time that Jey was 
in England negotiating with GrenvOle, and the fact caused much unrest 
in Paris ; but M^onroe assured the French government that Jay's mis- 
sion was strictly limited to '• demanding reparation for injuries." 
When at length the Jay Treaty was published to the world, the 
French were furious ; and when, in December, M^onroe received word 
from Timothy Pickering, who had succeeded Kandolph^ as secretary 
of state, that the treaty had been ratified by the Senate and signed 
by the President, he was astonished, and his position became em- 
barrassing. He was now instructed to defend a treaty such as he 
had assured the French government would never be made. He 
believed that his own government had deceived him and that in con- 
sequence he had unwittingly deceived the French.- He now hesitated 
to follow his instructions, and not until he was informed by the 
minister of foreign affairs that the alliance between France and the 
Unit^?d States was at an end, and that the Directory was about to 
recall Adet, the French minister to the Unit^ States, did he rise 
to a sense of his duty. He then defended the treaty with vigor. 
But it was too late. TVashington had determined on his recall, and 
in September, 1796. C. C. Pinckney was appointed minister to France. 

Meantime Adet, at Philadelphia, had carried himself with little 
more dignity than had Monroe at Paris. He was a notable improve- 
ment on Genet, but he stooped to acts that were not expected of one 
in his position. His chief offense lay in his meddling in American 
politics. As the presidential election approached, he wrote articles 
for the Republican press, urging the people to elect a Republican 
President. And here we must turn aside for a brief account of the 
first presidential contest in American history. 

1 Randolph had succeeded Jefferson ; hut after a short service he had Fesign«4 
after bavins: been aeonsed of conniving with the French minister. 
3 Gordy. Vol. 1, p. 225. 



CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON 881 

"Wasliington determined to retire from tJae great office at the end 
of his second term, not that he wished to set a precedent for the 
future, but because he was weary of public life and Retirement 
wished to spend the erening of his days amid the rural of WasMne 
scenes of his ph\ntation on the Potomac. Another *<>»• 
cause of his retirement, as many believed, was the continued attacks 
of the opposition press. However, had he desired a third term, he 
could easily have been elected, but not unanimously, as twice before. 
For more than forty years from the time that he had carried the 
message of Dinwiddie through the wilderness of Virginia, with 
brief intexvals, he had been in public life. Eetiring now to his 
coTintry home, he was content^ and happy ; but less than three 
years elapsed when he was called to his final home, being in his 
sixty-eighth year. 

More than a century has passed since then, and no other Ameri- 
can has won the universal love of the people as he did. His popu- 
larity, like that of other public men. had its ebb and 
flow." its light and shadow, but at length it has settled S^-*^*!! °^ 
into a steady stream of light which the years have no 
power to dim. For half a century after his death. Washiugron was 
regarded as little less than a demigod, and only through the tele- 
scope of modem historic criticism has the real Washington been 
presented to the world. We now know that he was a man. a 
real human being, with robust good sense, witii much claim to 
genius, but also with many of the foibles and limitations of other 
men. He was almost devoid of wit and humor and of personal 
magnetism. He was a natural aristocrat, and he made no pretense 
of mingling with the multitude. Possessed of a strong temper, he 
kept it under masterly control. A few times, however, he lost his 
self-control, and at such moments his outburst of anger was frightful. 
Only three or four times in his life was he known to burst into a 
loud, hearty laugh. He was an avowed Christian, and his deep reli- 
gious convictions formed the basis of his character and guided his 
daily life ; but he was not demonstrative nor emotional.^ He had a 
great, generous heart, and he loved his fellow-men; but he held 
every friend at a distance, nor would he brook familiarity from any 
one. Though never familiar, he was always courteous: his manner 
was dignified and reserved, his face usually calm and reposed. His 
popularity was won, not by a captivating manner or a conscious 
1 Schooler, Vol. I, p. 12S. 



362 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

__ _ — -— — — ^ 

effort, but by his unswerving devotion to duty and his high, unselfish 
motives. 

What is Washington's rank among the world's greatest heroes? 
He was a successful commander of armies and he displayed much 
genius, but among the world's great captains he cannot be placed 
in the very first rank. As a statesman he must again take a second 
place. Wherein lay Washington's greatness? He was not dash- 
ing nor brilliant nor original. His greatness consisted for the most 
part in his lofty motives, in his extraordinary sound judgment, 
and his unlimited courage when standing for a principle that he 
believed to be right. His patriotism was as pure as sunlight, and 
no element of selfishness entered into his motives. In all his public 
career he never made a serious mistake. As our first President he 
held himself above party lines, and amid the contending tempests of 
political passion he stood like a mighty oak in a storm; and his 
conservative strength was essential to the life of the infant 
Eepublic. 

Washington, while not a very great man, was exactly fitted for 
the position in which Providence had placed him. Had he been a 
greater man, he might have misused his power ; had he been a weaker 
man, he could not have succeeded. Had he possessed the ability 
and ambition of Napoleon, our country would have become a military 
government and a monarchy ; had his ability not exceeded that of 
Gates, the country might have fallen a prey to foreign powers. 
Washington was precisely the man the times called for, and he did 
a service for humanity that deserves the homage of every age and 
every nation. The candor and the nobleness of his character have 
attracted the admiration of every people. "No nobler figure ever 
stood in the forefront of a nation's life," says a British historian ; ^ 
"... the-re was little in his outward bearing to reveal the grandeur 
of soul which lifts his figure, with all the simple majesty of an 
ancient statue, out of the smaller passions, the meaner impulses, of 
the world around him. . . . Almost unconsciously men learned to 
. . . regard him Avith a reverence which still hushes us in the presence 
of his memory." We are all devotees at the shrine of Washington. 
He has left a record that cannot fade, and his name will ever be 
dear in the hearts of men who love human rights and human 
liberties. 

We must now return to the presidential election. The Federalist 

1 Green. 



PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1796 363 

leader was Hamilton, but Hamilton was without a popular following. 
None knew this better than himself, and he made no effort to win 
the great prize. Jay probably ranked second as a party leader, but 
the odium of the treaty made him an impossible candidate. John 
Adams, therefore, became the logical candidate of the Federalists. 
He was looked upon as an aristocrat rather than a democrat, but he 
had taken little part in the Franco-English issues that had divided 
the people. Adams was well known to his fellow-countrymen. He 
had been in public life more than twenty years ; he was the stron- 
gest debater in Congress during the Revolution ; he had made the 
motion that placed George Washington at the head of the army ; he 
had become the first minister of independent America to England ; 
and he had now served creditably as Vice President for eight years. ^ 

Jefferson, the founder and leader of the opposition party, became 
its logical candidate. The contest was a spirited one, but as several 
states chose electors by the legislature, the popular ^^ams 
strength of the two parties was not fully tested. There elected 
is little doubt that a majority of the people were with President. 
Jefferson, but there was a silent fear that if he were elected he would 
not support the Jay Treaty, which would have meant war with 
England. The people were not ready for war, and they elected 
Adams by a vote of seventy-one to sixty-eight for Jefferson. The 
latter, however, receiving the next highest number, became Vice 
President. 

The inaugural ceremonies were scarcely over when the new 
administration w^as called upon to face a serious difficulty with our 
" sister republic " in Europe. The Jay Treaty was deeply offensive 
to France, and now to this offense was added the recalling of the 
good Republican Monroe ^ and the sending of the Federalist Pinck- 
ney. This was too much for the Galilean to endure. Pinckney was 

1 Hamilton and his clique of friends had perceived that Adams was of a head- 
strong nature, and they attempted to compass his defeat by a trick. Tlie Twelfth 
Amendment had not been added to the Constitution, and each elector was to vote 
for two men without designating which was to be President or Vice President. 
Hamilton, seeing that he could not defeat Adams by open opposition, chose Thomas 
Pinckney, who was very popular owing to his late treaty with Spain, to run on the 
ticket with Adams, and his plan was to have all the New England electors vote for 
Pinckney, who, being a Southern man, would receive a larger vote than Adams in 
the South and thus win first place. The plan did not work. Adams afterward dis- 
covered the trick, and from that day forth he was never friendly to Hamilton. 

2 Washington had recalled Monroe a short time before he retired from the 
presidency. 



864 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

rejected, and he took refuge in Holland, where he spent the winter. 
It was now America's turn to be offended. There was much indig- 
nation at the rejection of Pinckney. Adams called an extra session 
of Congress to meet in May, and his message on its assembling was 
very positive and pointed. He said that France should be convinced 
that we are not a degraded people, humiliated under a spirit of fear 
and a sense of inferiority. He urged Congress to create a navy and 
to fortify the harbors of the United States, while at the same time 
he declared his intention to make one more effort for peace by send- 
ing a special mission to France to adjust the differences. 

After a sharp debate, Congress voted an answer to the President, 
approving his views and his plans; and before adjourning it passed 
a bill to appropriate money to fortify the harbors, another apportion- 
ing eighty thousand militia to the states, to be ready for action if 
called for, and one to complete the three new frigates, the United 
States, the Constitution, and the Constellation. 

Meantime three envoys to France had been appointed: John 
Marshall, the future jurist, Elbridge Gerry, the future Vice Presi- 
dent, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, who had been 
France^ ° rejected as the regular minister by the French Direc- 
tory. They reached Paris in October, and for several 
months their experience was an exciting one. A few days after they 
had arrived and had informed Talleyrand, the minister of foreign 
affairs, of their mission, they were approached unofficially by a gen- 
tleman named Hottinguer, who informed them that a threefold 
demand would be made upon the United States, and that it must be 
complied with before the French Directory would receive a minister 
from the country. First, the President's message to Congress, parts 
of which were very offensive to the French government, must be 
modified; second, the wounded feelings of the Directory must be 
soothed by a gift in the form of a bribe to the amount of $240,000, 
and third, the United States must make a loan to France of a large 
sum of money to carry on her war with England. A little later two 
other men, M. Bellamy and M. Hauteval, representing Talleyrand, 
joined Hottinguer and renewed the demand. ''I will not disguise 
the fact," said Bellamy, "... you must pay money, you must pay 
a great deal of money." They further stated that French vessels 
would be sent to ravage the American coast if their demands were 
not heeded. To these demands Pinckney is said to have made the 
famous answer, " Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute." 



TROUBLE WITH FRANCE 966 

The American envoys were astonislied at sucli a reception. They dis- 
claimed all power of making a loan, and oifered to consult with their 
government ; and they laid their correspondence with these three 
men (designated in the published dispatches as X., Y., and Z.) before 
the President of the United States. France now added another 
insult by sending Marshall and Pinckney, who were Federalists, out 
of the country, and offering to treat with Gerry alone, who was a 
Eepublican. 

A wave of indignation swept through the country when the Presi- 
dent made known the fact that his mission to France had failed. It 
was the spring of 1798, and Congress was in session. 
The radical Republicans in the Senate and the House T' . 
still determined to avert war with the sister republic. 
One Spriggs, a member of the House from Maryland, even rose and 
offered a resolution that " it was inexpedient under existing circum- 
stances to resort to war against the French Republic." The resolu- 
tion was under discussion and would doubtless have passed when 
suddenly the whole country was thrown into an uproar by the X. Y. Z. 
correspondence, which the President now submitted to Congress. 
When the account of this shameful treatment of our envoys and 
these impudent demands made on our government was published 
broadcast, the people fell into a patriotic rage and demanded an 
immediate declaration of war against France. Such an outburst 
had not been known since the battle of Lexington. Patriotic songs 
were Avritten and sung everywhere by the people, and one of these, 
" Hail Columbia," written by Joseph Hopkinson for a Philadelphia 
theater, still lives in our literature. 

Congress, meanwhile, had caught the spirit of the people. The 
war feeling was aroused, and all waverers joined the forces of the 
administration. The same was true throughout the country, and 
John Adams, for the first time, and it may be said, the only time 
in his life, found himself on the uppermost wave of popularity. 
Congress passed in rapid succession the measures he had recom- 
mended: for establishing a navy department, for the further defense 
of harbors, for raising a provisional army of ten thousand men in 
case of war, for the purchase of cannon and military stores, and 
for the suspension of all commercial intercourse with France after 
July 1st. 

Everything seemed now to indicate immediate war with the 
French Republic. And there was much casus belli. That country 



866 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

was displeased with the Jay Treaty, which, howev^er, had been 
wrung from our government against its will, and which was not in- 
tended as an offense to France. On the other hand, France had heaped 
one insult upon another, — first through the impudence of Gen§t 
before the framing of that treaty, in attempting to dictate our posi- 
tion in European wars, then in the attempt of a later minister to 
influence a national election. Her privateers had captured scores 
of American merchant vessels ; she had rejected an American min- 
ister because he belonged to a party distasteful to the French, 
Even after all this our President was so anxious to maintain peace 
that he sent three envoys ; and these were kept waiting for six 
months in the antechamber, hearing the most humiliating proposals, 
and at length two of them were driven in disgrace from the country. 
Was not this enough to raise the ire of every true-hearted American ? 

Great preparations were now in progress for war with France, and 
the French were thoroughly surprised on discovering the fact. The 
French armies had gone forth to war and had con- 
W- «P-*- quered a large part of Continental Europe, and now to 
be defied by the youthful Republic in the western wilderness was, 
to say the least, unexpected. The truth is, France did not wish to 
fight America ; her sole object had been to win American aid in her 
European wars; her quarrel was with monarchies alone. When, 
therefore, the Directory knew of the war spirit they had stirred 
up, they informed Gerry that they were anxious for peace between 
the two republics.^ They withdrew the demand that the President's 
message be modified, released American seamen, and forbade the 
further capture of our vessels. They even declared that they did 
not wish the United States to break the treaty with England, and 
expressed a willingness to receive a new American minister. 

But the war spirit still raged on this side the Atlantic. George 
Washington was appointed commander in chief of the armies to be 
raised. He accepted on the twofold condition that he might 
choose his immediate subordinates and that he need not take the 
field unless absolutely necessary ; and he suggested the appointment 
of Hamilton, Knox, and C. C. Pinckney as major generals. This 
order would make Hamilton the senior major general, and the 
real commander, who would reap the chief honor of a successful 
campaign. Now, Adams disliked Hamilton. He had not forgotten 
the trick by which the latter had hoped to cheat him out of 
1 See The United States Gazette, September 29, 1798. 



ADAMS AND HIS PARTY 367 

the presidency ; and besides, the two men were utterly incompat- 
ible in spirit. Adams now determined to make Knox the senior 
major general. But Washington threatened to resign if his wishes 
were not respected, and Adams yielded the point. 

The autumn of 1798. passed, and still the cry was, War with 
France ! A few sea captures had already been made — when in 
midwinter, suddenly, and to the astonishment of all, 

President Adams at one stroke ended the whole matter, -'^'^a'^s's bold 

' action. 
and removed all prospect of war — he appointed an- 
other minister to France.^ Adams had heard of the friendly over- 
tures of the French Directory, of their offer to receive a minister, 
and he made the appointment without even consulting his Cabinet. 
By this action Adams incurred the wrath of most of the leaders of 
his party. It was inconsistent with national honor, they said; 
France, the offending party, should have made the first move toward 
peace. The friends of Hamilton declared that the chief motive of 
Adams was to prevent the former from winning military glory. The 
subject of the motive of the President in doing this bold thing 
against the wishes of his party was discussed for many years. 
Adams always defended his action ; and nine years after these 
events he stated in a letter that he considered it the most disinter- 
ested and meritorious action of his life, and that he desired no other 
inscription on his gravestone than this : *' Here lies John Adams, who 
took upon himself the responsibility of peace with France." 

The act of President Adams had two great results : it brought 
peace and war — peace with France, and that peace has not been 
broken in a hundred years ; and war in the Federal party. It rent 
the party from the top to the bottom. The wound was fatal, and 
it rendered impossible the reelection of the man who made it. 



FALL OF THE FEDERAL PARTY 

The Federal party reached the acme of power and popularity 
just after the X. Y. Z. explosion in the spring of 1798. The enthu- 
siasm awakened was, in a great measure, non-partisan, and yat the 
party in power could have reaped a golden harvest from it, could 
have strengthened itself powerfully for the future, had it been tact- 

1 William Vans Murray, then minister to The Hague. Two others were after- 
ward appointed with Vans Murray, Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth, and Governor 
Davie of North Carolina. 



368 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

ful and wise ; but it was neither tactful nor wise. Instead of taking 
advantage of the popular wave and building for the future, it stooped 
to humble some of its old enemies. It enacted a number of obnox- 
ious laws, based on a spirit of revenge, and in this way it drove 
thousands into the ranks of its great rival. 

To raise revenue for the impending war a direct tax on lands, 
slaves, and houses was imposed. For every slave between the ages 
of twelve and fifty years the owner must pay fifty cents 
s ave an ^ year, while the land and house tax Avas graded accord- 

ing to the value of the property, and the value of a house 
was determined by the number and size of its windows.^ These spe- 
cial taxes were unpopular and they chilled the ardor of many a Fed- 
eralist who owned houses, lands, or slaves. Still less popular was 
the Naturalization Law, which raised the time of residence for natu- 
ralization from five to fourteen years. This was aimed at resident 
Frenchmen, but it affected equally the foreign-born of other nation- 
alities, and played its part in weakening the party that enacted 
it. The Federal party might, however, have survived all this had 
it stopped here. But the over-zealous party now proceeded to enact 
the famous, or rather infamous. Alien and Sedition Laws. 

The Alien and Sedition Laws are usually named together in com- 
mon parlance, but they were passed separately, though their general 
Alien Law object was the same. The most offensive section of the 
June 25, Alien Act gave the President power to banish from the 

1798. country, without giving a reason, without a trial of any 

sort, any alien whom he considered a dangerous or suspicious person. 
A cry instantly arose from the Republican press, denouncing the 
law as unconstitutional, since it denied trial by jury and usurped 
a power that belonged wholly to the states. 

But a muzzle was soon placed on the Republican press by the 
enactment of the Sedition Law. The most objectionable feature of 
this law was that which made it a crime, to be pun- 
Julv iT *^' i^^®^ ^y fi^^^ ^^^ imprisonment, for any one to print or 
publish any false, scandalous, and malicious writings 
against the government, Congress, or the President, with intent to 
defame them, to bring them into contempt, or to excite the hatred of 

1 The farmers of eastern Pennsylvania rebelled against paying the house tax, and 
several hundred of them assembled under the leadership of John Fries. This vras 
known as the Fries Rebellion. The President sent troops to disperse the men. 
Fries was captured, tried, and sentenced to be put to death; but President Adams 
pardoned hira. 



SEDITION ACT IN OPERATION 369 

the people against them, and so forth. This was a blow at the right 
of freedom of speech and the liberty of the press. It was aimed 
chiefly at a few reckless Republican editors whose continued attacks 
on the high officials of the government and their acts were unspar- 
ing. Such terms as "scoundrel," ''villain," and the like were in 
common use, and sometimes opposing editors, meeting on the street, 
would engage in a fist fight. But such terms were not confined to 
the Republican editors for whom the law was intended. The Feder- 
alist editors were equally reckless. 

The Alien Act was never enforced. Its enforcement lay wholly 
with the President, and Adams was not radical ; he was one of the 
very few men in public life in America who were without a French 
or an English bias. The Alien Law therefore remained a dead letter 
until it expired, two years after its enactment. 

But not so with the Sedition Act ; and the first to feel its weight 
was Matthew Lyon, a member of Congress from Vermont. Lyon was 
a witty, red-faced Irishman who had come to America 
when a boy, as a rederaptioner, had served in the Revolu- ^^^^'^^^ 
tion, had acquired large property, and now had a seat in 
the House of Representatives. He was a rabid Republican, and the 
Federalists, who thoroughly hated him, called him the wild Irish- 
man. With one of their number, Griswold, he had had a rough and 
tumble fight on the floor of the House. Scarcely had tlie Sedition 
Act become a law when Lyon was arrested for publishing a letter 
in a Vermont paper in which he severely criticised the government 
for its "ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, and selfish avarice." 
He was fined f 1000 and sent to prison for four months. His 
friends got up a petition for his pardon, but as he refused to 
sign it, the President refused to pardon him. But he was trium- 
phantly reelected to Congress while still in prison.^ One editor was 
fined and imprisoned for stating that the President was " hardly in 
the infancy of political mistake," another for accusing Hamilton of 
attempting to purchase a Republican paper in the interest of Feder- 
alism. It is plain to be seen that such a law was intended only to 
vent partisan bitterness, and that in the end its effect would be to 
injure the party that had framed it. And so it proved. 

Late in the year 1798, but few months after this law went into 
effect, the legislature of Kentucky passed a remarkable series of 

1 Forty years afterward Congress refunded to his heirs the amount of the fine 
Lyon had paid, with interest. 
2b 



370 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

resolutioDS, severely arraigning the Alien and Sedition Laws as 
unconstitutional ; and a few weeks later the legislature of Virginia 
Kentucky passed a similar series, somewhat milder in tone. Many 
and Virginia years later it was discovered that Jefferson had written 
Resolutions, the Kentucky resolutions and Madison those of Virginia. 

The Kentucky legislature modified the original resolves of Jeffer- 
son before adopting them, but the next year it incorporated much that 
had been omitted the year before.^ These resolves set forth three 
important propositions : First, that the Constitution is a compact to 
which each state is a party, that the government created by it has 
certain delegated powers, and if it assumes undelegated powers, its 
acts are void, and that the parties to the compact, that is, the states, 
have a right to judge of its infractions and of the mode and measure of 
redress. Second, the Alien and Sedition Acts are examined and the 
conclusion is reached that Congress has exceeded its powers in pass- 
ing them. In these two features the Kentucky and Virginia resolves 
agreed in substance. But in the third — the remedy to be applied — • 
they were somewhat different. The second set of Kentucky resolves 
pronounced nullification the rightful remedy for assumed powers of 
the government. The Virginia resolutions did not use the word 
"nullify," but declared that the states had the right to interpose 
in case the government assumed a dangerous exercise of poAvers. 
The first of these propositions, the compact theory, was one of vast 
consequence, and sixty years later it became the chief ground on 
which the Southern states justified their secession from the Union. 

These resolutions ;made a profound sensation throughout the 
Union, and, though condemned by other legislatures, they did much 
to awaken the people to the fact that the government had over- 
stepped its rightful authority in passing the Alien and Sedition 
Laws. Jefferson wrote the resolutions at a moment of intense politi- 
cal excitement, and, as shown by his life and writings, they did not 
represent his later judgment ; the nullification of a national law by 
a state or the dismemberment of the Union for any cause was no 
part of his matured political creed. 

The dominant party was now called to render an account of itself 
before the great final American tribunal, — the people, — for the time 
had come for another presidential election. Not only had the party 

1 Jefferson wrote shortly before his death that he had nothing to do with the 
second set of Kentucky Resolutions. See Jefferson's " Writings," III, 429; Benton, 
I, 149. 



BREAK IN ADAMS'S CABINET 371 

offended property owners by its house and slave tax, foreign-born 
citizens by its Naturalization Law, and many lovers of liberty by its 
Alien and Sedition Laws; it had also to contend with irreconcilable 
factions within. Adams had made the serious mistake of retaining 
Washington's Cabinet entire, and it was composed of men who 
looked to Hamilton rather than to the President as their political 
oracle. Indeed, Adams never enjoyed the confidence of this Cabinet, 
and when he appointed the last mission to France without consult- 
ing them they broke into open rebellion. Adams dismissed them 
and appointed John Marshall secretary of state, and Samuel Dex- 
ter secretary of war ; ^ but the party was already rent in twain, and 
in this condition we find it at the coming of the election of 1800. 
Hamilton went so far as to write a scathing pamphlet against Adams 
to show his unfitness for the presidency." And yet Adams, whose 
Revolutionary services were still remembered by the people and 
whose rugged honesty could not be questioned, was the only Fed- 
eralist who could hope for success ; and Hamilton at length came to 
his support "to save us from the fangs of Jefferson." But the mis- 
chief had been done. Hamilton's letter had been published broad- 
cast in the Republican press. 

The great Republican leader, from the irresponsible watch-tower 
of the vice presidency, had for four years watched the political 
chessboard with eagle eye. He had done more. He had guided 
with an unseen hand the outlying battalions of his army of fol- 
lowers to the remotest corners of the Union ; he had set public 
opinion against the Alien and Sedition Laws without the public's 
knowing who was its guide; he knew the political complexion of 
every state legislature, and the approximate political condition of 
almost every county in the United States. The Republicans had 
no second choice for the presidency ; Jefferson was their wius 
solusque, and they placed Aaron Burr on their ticket for the vice 
presidency. 

The campaign was the most acrimonious in the history of the 
country. The unpopular Federal laws furnished the chief issue; 
but, having exhausted their political thunder, both sides stooped to 
personalities, and Adams and Jefferson were denounced unsparingly 

1 This change, however, was not made till May, 1800. 

2 His object was to win a larger vote for C. C. Pinckney, who was also on the 
ticket, than for Adams, and thus to make Pinckney President. Had the Sedition Law 
not been a purely partisan affair, Hamilton would have been subject to arrest foi 
this letter. See Aurora, November 4, 1800. 



372 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

- — — ' — — < 

by their respective enemies. The electoral college was carried by 
the Republicans, who polled seventy-three votes to sixty-five by the 
Federalists. But there was no election. Jefferson and Burr had 
received the full Republican vote, and, as the Constitution did not 
authorize the electors to choose between them, this duty devolved 
on the House of Representatives. Here was a dilemma. The 
House was controlled by the Federalists. Each state had one vote, 
cast by a majority of its delegates. There were sixteen states, and 
it required nine to elect. The Federalists might permit the selec- 
tion of Jefferson or Burr, or they might prevent an election and by 
act of Congress choose a President pro tern, from their own party. 
This latter scheme was discussed in their newspapers, and had it 
been carried out civil war would have followed ; for the Middle 
states threatened to arm the moment such a bill should pass.'' 

The Federalists then determined to elect Burr, not that they 
loved him more, but Jefferson less. Their motive was ignoble, and 
was born of chagrin at their defeat at the polls, a desire for revenge 
on their successful rivals, and the hope of intriguing with Burr for 
a share in the offices. Their plea that they regarded Jefferson a 
dangerous man was insincere, for Burr was no less so, and they 
knew it. Burr had not been dreamed of for the presidency by his 
own party. Why should he be thrust upon the party by its enemies ? 

The House met to decide the momentous question and the coun- 
try held its breath. On the first ballot Jefferson received the votes 
of eight states. Burr those of six, while the votes of two, Vermont and 
Maryland, were a tie. The balloting went on day after day with little 
cliange, when the influence of a great man — great in soul with all 
his faults — came to decide the question. It was Hamilton. He 
contended that it was dangerous to thwart the will of the people 
who had carried the election, to thrust upon the country a chief 
magistrate who had been nobody's candidate. And further, he knew 
Burr to be a self-seeker of dangerous ambition. He 
the House^ believed Jefferson to be patriotic and honest, with all 
his heresies, and preferred to see the country in his 
"fangs" rather than in those of Burr. "I cannot," said Hamilton, 
" remain with a party which so degrades itself as to elect Burr." 
Through the advice of Hamilton the Federalist delegates from the 
divided states withdrew or voted blank, giving those states to Jef' 
ferson, who was elected President on the thirty-sixth ballot. 
1 Schouler, Vol. I, p. 483. 



CHARACTER OF JOHN ADAMS 873 

The Federal party took its defeat ungracefully. It spent the 
last weeks of its power in passing a law, known as the Midnight 
Judiciary/ which every fair-minded student of history must con- 
demn. By this act twenty-three new judicial districts were created, 
and the outgoing President filled these offices, the only life-tenure 
offices under the Constitution, with members of his own party. The 
business of the courts did not call for such an extension, as it came 
to do in later years, and the object of the Federalists was to intrench 
themselves in power where they believed their opponents could not 
reach them. 

John Adams now retired from public life, and his remaining 
twenty -five years he spent as a private citizen at his ISTew England 
home. He was far less fitted for the great office than 
either of the men between whose administrations he 
served. He was honest, upright, and patriotic to the last degree ; 
but he was irascible, suspicious of others, stubborn, and wholly 
incapable of winning and managing men. In his foreign policy he 
was broad-minded and intensely American. The motives for his 
actions could seldom be questioned when fully understood. In one 
thing, however, in the part he played in the Midnight Judiciary, it 
is difficult to find a trace of broad-minded statesmanship. And yet 
at the end of his term^ he did a great service for his country, — an 
act the effect of which is still felt in our government, — he appointed 
John Marshall chief justice of the Supreme Court. 

The downfall of the Federal party was final. This first great 
political party in America had piloted the ship of state upon a 
stormy sea for twelve years, but now at the close of 
the century it suffered an irrevocable overthrow. The ^g^^tv^ *^* 
Federal party embodied in its doctrine much that is of 
permanent value in human government ; and it did a great service to 
the country, and was necessary to save the new-born nation from 
anarchy. But it was too centralizing in its tendencies, and from 
this cause the party was never popular ; for the people, ever jealous 
of their liberties, feared that the government would become tyranni- 
cal and oppressive. Moreover, the party committed the unpardon- 
able sin in passing the Alien and Sedition Laws, and the sovereign 
people sat in judgment, and passed uj)on it the sentence of death. 

1 So called because Adams was said to have spent his time signing the com' 
missions till midnight on the last day of his terra. 

2 About six weeks before he retired from office. 



874 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

. , . ^ ' — - — • ^ 

But these laws were the occasion, not the cause, of its overthrow, 
The vital defect lay in its distrust of popular government — its 
want of confidence in the people. The party '•' represented the ideals 
of a bygone age," but a new century had dawned and had brought 
with it new ideals with which the old party was unable to grapple, 
and its fall was inevitable. 

But truth cannot die, and the truth embodied in old Federalist 
doctrine still lives. Not only did the party that defeated it gradu- 
ally adopt its best principles, but every great party from that time 
to the present has done the same thing. May the old party ever be 
held in grateful remembrance by the American people, 

NOTES 

Citizen Genet. — This bustling, irascible Frenchman came to America boil« 
ing with enthusiasm for the French Revolution and the rights of man, and he 
would fly into a passion at every obstacle that tended to cool his ardor. In 
Philadelphia a great banquet was held in his honor, and the head of a roast pig, 
severed from the body, was named Louis XVI, and passed around the table. 
Each guest viciously plunged a knife into the pig's head while uttei'ing some 
sentiment about liberty and the rights of man. The French craze that spread 
over the country at the time of his coming was very remarkable. People imi- 
tated the French in wearing the cockade, in erecting liberty poles, and in 
addressing men as Citizen and women as Citizeness. These titles were used on 
letters, business documents, in marriage and death notices, and were even 
carved on tombstones. At length the newspapers began to make fun of the 
craze and it became the subject of many a witticism. One facetious editor 
suggested Biped as suitable for both sexes. — See McMaster, II, 94. 

Genet never returned to France. The Girondist party that had sent him 
lost control of the government, and he feared the guillotine should he return. 
He became an American citizen, married a daughter of Governor Clinton, settled 
on the Hudson, became a scientific farmer and an ornament to New* York 
society. He died in 1834, at the age of sixty-nine years. 

Death of Washington. — On December 15, 1799, one of Washington's 
attendants, named Tobias Lear, dispatched a letter from Mt. Vernon to Presi- 
dent Adams at Philadelphia, a part of which is as follows : — 

"Sir: It is with inexpressible grief that I have to announce to you the 
death of the great and good General Washington. He died last evening between 
ten and eleven o'clock, after a short illness of about twenty-four hours. His 
disorder was an inflamed throat from cold. Every medical assistance was 
offered, but without the desired effect. (Three physicians, Drs. Dick, Craik, and 
Brown, were called in.) His last scene corresponded with the whole tenor of 
his life. Not a groan nor a complaint escaped him though in deep distress. 
With perfect resignation and a full possession of his reason he closed his well- 
spent life." 



NOTES 375 

On the 12th Washington went out to ride about his large farm and was 
caught in a storm of rain and hail, but he continued his ride for some hours and 
took a severe cold which soon developed into acute laryngitis. The physicians 
bled him twice, and they have been severely criticised for this ; but letting blood 
for almost every ill was common in those days. 

Washington was tali and muscular. He wore a No. 13 boot, his hands 
•were large, his hair light brown, his eyes cold gray, and his voice rather weak. 
He weighed two hundred pounds, could cover twenty-two feet in a single run- 
ning jump, and was an excellent shot, swordsman, and rider. He was prob- 
ably the richest of our Presidents thus far. He owned thousands of aci-es of 
land in Virginia and at one time twenty thousand acres along the Ohio River. 
His estate was valued at about half a million dollars, but it consisted of lands, 
herds, and .slaves, and he was at times hard pressed for money. He had to 
borrow money to take him to New York to be inaugurated President. 

The New Capital. — The government began its. operations in the city of 
New York, in the spring of 1789; but some months later it moved to Phila- 
delphia, the largest and most important city in the Union, and here it remained 
for ten years. In the autumn of 1800 the capital was moved to Washington 
City, and Jefferson was the first President to be inaugurated there. The District 
of Columbia lay on both sides of the Potomac, and the Maryland side was chosen 
for the .seat of government. The farmers who owned the land deeded it to the 
commissioners and received in compensation half the unused lots, after the 
streets, parks, and public building grounds were reserved. Major L'Enfant 
planned and laid out the city. The corner stone of the Capitol was laid in Sep- 
tember, 1793. When the government removed thither, the city was a wilder- 
ness. There was but one good hotel. The President's house was in an open 
field, and this, with the unfinished Capitol and a few scattered houses along the 
unpaved streets, constituted the town. There was no business and no society. 
The city grew slowly, and eight years after Congress had removed thither, a 
proposition to return to Philadelphia was seriously considered. But as the 
nation grew the city improved, and to-day it is pronounced the most beautiful 
capital city in the world. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

JEFFERSON AND THE DEMOCRACY 

Scarcely greater- was the Revolution by which the country was 
wrested from British dominion than was the political revolution of 
1800, by which the government passed into the hands of the 
democracy. And no greater fortune could have come to the young 
Republic than this political revolution. What the country most 
needed in 1800 was a national consciousness, and nothing could' 
bring this about so quickly and so well as giving the control of the 
nation to the party of the masses. The Federal party, however, 
had done a noble work ; it had laid the foundation of nationality — • 
as essential as was the structure of democracy now to be reared upon 
it. But as a candle sacrifices itself in giving light, so the Federal 
party had given its life in laying this foundation, such as Jefferson 
and his party could not have laid — a foundation which our great 
government of to-day could not do without. 

/^ The America of to-day was not born before 1800. \ After the 
Revolution the states had settled back into their old colonial habits, 
and almost every American ideal up to the end of the century bore 
the colonial stamp, or that of England or France. Even in politics 
the chief issues after 1792 were foreign, and not before the dawn 
of the nineteenth century did there exist a truly American spirit ; and 
not until after the second war with England did the people fully 
open their eyes to the vast possibilities that lay before them. 

A VIEW OF THE PEOPLE 

What we have said in a former chapter of colonial life in 1760 
will apply for the most part to the present period. We find still a 
nation of farmers, bad roads, and poor postal service. In 1790 there 
were but seventy-five post offices in the United States. Many of 
the comforts and necessities so highly prized by us were unknown at 
this period. The application of steam power in our great factories, 

376 



LIFE OF THE PEOPLE 377 

the railroad, the steamship, the telegraph, the telephone, the sewing 
machine, the use of gas and electricity for lighting — all have come 
into use since the close of the eighteenth century. In nothing has 
our wonderful progress been more striking than in the means of 
travel, in which for two thousand years the world had made no 
improvement. To-day one can take a richly furnished sleeping car at 
Philadelphia in the evening, be rocked to sleep by the rumbling of 
the train, and wake next morning at Pittsburg, or Buffalo, or Boston. 
A hundred years ago such journey made in the stagecoach was long 
and laborious. But the people traveled little in comparison with the 
endless hurrying to and fro of all classes in our own times ; and of 
those who sought a home in the great valley beyond the moun- 
tains few were ever seen again by friends and kindred who remained 
in the East. The people away from the seacoast lived in log 
cabins ; their diet was salt pork and corn bread three times a day, 
with game, poultry, vegetables, and fruit occasionally. 
Drinking was universal among men and youths, and every ^ -^ 
family kept liquor in the house. While drunkenness in 
its worst form was seldom seen, it was not unusual to find almost 
any one, even the minister, slightly intoxicated. Gambling was 
also common in many parts of the country :/ but the moral standard 
between the sexes was higher than that of any European people./ 

The Revolution had not been an unmixed blessing. It 'had 
brought political independence; but it had shaken society to its 
depths, and the immediate effect on religion and education was 
deleterious. The country had not yet broken away from its Euro- 
pean leading strings. It had taken but one great step in advance of 
the Old World — it/^'had agreed to try the experiment of embracing 
half a continent in one republican system^ ^ And this was in itself 
a source of boundless inspiration. Here was a vast continent with 
its untold wealth of minerals and fertility of soil. Here, too, was a 
free people, a self-governing democracy. No royal dynasties here to 
oppress the people with arbitrary laws and burdensome taxation ; 
no idle aristocracy or profligate nobility to sap the substance of 
industry and forever to remind the son of toil of his humble social 
condition. For such there was no room in this liberty-loving land ; 
for here, barring the one great national evil of slavery, every man 
was a master. 

There were some signs of the dawn of a new era in various 
1 Heury Adams, Vol. I, p. 73. 



378 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

— — — ^ — . ^ 

spheres of activity. Washington had secured neutrality; Whitney 
with his cotton gin had removed the great obstacle to the industrial 
development of the South; John Fitch and James Rumsey had 
shown the practicability of steam navigation, but years were yet to 
pass before their ideas were to be developed by Fulton and Living- 
ston ; Oliver Evans, the " American Watt," had invented a steam 
engine, but this too was to be laid aside until a phlegmatic public 
could be roused to a sense of its usefulness ; in the world of art 
West and Copley were making a name for America in foreign lands ; 
in literature President Dwight, Barlow, Freneau, and Brockden Brown 
had prepared the way for the greater lights, Irving, Bryant, and 
the galaxy of New England literati to be born within the first decade 
of the dawning century ; manufactories on a small scale were multi- 
plying, and commerce was swelling in volume. But with all this 
we look in vain in 1800 for the inventive genius, the unwearied 
energy, the boundless self-confidence and faith in the future that 
characterizes the America of to-day. 

The census of 1800 showed a population of five and a third mil- 
lion,^ one fifth of whom were slaves. Virginia still held the first 
place in population, Pennsylvania the second ; but Massachusetts had 
been outrun by New York, which now held third place, while the 
old Bay State came fourth. For half a century the increase in popu- 
lation had been a natural increase, for the great tide of immigration 
that has poured in a steady stream upon our shores for nearly a cen- 
tury had not then made a beginning.- Nine tenths of the population 
were still to be found east of the Alleghanies ; but the course of 
empire had begun to make its way westward, and more than half a 
million people had already fovind homes in the great valley of the 
Mississippi. 

Three great roads led from the seaboard to the region beyond the 
mountains, — one from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, another from the 
valley of the Potomac to the Monongahela, while a 
third led from Virginia in a southwesterly direction to 
the land of Tennessee. The largest of the western settlements was 
that of Kentucky, which contained upward of two hundred thousand 
inhabitants; the state had been admitted into the Union as the 

1 5,308,483. 

2 For thirty years after the adoption of the Constitution the foreign immigratiou 
to America averaged about five thousand a year. It was not till after 1840 that th« 
immigrants reached one hundred thousand a year. 



ST. CLAIR AND THE INDIANS 379 

fifteenth. South of Kentucky lay the beautiful valley of the Tennes- 
see and Cumberland rivers. Not until after the French War were 
permanent settlements made in Tennessee. In 1785 they had grown 
to many thousands of people, and they sought admission to the Union 
as the state of Frankland or Franklin.^ Their effort was not success- 
ful, but eleven years later the state entered the Union as Tennessee. 

One more new state belongs to this western group that entered 
the Union at this period. The great stretch of wilderness between 
Kentucky and Lake Erie, with its wooded hills and 
fertile valleys, known by the beautiful Indian name of 
the river that belted it on the south, was the chief prize for which 
the French and Indian War had been waged. After this Avar had 
given the territory to the English and the Revolution had given it 
to the Americans, various disputes arose concerning the owner- 
ship of the soil. Virginia in giving up her uncertain claims retained 
a large tract, some three and one half million acres, in the south cen- 
tral portion, known as the Fire Lands,^ while Connecticut took pos- 
session of an equal portion in the eastern part . on the lake shore, 
known as the Western Reserve. The first permanent settlement 
was made by Rufus Putnam, " The Father of Ohio," who, in 1788, 
settled with some forty families at the mouth of the Muskingum 
River, founded a town and named it Marietta, in honor of the unfor- 
tunate queen of France. 

But Ohio was not to be won by white men without the most seri- 
ous conflict with the natives. Two years after the settlement was 
made by Putnam, General Harmar suffered a defeat at the 
hands of the Indians of the Northwest, not far from the ^gfeat^"^ ' 
site of Fort Wayne. President Washington then chose 
General Arthur St. Clair to lead an army against the Indians. St. Clair 
was the grandson of a Scotch earl ; he had reached America in the 
midst of the French and Indian War; he was with Amherst at the 
capture of Louisburg ; with Wolfe at the fall of Quebec ; and later he 
served valiantly against his native laud in the Revolution. After the 
war he became governor of the Northwest Territory and commander 
in chief of the army. He gave the growing village in southwestern 
Ohio the name of Cincinnati. Washington now chose him to chasten 
the savage natives of the Wabash Valley. With eighteen hundred 

1 Roosevelt's " Winninj;^ of the West," Vol. Ill, p. 144. 

2 So called because they were set apart for soldiers and others whose property 
bad suffered by fire during the Revolution. 



880 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

» 

men St. Clair moved to a branch of the Wabash, where he was 
ambushed by a large body of Indians. His army was cut to pieces, 
and it escaped by flight into the forest only after leaving nearly 
half its number dead or wounded on the field. This was one of 
the most disastrous and crushing defeats recorded in Indian war- 
fare. The people of the country were shocked at the news. St. Clair 
was severely censured ; and he never rose again in public estimation. 
The President now chose General Anthony Wayne, the hero of 
Stony Point, to put down the western Indians. Wayne marched 
into the Indian country late in the autumn of 1793, and the follow- 
ing August he met the allied tribes at a place called Pallen Timbers, 

not far from the present Maumee City. The battle 
victOTv\794 ^^^ decisive, and the Indian power was utterly 

broken. Wayne pushed on into Indiana, built a fort 
which was called by his own name, and the thriving city that has 
grown up near the spot has retained the name of Fort Wayne. The 
Ohio territory now filled rapidly, and in 1803 Ohio joined the sister- 
hood and became the seventeenth state. 



A VIEW OF THE LEADERS 

Thomas Jefferson was a scion of an old family that belonged to 
the landed aristocracy of Virginia ; but nothing in his appearance oi* 
his manner indicated that he had not sprung from the common crowd. 
He was a democrat in spirit, and no discerning student of history can 
attribute to him selfish motives in espousing the cause of democracy. 
He was, tall and loosely built, with a sandy complexion, ' a sunny 
countenance, a freckled face, and hair tending to red. His manner 
was shy and retiring, his clothes ill fitting, his speech 
loose and rambling, with now and then a brilliant sen- 
timent sparkling from him.^ Such was the man who stood, almost 
carelessly, before John Marshall in the Senate chamber on March 4, 
1801, and took the oath of office as President of the United States.^ 

The new President chose as his secretary of state his most inti- 
mate friend, his life-long companion, James Madison. For secretary 
of the treasury he chose Albert Gallatin of Pennsylvania, and these 

1 Maclay's Diary. 

2 Jefferson had walked quietly to the capital with a few friends. The story that 
he rode alone on horseback and tied his own horse in order to give an example ot 
democratic simplicity, has long been refuted. See McMaster, Vol. II, p. 533 sq. 



JEFFERSON AT THE HELM 881 

three formed the great triumvirate in whose hands lay the fortunes 
of the United States for years to come. Both Madison and Gallatin 
were, like their chief, " well born," and they had always 
moved in the best social circles. Madison was a small, Q^llatin ^ 
neat, well-dressed man, full of good humor and anec- 
dote. Gallatin, a young man of forty years, was a Genevan by birth, 
and a slight foreign accent always marked his speech. He, like 
Madison, was well educated, and was eminently fitted for the great 
work before him. Never in our history were there three kindred 
spirits in high public life more truly companionable, more honest, 
or more sincerely devoted to the public welfare than were Jefferson, 
Madison, and Gallatin. 

The far-sighted Hamilton predicted a conservative administration 
for his great political enemy. And the latter seemed to give early 
promise of this. The inaugural was wise and tactful throughout, as 
well as conciliatory, and the ultra-Federalists, who had expected to 
hear the wild harangue of an idealist, were not a little discomfited. 
Jefferson's first ruffle with the opposite party arose from his removal 
of a few Federalist officials to make room for his own followers. 
" If a due participation of office is a matter of right," he wrote, '* how 
are vacancies to be obtained ? Those by death are few, by resigna- 
tion none." His party followers had been wholly excluded from the 
Federal offices, and he felt that it was only fair play that they should 
be recognized. But he proceeded very moderately, and had no 
thought of making a clean sweep. During the first fourteen months 
he removed but sixteen Federalists to make room for Republicans,^ 
and he refused to appoint any of his relatives. In 1802 he wrote, 
y^' I still think our original idea as to office is best, that is, to depend 
for the obtaining of a just participation on deaths, resignations, and 
delinquencies." 

Again Jefferson awakened the wrath of his opponents by pardon- 
ing the men who were still languishing in prison under the Sedition 
Law, and by his crusade against a few of the most offensive of the 
Federalist judges. The judge breaking, however, came near the 
close of Jefferson's first term. Judge Pickering of the New Hamp- 
shire district was removed for drunkenness and incompetency, and 

1 This number is given by Schouler (Vol. II, p. 9). Calhoun in a speech in 1835 
gives 42 as the number of Jefferson's removals in eight years. McMaster cites 99 
removals for the first year; but many of these were not for political reasons. Fish, 
in Rep. Amer. Asso., 1899, Vol. I, p. 170, gives total of removals from civil ofiace iii 
eight years as 109, military, 15. 



382 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Judge Chase of the Supreme Court was impeached by the House for 
" offensive partisanship," but was acquitted by the Senate. 

On the whole Jefferson's administration started out auspiciously, 
and thousands of the milder Federalists were won over to the stand- 
ard of the democracy. This was clearly shown in the state elections 
in the autumn of 1801, for before the close of the year every gov- 
ernor outside of New England was Democratic, and so was every legis- 
lature except that of Delaware, while in New England Rhode Island 
and the city of Boston had also joined the majority. Jefferson's ear- 
nest desire was to cut down the expenses of the government wher- 
ever possible. He discontinued the missions to Holland, Portugal, 
and Prussia, and he would have sold the few vessels of the navy had 
not a new use for them suddenly developed. 

The Moslem powers of North Africa had for some years been 
pacified with money, until two million dollars had been used to pur- 
chase immunity from their piratical vessels. But they became more 
insolent, and in 1801 Tripoli, to secure a larger tribute, declared war 
against the United States. This challenge was accepted, and instead 
of paying further tribute the President sent Commodore Dale with 
three frigates and a sloop of war to the Mediterranean. A Tripolitan 
cruiser was captured, and the Barbary states were so overawed that 
they gave no more trouble for several years. 

It was not until after the meeting of Congress in December, 1801, 
that the new President could show that he was sincerely in earnest 
in his desire to retrench the expenses and to reduce taxation. Both 
houses were now Democratic^ by easy working majorities. But 
there was no great leader in Congress, nor was one greatly needed, 
for they had an able master in the President. ./No other President 
in American history has so completely directed his Cabinet and the 
Congress as did Jefferson. 

He managed, not by threats nor by violence, nor by a use of the 
patronage, but in his own deft, quiet way, with that delicate touch at 
the right place and the right moment, which eludes every attempt to 
describe. There was no important act of Congress during the firsi 
eight years of the century that did not bear the stamp of the genius 
of Jefferson. And even in the Cabinet, with such leaders as Madi- 
son and Gallatin, without one display of temper, with never an angry 
wordf Jefferson was the undisputed master during the eight years. / 

1 1 shall use this term henceforth to designate the party founded by Jefferson, 
though he never gave up the term " Republican " as long as he lived. 



REPEAL OF FEDERALIST LAWS 388 

But few months after Congress had met it passed an act abolisli- 
ing all internal revenue on distilled spirits, the stamp tax, and the tax 
on carriages. It also reduced the army to about three 
thousand, sold some of the vessels of the navy, and low- H.^i'iaw 
ered the salaries of customhouse officials. These acts 
greatly reduced the number of officials, and Jefferson further proved 
the sincerity of his professions by consolidating fcwo or more offices 
into one wherever the public business would warrant it. Thus the 
President reduced the patronage at his disposal and weakened his 
own power in order to carry out a principle, and the example is one 
of the rarest in history. 

Congress next addressed itself to a few of the obnoxious laws 
made by the Federalists. The Alien and Sedition Acts had expired ; 
but there stood the Naturalization Act and the Midnight Judiciary. 
The former was remodeled and the time reduced from fourteen years 
to five, where it still remains. 

The Judiciary Act, so distasteful to the Democrats, seemed to 
interpose an obstacle ; but this was soon overcome. The act had 
been passed by the Federalists after it was known that the Demo- 
crats had carried the election, and yet not one of the newly created 
offices was left to be filled by the incoming administra- 
tion, and each new judge was supposed to hold the renealed^ *^ 
office for life. The Democrats regarded this as a gross 
abuse of power, and they determined to undo the work of their de- 
feated rivals. A way was soon found. They could not take the 
man from the office, so they determined to take the office from the 
man. The Judiciary Act was repealed entire ; but many years later, 
long after the Federal party had passed away, the growing busi- 
ness of the Federal courts demanded an extension of its service, 
similar to that which was now repealed. 



LOUISIANA 

The greatest diplomatic achievement in the annals of the United 
States was the acquisition of the vast, unbounded region beyond the 
Mississippi known as Louisiana. This immense territory had been 
taken possession of by France through the explorer La Salle in 1682. 
Eighty years later France ceded it to Spain, at the time when she 
gave up Canada and the Ohio Valley to England. Since then a 
mighty genius had risen in France in the person of Napoleon Bona- 



384 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

parte, and through his surpassing skill, aided by the spirit of the 
Revolution, that country had surged to the front until Spain was a 
weakling in comparison. At this stage Napoleon, now First Consul 

of France, looked upon the great Spanish-American 

forest with covetous eyes, and he forced its cession by 
Spain to himself by a secret treaty at San Ildefonso in the year 1800. 
The secret soon became an open one, and when the news reached 
President Jefferson his keen eye at once detected trouble for his 
country. To Robert Livingston, our minister at Paris, he wrote : 
" There is on the globe one single spot the possessor of which is our 
natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans. . . . Spain might 
have retained it quietly for years . . . the day that France takes 
possession . . . seals the union of two nations. . . . From that 
moment we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation." 
Jefferson had ever been partial to France. What a menace to the 
country must have loomed before his vision to have wrung from him 
such a statement as the above. But this was not all. In the midst 
of the excitement over the retrocession the Spanish iutendant at 
New Orleans closed the mouth of the great river to American trade, 
in violation of the treaty with Spain of 1795. This brought a cry 
of rage from the Mississippi Valley. The people of the West had 
no other outlet for trade. They threatened to march down the river 
and take possession of New Orleans by force, or^to throw themselves 
at the feet of England, if their own government did not come to the 
rescue. Jefferson was a man of peace; but the clamor from the 
western frontier grew louder, and something had to be done. At 
length it was determined to set apart two million dollars for the 
purchase of West Florida and the island of New Orleans,^ and thus 

to secure forever a passage down the great waterway, 
to Paris James Monroe was then sent to join Livingston at Paris, 

with power between them to effect the purchase. Jeffer- 
son had little hope of success. His object, as he stated privately, 
was to "palliate and endure," and to quiet the people of the western 
country until a war should break out between France and England, 
when he would cast his lot with the latter. 

Napoleon had acquired Louisiana for the purpose of colonizing it; 

but after losing two or three good armies in Santo Domingo, the island 

of rebellious blacks, he found it difficult to carry out his projects 

in the lower Mississippi Valley. Furthermore, he expected another 

1 This object was understood, but was not mentioned in the resolutions. 



PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA 385 



war with England. Yov this he would need money ; and besides, as 
England was the greater sea power, she might, in case of war, land 
an army on the coast of Louisiana and hold the territory by right 
of conquest. ISTapoleon had little love for the United States; but 
his love for England was still less, and he was too shrewd to play 
into the hands of his great enemy. Moreover, Napoleon saw that 
by a single stroke he could win the good will of America and pre- 
vent Jefferson from carrying out his threat of forming an alliance 
with England. Moved by these considerations, hp offered to sell all 
Louisiana to the Americans. The offer was mait to Livingston just 
before, and repeated soon after, the arrival of Monroe. The price 
asked was $20,000,000, and the two Americans had been authorized 
to offer as much as $10,000,000 for West Florida and 
New Orleans. At length a bargain was made by which ^P^^'' ^se. 
America was to pay $15,000,000 for the entire territory. One fourth 
of this was to be paid to Americans holding claims against France, 
while the remaining three fourths were to be paid in six per cent 
bonds. The famous treaty was signed on April 30, 1803,^ by Marbois 
for the French, and by the two Americans, subject to the ratification 
of their government. 

The bargain was a great one for America. It not only precluded 
all possibility of a foreign power getting a footing on the lower Mis- 
sissippi ; it also secured forever the control of the great river and 
added to the United States a vast, fertile domain of unknown bounds. 
As afterward ascertained, Louisiana,^ contained 1,171,931 square 
miles — more than all the original thirteen states combined. " You 
have made a noble bargain for yourselves," said Talleyrand to Liv- 
ingston, " and I suppose you will make the most of it." 

Actual possession soon placed our title to Louisiana beyond dis- 
pute ; but, strictly speaking, the sale was not legal. Napoleon had 
agreed to convey to Spain a dukedom on the Arno Eiver, for the 
son-in-law of the Spanish king, in payment for Louisiana ; but the 
price was never paid. The treaty of Udefonso also 
stipulated that France should not cede the territory to ^ s • 

any foreign power; but Napoleon disregarded this. In point of 
fact, France, therefore, did not own Louisiana ; and even if she had 
owned it, the cession, according to the French Constitution, could not 

1 The English copy was signed a few days later. 

2 Including Alabama and Mississippi south of 31°. For Louisiana see map fol- 
lowing p. 896. 

20 



386 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

be made without the consent of the Chamber of Deputies, and this 
the First Consul never obtained and never sought. The French, 
people were astonished at this action of their ruler ; but he was the 
master, and they were powerless. 

Far sadder was the wail from Spain. The Spanish government 
protested feebly, pathetically; but its voice was not heard. The 
Spaniards believed that they could not hold their American posses- 
sions with Louisiana in the hands of the rising free Republic — and 
they were right. /They believed that the news of the cession sounded 
the death-knell of the Spanish empire — and so it did. I\ 

The people of America, on hearing the news from Paris, were as- 
tonished at the magnitude of the transaction that gave them such 
a princely domain. President Jefferson readily saw what the new 
purchase meant in the future development of America ; but, true to 
his strict construction principles, he pronounced the purchase uncon- 
stitutional.^ This view he expressed by letter to various friends, 
and he drew up an amendment to the Constitution, giving the govern- 
ment power to incorporate Louisiana with the United States and 
make it a part thereof, and sent it to his Cabinet. But he was soon 
alarmed by word from Livingston, who stated that there was reason 
to fear that Napoleon would change his mind and yet prevent the 
cession. Jefferson took the alarm and instantly enjoined his friends 
from saying anything of the constitutional limitations until the trans- 
fer was accomplished, after which he advocated that an amendment 
should be adopted to make the purchase valid. He called Congress 
to meet in October, six weeks before the usual time, to deal with the 
great subject. After a brief debate, in which the Democrats took 
a ground which they would have opposed during the old Federal 
days, the purchase was ratified, and all thought of amending the 
Constitution was abandoned. 

A formal transfer of the territory was made in December, and 
before the close of that month a bill for its government was intro- 
duced. This bill, which became a law in March, 1804, divided the 
territory into two parts at the thirty-third parallel. The northern 
portion, which contained few white inhabitants, was called the Dis- 
trict of Louisiana and was put under the government of Indiana 
Territory, which was governed by the Ordinance of 1787. The south- 
ern district, called the Territory of Orleans, contained some fifty 

1 It was not so much the purchase as the provision in the treaty providing fol 
its incorporation as a part of the United States that troubled Jefferson. 



EXPEDITION TO THE NORTHWEST 381 

thousand people, chiefly French. The inhabitants were given no share 
in the government. The governor and the secretary were to be ap- 
pointed by the President for three years, and the judicial 
officers for four years. This was another long stretch of ^o^^rninent 
the Constitution, as Jefferson formerly understood it ; but 
it was practically sustained in 1828 by C'hief Justice Marshall when 
he decided, concerning the inhabitants of Florida, that the people of a 
territory have no political rights before the territory becomes a state. 

One of the interesting features of the debates on the purchase 
and government of Louisiana arose from the fact that the Federalists 
planted themselves firmly on the theory of strict construction, while 
the Democrats occupied the ground of loose construction, formerly 
held by their opponents. 

While Jelferson was yet in Washington's Cabinet, he proposed an 
exploring expedition to the great Northwest. When elected Presi- 
dent he was still thinking of this, and after the purchase of Louisi- 
ana Territory, which extended far up the Missouri, he determined 
to carry out his project. He chose one of his secretaries named 
Merriwether Lewis to lead the expedition, and Lewis chose Captain 
William Clark as his associate. After spending a winter in camp 
near the inouth of the Missouri, the company, numbering forty-five 
men,^ began their ascent of that river in the spring of 1804. They 
followed the river until late in October, when they en- xewis and 
camped for the winter near the site of Bismarck, North Clark 
Dakota. Early in the spring they resumed their jour- expedition, 
ney, and in May they came for the first time in view of the Rocky 
Mountains. On reaching the Columbia, that noble river which Cap- 
tain Grey had discovered fourteen years before and had named after his 
ship, they floated with its current. Their journey was full of hardship, 
but they were repaid with many romantic scenes, — cascades of mar- 
velous beauty and snow-capped mountains skirted at the base with 
gigantic forests. They met and made friends with many Indian tribes. 

On the morning of November 7, 1806, after a journey of a year 
and a half through the wilderness, they saw for the first time the blue 
line in the western horizon which told them that the end of their jour- 
ney was at hand. It was the Pacific Ocean, that vast watery plain on 
which Balboa had gazed with a swelling soul, through which Magel- 
lan had plowed with his hardy seamen until he had belted the globe. 

1 Sparks, in his " Expansion of the American People," p. 212, gives this number: 
H. H. Bancroft gives twenty-eight. 



388 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

After spending the winter on the coast they returned to the United 
States, reaching St. Louis in September, 1807. In two and one half 
years they had traversed nine thousand miles of unbroken wilder- 
ness untrodden before by the foot of the white man. Their journal, 
published a few years later, conveyed much important information 
on the Great West. It was largely on this expedition of Lewis and 
Clark that our government forty years later based its claim to the 
Oregon country, when the settlement was made with Great Britain. 
At this time (1806) Zebulon Pike made a great exploring tour of the 
middle West, crossing the plains to the site of Denver, thence turn- 
ing southward to the head waters of the liio Grande. 

BURR AND HAMILTON 
The administration party grew steadily in popular favor until, at 
the close of the year 1803, Federalism was practically dead outside 
of New England,^ and even in that section the Democrats had made 
gains in every state. The leading New England Federalists viewed 
the impetuous sweep of democracy with alarm. They had expected 
to see the ship of state founder under the guidance of the mob and 
the rabble, and themselves to be soon recalled to the helm ; but the 
country was still prosperous and the democracy was strengthening 
every hour, Avhile they beheld their own party melting away like 
snow beneath an April sun. The dying party was led by Senator 
Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts, former member of the cabinets 
of Washington and Adams, and Roger Griswold of Connecticut, 
These men were doubtless honest ; but they were too narrow to stand 
aside and say/ If the democracy has the ability to rule, and if a 
majority prefer a rule of the democracy, give it a fair trial/ On the 
contrary, the greater the success of their opponents, the wilder was 
their cry against the modern evil of democracy. 

The Louisiana Purchase was now made the pretext for a conspir- 
acy to dissolve the Union. With this great territory carved into 
growing states, the West and the South will overshadow 
Bpiracv^ ^°^' ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^® East, said the conspirators, and there is noth- 
ing left but to shatter the whole structure and set up a 
New England Confederacy.^ Pickering made known his scheme to 

1 Except in Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina, where it still held on feebly. 

2 An admirable account of this conspiracy is given by Henry Adams, Vol. II, 
Chap. VIII. This historian is a grandson of John Quincy Adams, who was, at the 
time we are treating, Pickering's colleague in the Senate, but who was whoUj 
averse to disunion. 



AARON BURR 889 



such Federalists as George Cabot and Fisher Ames ; but these men, 
while also alarmed at the rising tide of democracy, pronounced the 
scheme of disunion unpracticable. In spite of this discouragement 
the leaders pressed on, and in addition to New England they decided 
that they must have New York. But New York was Democratic, 
and they could hope to win the state only through some disaffected 
member of that party ; and they soon found him in the person of 
Vice President Burr. 

It was an opportune moment to approach Aaron Burr. He was 
in the midst of a terrific political battle in New York, where the 
great ruling families of Clintons and Livingstons had combined 
against him, and to these were added the power of the administration ; 
and Burr saw that the battle was going against him. Burr was a 
restless soul. His patriotism was shallow. He had no fear of the 
democracy, and yet, when approached by the Federalists who dis- 
closed their scheme of breaking up the Union, proposed to make 
him their leader if he would give them New York and, as an earnest 
of their good intentions, offered to support him for the governorship 
of that state at the coming election, he fell in with their plans, 
though cautiously and with few promises. His probable motives 
were twofold : to gratify his personal ambition, and to be revenged 
on his political adversaries. 

It was believed by many that Burr could be elected, if supported 
by the Federalists and by his personal following in his own party. 
And probably he would have succeeded but for one 

Burr's 

obstacle that proved to be fatal. Alexander Hamilton jgf„„*. 
was the obstacle. Hamilton was no friend of disunion, 
though he believed democracy to be a disease ; and further, he and 
Burr had for years been political and personal rivals, almost ene- 
mies, and nothing could now persuade him to join a movement 
which meant to give Burr a leadership over himself. He professed 
to believe that Burr was a dangerous man ; his opinions were pub- 
lished in the newspapers, and they influenced many voters. Burr 
was defeated by the Clinton-Livingston candidate, and the disunion 
conspiracy was broken to fragments; but the remaining malcon- 
tents, the dregs of a once noble party, continued to rail against 
popular government of the Jeffersonian type until ten years later, 
when they met political death by suicide in the Hartford Convention. 
Aaron Burr brooded over his downfall. Nothing was more cer- 
tain than that his political fortunes in New York and in the nation 



390 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

— _ — . . — _ — _ — . — ^ 

were shattered beyond repair. He felt that he would have won in 
this battle had it not been for Hamilton, who prevented his receiving 
the full Federalist vote. Nor was this the first time 
^® that Hamilton had thwarted his ambitions. The more 

Burr brooded over the matter, the more he blamed 
Hamilton for all his misfortunes, and he desperately resolved to get 
rid of his great enemy. He challenged Hamilton to a duel. 

Dueling was common in those days. The great public had not 
yet come to see that the practice is wrong. It smiled on it, 
applauded it, and branded the man as a coward who refused to 
meet his antagonist on " the field of honor." And the average man/ 
was too much of a real coward to endure being called a cowardf' 
Even Hamilton had not the moral courage to defy public opinion 
and refuse to fight a duel. He accepted the challenge.^ 

In the gray dawn of that sultry summer day in July, 1804, the 
two men with their seconds rowed silently across the Hudson, 
and as the earliest rays of the rising svm streamed 
Jurvn^l804 through the trees, they stood face to face on the old 
dueling ground under the rocky heights of Weehawkeu. 
Hamilton seemed undecided and vacillating; Burr was keen-eyed 
and determined. At the signal to fire, but one shot was heard, and 
Hamilton fell upon his face, shot through the body. As he fell his 
pistol was fired into the air some feet above Burr's head, whether 
accidentally or not was never known. He had said to a friend that 
he intended to throw away his first fire. His friends now bore the 
wounded statesman back to his home in the city. Next morning he 
was dead. 

Among American statesmen Alexander Hamilton must be placed 
in the first rank. Born in the West Indies in 1757, of Scotch- 
French parentage, he came to the colonies as a boy of 
H^ilton ° fifteen, seeking his fortune. At the outbreak of the 
Revolution we find him at King's College, in New 
York, and he left his course unfinished to join the army. He served 
throughout the war, a large part of the time on the staff of Wash- 
ington, and he gave evidence of possessing a high order of military 
ability ; but the war closed while he was still a youth, and never 
afterward did he have an opportunity to display his military powers. 
He served a short time in the Congress of the Confederation, helped 

1 Hamilton claimed that he fought only to save his political influence, hut his 
brain was quite fertile enough to do that without the duel. 



BURR-HAMILTON DUEL 391 

to frame the Constitution, and became a member of Washington's first 
Cabinet. 

As a financier no public man in our history can compare with 
Hamilton, and he was the founder of our present financial system. 
As a lawyer and an orator he stood in the first class; as a con- 
troversial political writer he surpassed all other men of his age. 
"Any man who puts himself on paper with Hamilton is lost," said 
Burr, some years before their fatal quarrel. Hamilton did a service 
for America that will never be forgotten ; to him above all men we 
are indebted for national strength. But his usefulness was marred 
by his 3goism and his want of faith in the good sense and good 
intentions of the masses. Had he been born to a throne, he would 
have made a great ruler ; but, as he himself acknowledged, he was 
out of place in this western world, where the voice of the people 
cannot be stifled and must prevail. 

Aaron Burr may have felt a thrill of the joy of victory at the 
fall of his great rival at Weehawken. He did not foresee that his 
fatal bullet would add a luster for all time to the name of his fallen 
victim, and would cover his own with indelible dishonor. He did 
not foresee that the ghost of Hamilton would pursue him like a 
Nemesis from land to land, would mark his every project with 
failure, would hound his footsteps for thirty years, until at last, 
aged and tottering, he would sink into the grave, the victim and not 
the conqueror of the fatal duel at Weehawken. 

New York and the nation were shocked at the death of Hamil- 
ton. The great untrained public had applauded dueling, but it was 
costly sport when such an intellectual light as Hamilton became its 
victim. This great giant, the public, like a petulant child that takes 
vengeance on the plaything with which he has injured himself, felt 
the wound and grew angry and demanded a victim — and Burr 
became the victim.^ 

When the people of New York learned that Burr had practiced 
with his pistol for some weeks before the duel, with the evident 
intention, not of retrieving his honor, but of killing his 
rival, he was denounced as a murderer. He fled to 
Philadelphia, but here public opinion was equally against him, and 
he went to the South. Some months later he returned northward, 
hoping to find public feeling allayed ; but not finding it so, he 

1 This does not imply a belief that Burr was blameless, but that be was a natural 
product of a society that encouraged dueling. 



392 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

decided on a tour of the West. He crossed the mountains to Pitt& 
burg, whence he floated down the Ohio to Marietta. He then visited 
the long, low island in the river a few miles below Marietta, where 
lived, with his wife, a romantic Irish gentleman named Blennei>' 
hassett. Burr proceeded down the river to the site of Louisville 
and crossed the country to Nashville, where he was received by 
Andrew Jackson. Next we find him at New Orleans secretly con- 
ferring with some of the leading men of the city. 

What was Burr's object in making this western tour ? Many who 
knew of his restless ambition fully believed that he was engaged in 
a conspiracy for selfish ends — no less than to sever the 
consBiracv Mississippi Valley from the East, and to set up an inde- 
pendent nation with himself at its head. Burr had 
good ground to hope for success in this vast undertaking. There 
was a widespread belief that the East and the West would at some 
future time become separate nations. Burr was popular west of 
the mountains, and even in the East he still had friends in high 
life. Senators Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey, John Smith of 
Ohio, and General James Wilkinson, commander of the army — 
these and many men of lesser note readily joined in his plot.^ 

Late in the year 1805 Burr returned to the East, and during his 
few months' stay he made prodigious efforts to enlist recruits for 
his project. He visited the English minister, and sought to secure 
Great Britain's aid in his project, but without success. He called 
upon old friends, army and navy officials, and on many whom he 
believed to have some grievance against the government. His 
success was meager, however, and he returned to the Ohio Valley 
in August, 1806, taking with him his charming daughter, Theodosia, 
now Mrs. Alston, wife of the governor of South Carolina. Leaving 
her with Mrs. Blennerhassett, whose husband was deeply involved 
in his plot, Burr, with great energy, began building boats and arm- 
ing men for his expedition against Mexico, as he led the rank and 
file to believe. Everything seemed to promise success, when sud- 
denly, as by a thunderbolt from a clear sky, the whole plan was 
shattered and annihilated. The explosion came in the form of a 
presidential proclamation. 

1 Mr. W. F. McCaleb in his " Aaron Burr Conspiracy," 1903, reaches a different 
conclusion from that commonly believed. He claims that Burr sought only to head 
a filibustering expedition against Spanish possessions, that he had no design of sever- 
ing the Union, and that the charges of treason rested on the testimony of Wilkinson, 
who was more at fault than Burr. 



BURR'S TRIAL 



President Jefferson had been slow to believe that anything seri- 
ous was going on ; but when he was at length convinced of Burr's 
perfidy, he issued a proclamation calling for the arrest 
of all persons engaged in the scheme. Wilkinson then ® ai^res . 
betrayed Burr, whom he had promised to support, and others followed 
his example until Burr found himself abandoned and a fugitive from 
the hand of the law. He floated down the Mississippi to a point near 
Natchez, where he learned that Wilkinson, who was at New Orleans, 
had betrayed him and was planning for his arrest. Burr now saw 
that the game was up, and sought only to escape. He landed on the 
east bank of the river, exchanged clothes with a boatman, and with 
a single guide attempted to make his way through the wilderness 
to the seacoast, whence he hoped to embark for a foreign land. But 
he was captured in northern Alabama and carried to Richmond, 
Virginia, for trial. ^ 

The famous prisoner arrived in Richmond in March, 1807, and 
the great trial in the United States Circuit Court, Chief Justice 
John Marshall in the chair, was begun some weeks later. The ad- 
ministration became the prosecutor, while the Federalists, true to 
their instincts of opposition, generally sided with the accused. The 
contest almost became a personal one between President Jefferson 
and Chief Justice Marshall, who bore each other no good will. 
Marshall summoned the President to be a witness, but the latter 
refused to leave his public duties. This action of the Chief Justice 
was generally condemned, even by his friends. 

Burr was a lawyer of great ability, and besides, he secured able 
legal talent led by Edmund Randolph, a former member of Washing- 
ton's Cabinet, and Luther Martin, the rugged " buU- 
dog" statesman from Maryland. The leader of the 
opposite side was the brilliant young lawyer, William Wirt. The 
outcome of the trial was believed to lie largely in the hands of 
Marshall, and his rulings were generally favorable to Burr. The 
jury acquitted the prisoner on technical grounds, nor was it possible 
to convict him of a misdemeanor. 

Jefferson was deeply disappointed at the result. He believed 
that Marshall had brought it about from pure dislike of himself. 
It is a strange fact that these two great Virginians, whose memory 
America still delights to honor, were ever suspicious of each other, 
and neither ever valued the other at his real worth. 

1 For a fuller account see Elson's " Side Lights," Series I, Chap. VIL 



394 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Of Burr's guilt few had any doubt, but for want of proof he wai 
acquitted by the jury. His reputation, however, was utterly blasted, 
and from this time, if not from the time of Hamilton's death, he 
was despised above all public men in America. After the trial he 
went to Baltimore and stayed with a friend, but he fled from the 
city by night to escape the fury of a gathering mob. Finding no 
rest for the sole of his foot in America, he took ship for Europe 
under an assumed name. There he wandered for four years ; but 
his Nemesis pursued him. He found neither friends nor rest, and 
at times he was in want of the necessaries of life. Returning to 
his native land in the spring of 1812, he found at last that the 
public, now about to engage i^i a war with England, took little 
notice of him, and he engaged quietly in his profession, earning a 
fair living until old age and disease disabled him; but he never 
regained the confidence of the public. 

IMPRESSMENT OF SEAMEN 

The reelection of Jefferson in 1804 was a grand triumph of the 
democracy ; and yet not wholly this, for Jefferson had already 
proved himself not only a Democrat, not only a state-rights Repub- 
lican, but also a nationalist. The purchase of Louisiana was an act 
of national sovereignty such as the most ardent Federalist would 
scarcely have dreamed of five years before. By this act, as well 
as by his conciliatory policy, Jefferson won thousands of his op- 
ponents without alienating the members of his own party. Of all 
the presidential elections save one, since the days of Washington, 
that of 1805 came nearest being unanimous. Jefferson and his 
colleague, George Clinton, received all the electoral votes except four- 
teen, which were cast for the Federalist candidates, C. C. Pinckney 
and Rufus King. But the trying time in the life of the President was 
yet to come, and that was in connection with our foreign relations. 
France had failed to give boundaries to the great tract of land that 
she had sold to the United States. Livingston was at first chagrined 
that he had acquired the west bank only of the Mississippi when 
he had been authorized to purchase the east bank. But he soon 
found a way out of his dilemma by claiming the east bank, or West 
Florida, also, as a part of Louisiana. His example was followed by 
the administration; and thus began a series of negotiations that 
covered several years. Spain protested vehemently against this 
claim of the United States, but Spain lay prostrate at the feet of 



TROUBLE WITH ENGLAND 396 

Napoleon. Jefferson at length abandoned this claim and sought to 
purchase the coveted territory.^ Seeing that it was France and not 
Spain with whom he had to deal, he suggested offering the former 
a sum of money for the rights of Spain in Florida, with an implied 
threat of making an alliance with England in case of refusal. 
Congress voted f 2,000,000 for such a purpose. But suddenly all 
thought of a British alliance was scattered to the winds. England 
revived the old rule known as the Rule of 1756. 

France and England were again at war, and the former was not 
permitted by the Mistress of the Seas to trade with her own colonies. 
France, therefore, threw open her colonial trade to 
neutrals, a thing she did not ordinarily do in time of i-J^ig** 
peace. In consequence the Americans built up a great 
trade with the French West Indies ; and as most of the other 
nations of Europe were embroiled in the war and could not trade 
under their own flags, the United States became the carrier for the 
world. But this was all changed by the revival of this old Rule 
of 1756, by which a neutral was not permitted to enjoy in time of 
war that which was not permitted it in time of peace. In view of 
the fact that American ships were supplying the wants of England's 
enemies, one can scarcely blame England for enforcing this old rule. 
But it raised a cry of despair in America. Thousands of mariners 
and merchants suddenly found their occupation gone and themselves 
face to face with ruin. 

But this was not all, nor half. The impressment of American 
seamen into the British navy was now at its height. This practice 
had fallen into the background during the short season of peace 
between France and England that ended in 1803, but with the 
renewal of the war it had been revived with alarming vigor. The 
British ministry had refused America's repeated offers to arrange 
for a mutual exchange of deserters. In the most high-handed 
manner a British captain would overhaul an American merchantman 
on the sea or in port, muster the crew before him, and choose whom 
he would for the British service ; and too often native Americans, 
or men whose speech showed plainly that they were not Englishmen, 
were seized. Old revolutionary soldiers complained that their sons 
were thus forced to fight the battles of England. One old soldier, 
whose sons had been impressed, had served through the war, had 

1 He did not formally or officially abandon the claim, but he practically did 80 
by making this offer. 



896 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

lain for fifteen months in a British prison, and had lost his estate 
by means of the war. He wrote a bitter complaint to Congress, 
stating that if this was the kind of liberty he had gained, he had 
rather be without it.^ 

These two questions — England's decision concerning the trade 
of neutrals, and the impressment of seamen — called from Jefferson a 
special message to Congress, reciting these wrongs ; and this was fol- 
lowed two months later by a non-importation act, limiting our trade 
with Great Britain. This measure passed in spite of the deter- 
mined opposition of the erratic, sarcastic John Randolph, who had 
broken friendship with the administration. Randolph made a pow- 
erful speech, and pointed out one great fact that many had not 
yet seen, namely, that Great Britain was now really fighting for 
liberty, that she was the only remaining obstacle in the path of the 
ambition of that mighty despot who had risen in France. 

Even President Jefferson seemed to be cringing before the French 
Emperor. At Napoleon's command he abandoned the American 
claims against the court of Spain, and forbade American vessels 
to trade with the rebellious French colony of Santo Domingo. 
Why ? Not from fear, but because his heart was set on obtaining 
West Florida, and he kncAV that Bonaparte alone could grant his 
wishes or deny them. The latter, knowing Jefferson's desires, 
played upon this string for several years ; when he wished some 
humiliating service from the American President, he held up the 
prize before his eyes, then again he would withdraw it.^ At length 
Jefferson grew impatient and threatened an alliance with England, 
ignoring the fact that the impressment business was increasing. 
But when the Rule of 1756 was revived by the British government, 
and when not only our sailors, but even our ships were ruthlessly 
seized by the British,^ even Jefferson could endure it no longer. 
And still he was for peace. Instead of threatening war, he quietly 
sent James Monroe and William Pinkney to London to make a 
treaty in place of the portions of the Jay Treaty which had expired. 
A treaty was soon framed, and it reached America in the spring of 

1 Schouler, Vol. II, p. 102. 

2 A few years later the United States actually seized West Florida; but the 
occupation was not considered lethal by foreign powers. In 1819, when Spain ceded 
Florida to the United States, West Florida was included in the cession, and the 
United States accepted it in order to gain a legal title. 

* Within three years, ending with 1807, 349 American ships were captured by the 
British. Qordy, Vol. I, p. 440. 



THE LEOPABD AND THE CHESAPEAKE 397 

1807 ; but as the English ministry had refused to renounce the right 
of search, — and to secure this had been the chief object 
in sending the two men to London, — Jefferson rejected -ff^Zj 
the treaty without sending it to the Senate. 

Before midsummer of that year an event occurred that stirred 
American society as it had not been stirrea since the days of the Revo- 
lution. It is known as the affair of the Leopard and the Chesapeake. 

Three men had deserted frori the Melapus, an English vessel, 
and had enlisted in the Chesapeake, a United States frigate of 
thirty-eight guns, then fitting out for the Mediterranean under Com- 
modore Barron. The British minister, Erskine, requested their sur- 
render ; but Jefferson refused, because, first, England had declined 
to arrange for the surrender of deserters, and second, the three men,^ 
as the President believed, and as was afterward proved, were all 
American born, two of whom had been wrongfully impressed from 
an American vessel in the Bay of Biscay. Upon this Admiral 
Berkeley, British commander in American waters, issued from Hali- 
fax an order commanding the British captains to search the Chesa- 
peake and take the men by force. 

A few weeks later the Chesapeake dropped down to Hampton 
Roads and put to sea. At the same time the Leopard, an English, 
two-decker of fifty guns, stood out to sea. She then Yh^ Leopard 
bore down upon the Chesapeake, and her commander and the Ches- 
demanded the surrender of the three deserters, produc- apeake, 1807. 
ingat the same time Berkeley's order to search the American vessel 
in case of refusal. Barron replied that he had no knowledge of 
such deserters, and that the crew of a United States war vessel could 
be mustered by their own officers alone. The captain of the Leopard 
then shouted through a trumpet, "Commodore Barron must be 
aware that the orders of the admiral must be obeyed." Next came 
a solid shot across the bow of the Chesapeake, and another; and 
these were followed by a broadside. Barron was utterly surprised. 
He was unprepared to return the compliment, and after twelve 
minutes of a raking fire, three of his crew lying dead upon the deck 
and eighteen wounded, he hauled down the American flag and sur- 
rendered his vessel. The crew was now mustered before the British 
officers, and the three deserters from the Melapus were secured.'"* 

1 All three were colored men. 

2 Two other men, real deserters from the British service, were also taken. One 
of them, named Ratford, was afterward hanged at Halifax. The colored men 
were reprieyed on their promise to reenter the British service. More than a yeai 



69S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Hitherto ouly merchantmen were overhauled at sea by British 
captains ; but here was an attack on a United States war vessel, which 
represented the sovereignty of the nation. The people of the whole 
country, including the Federalists, flared up with indignation, and 
there was scarcely a city or a town in the Union that did not pass 
resolutions denouncing the attack as a dastardly outrage, Jefferson 
issued a proclamation ordering all English cruisers to leave Ameri- 
can waters, and a demand was made upon Great Britain to disavow 
the act and to make reparation. The British ministry promptly dis- 
avowed the attack and sent George Rose to make reparation; but his 
instructions were such that the United States refused to treat with 
him. He was instructed to demand the recall of the President's 
message and the punishment of Commodore Barron for receiving 
the deserters. His mission came to naught, and the matter hung 
fire for several years.^ Barron was afterwards punished with five 
years' suspension from service, not for receiving the deserters, but 
for neglect of duty in not being ready to defend the Chesapeake. 

FRENCH DECREES AND ENGLISH ORDERS IN COUNCIL 

The war now raging in Europe was tremendous. The British 
nation was superior to the French, and would have crushed it 
but for the genius of one man. Napoleon Bonaparte. This wonder- 
ful man had laid Europe at his feet, and had boasted that his 
will should be the law of the world. He even had the temerity 
to dispute the dominion of the sea with the powerful navy of Eng- 
land; but his hopes, in this line, were utterly crushed in 1805 
by the victory of Nelson at Trafalgar. Even this seemed not to 
daunt Napoleon in his vast plans ; he rose above this defeat with 
the audacity of genius. He overthrew the Austrians at Ulm and 
Austerlitz, and the Prussians at Jena; and he now determined to 
starve the island kingdom by closing its ports to the commerce of 
BerlinDecree ^^^ world. He issued from Berlin, Germany, the "Ber- 
November lin Decree," declaring the British Isles in a state of 
21, 1806. blockade, making prize of war all merchandise pro- 

duced by England or her colonies, and declaring that no ship that 

before tbis, a shot from the British ship Leander, in the New York harbor, killed a 
man on an unoffending coaster. This had caused great excitement, but nothing to 
eompare with that caused by the Leopard. 

1 Five years after this occurrence the three impressed Americans were replaced 
on the deck of the Chesapeake, 



RELATIONS WITH FRANCE AND ENGLAND 399 

touched at an English port should be admitted to a port of France 
or her allies.* 

The news of this decree reached England at the moment when 
Monroe and Pinckney were about to sign their tentative treaty with 
that country; and the English agents now appended to order in Coun- 
the treaty a protest against the decree of Napoleon, and cil, January 
reserved the right of the British government to retaliate ''' 1807. 
in case neutral nations submitted to it. For taking such a position 
England could not be blamed ; but far otherwise was her action a 
week later. Without waiting to see what " neutral nations," which 
meant the United States, would do, she issued an Order in Council, 
closing to neutrals all ports under French control. This order, with 
the Berlin Decree, struck a terrible blow at American commerce ; 
but this was not all. Late in the autumn of the same year (1807), 
while the American people were still raving over the Chesapeake 
affair, the English issued an Order in Council which was a violation 
of international law, and which struck at the very foundations of 
American sovereignty. By this order any neutral vessel trading at 
a European port from which British ships were excluded was required 
first to stop at an English port and pay a duty, and this must be 
repeated on the return voyage. The object of this order, as acknowl- 
edged by the English premier, was not simply to cripple Napoleon, 
but to protect British trade from the rising commercial power of the 
United States. No self-respecting people could obey such a decree, 
and it is certain that this_ order would not have been issued had our 
country then been able to protect itself against all comers. 

Napoleon waited but a few weeks after this order was issued 

before sending forth from Milan, in retaliation, one of „., ^ 

■L.- £ J J 1 • J.1 I. 11- Milan Decree. 

his famous decrees, declaring that any vessel having 

been searched or having paid a tax at a British port, might be seized 

in any French port as a lawful prize. 

These orders and decrees were aimed at America as the only 

neutral worth considering ; not that either of the great belligerents 

wished to provoke America to war, nor that either bore malice toward 

the American people or government. But it is true that each sought 

to draw the United States into a war with the other, and failing in 

1 This was part of his so-called "Continental System," a combining of the 
continental powers to break down England. This decree had been preceded by 
Napoleon's closing the ports of Bremen and Hamburg to British commerce, and by 
England's declaring a blockade of the coast from Brest to the Elbe, May, 1806. 



400 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

this each showed a contempt for American rights that would not 
have been shown toward a first-class power. 

"What now could America do ? Three ways were open : first, to 
ignore the French decrees and the English orders, but this would have 
resulted in an alarming destruction of American shipping and practi- 
cally in sweeping it from the seas ; second, to make war on both 
France and England, the two most powerful nations of the earth, and 
this might have resulted in the downfall of the Republic while still 
in its youth ; third, to refuse to trade with either of the offending 
powers, and this at the cost of ruining thousands of our merchants, 
and throwing tens of thousands of sailors and laborers out of employ- 
ment. Which road should be chosen ? Jefferson was preeminently 
a man of peace ; he had a mortal fear of a national debt and of en- 
dangering liberty by strengthening the union. And besides, Jeffer- 
son had a theory, an original theory, and here was his opportunity 
to give it a trial. He believed that the nations of the world would 
live at peace with us from motives of self-interest ; that these two 
would rescind their hateful decrees rather than lose American trade. 
Offer a bone to two bull-dogs fighting, and they will take little notice 
of the bone ; they will still fight. So with France and England. 
Their struggle was a death struggle, and they could not turn aside 
for the little that America had to offer. Jefferson had this yet to 
learn, and he had to learn it by experience. He chose the third 
mentioned of the three ways. He chose not -to trade with the offend- 
ing powers — to lay an embargo on American commerce. 

THE EMBARGO 

On the 22d of December, 1807, one of the most remarkable 
measures in the annals of Congress was enacted into law, in accord- 
ance with a secret message of the President ; and the fact that a 
measure so undemocratic in its nature and so extraordinary in its 
requirements passed both houses by great majorities, and almost 
without debate, showed the wonderful power with which the Presi- 
dent still swayed his party. This was the most rigorous and arbi- 
trary piece of national legislation, as regards private property, ever 
enacted in the United States.^ By this law an embargo was laid, for 
an indefinite time, on all foreign commerce, and by it every man in 

1 There were other embargoes at other times, but they were always limited to a 
definite time, a very few months. 



JEFFERSON'S EMBARGO 401 

the country engaged in foreign trade was deprived of his occupation. 
Except among the few remaining Federalists, the embargo was well 
received at first. But it was not long before the coasting vessels, 
which were not inhibited by the act, were engaged in smuggling 
goods into Canada and into Spanish Florida, and indeed many of 
them sailed to transatlantic ports. This led to a supplementary 
act in January, by which coasters were put under heavy bonds and 
made subject to severe penalties. Other supplementary acts were 
passed from time to time, each more severe than the preceding, 
until at length all foreign trade by land or sea was made illegal. As 
the summer of 1808 passed, and the people saw that neither France 
nor England gave any sign of yielding, the embargo became very 
unpopular, and they did everything possible to evade the law. They 
traded with France through Florida and with England through 
Canada. Barrels of flour in stacks were placed on a hillside near 
the Canadian boundary line, when " accidentally " they were started 
rolling across the line until all were safe on Canadian soil. The 
people, especially in New England, threatened rebellion and disunion. 
Jefferson exhibited wonderful courage and vigor in carrying out his 
measure. He placed troops along the Canadian border ; he patrolled 
the Atlantic coast with gunboats and frigates; he enjoined the gov- 
ernors of states to call out the militia to enforce the law where neces- 
sary. The scene was a distressing one. Ships lay rotting in the 
harbors. Wheat, corn, cotton, tobacco, and other articles of produce 
were piled in the barns of the northern farmer and the southern 
planter and along the wharves of every seaport. 

After the embargo had operated for more than a year, and still 
there were many evasions of the law, an Enforcing Act was passed 
by Congress. By this law no coasting vessel could be 
loaded until the owner had given a bond for six times the jgog*'^^ ' 
value of the ship and the proposed cargo ; any produce 
being moved " apparently " toward foreign territory was subject to 
seizure, and the officials were to be supported by the army and navy 
of the United States. Such legislation was drastic in the extreme ; 
yet Jefferson did not shrink for an instant from putting it into 
operation. But his great popularity was on the wane. The South 
bore its burden with scarcely a murmur; but in New York and 
New England, where his hand fell more heavily, the President was 
denounced as a ruthless tyrant. When the Embargo Act was first 
passed, the legislature of Massachusetts was Democratic, and it pro- 
2i> 



402 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

nounced the act a " wise and highly expedient measure." But the 
Federalists now had control of the legislature, and it denounced 
the embargo in unsparing terms. So in Delaware, Connecticut, 
and Rhode Island.^ Jefferson was not insensible to these denun- 
ciations. His second term was about to close, and he longed for 
the time when he could lay aside the burdens of public life. The 
one desire of his heart now was to continue the embargo till the 
close of his term of office. The country was not ready for war, and 
to lift the embargo without declaring war was to acknowledge the 
defeat and failure of the whole scheme. But the pressure was too 
great, and six days before Jefferson retired from office he signed 
an act repealing the Embargo Act, and on the day of the inaugura- 
tion of James Madison the period of the odious law came to an end. 
In place of it, however, an act of non-intercourse with France and 
Great Britain was passed. 

Most historians regard the planning and carrying out of the 
embargo the great blunder of Jefferson's life. To this opinion we 
cannot fully subscribe. It was a drastic measure, it is true, and it 
scattered to the winds Jefferson's old strict construction theories ; 
it brought ruin to thousands of honest business men ; it emptied the 
treasury, and paralyzed the energy of the nation ; it almost overthrew 
the Democratic party, and threatened the foundations of the Repub- 
lic ; but it was a last resort to avoid war, and with all its disastrous 
effects it was no doubt better than a war with both France and Eng- 
land. It was an experiment, and experiments are often useful, even 
though they fail. It taught the people not to rely on commercial 
restrictions, and such a lesson was needed. Jefferson saw many of 
his best friends alienated; he saw his popularity waning and his 
fortune in Virginia greatly impaired ; but he never wavered in his 
self-chosen duty. 

The effect of the embargo on France was very slight. It even 
brought from Napoleon the Bayonne Decree, ordering the seizure of 
all American ships found in French, Spanish, or Italian waters. He 
explained that, as American vessels were forbidden to leave their 
own ports, he was only assisting Jefferson to enforce the embargo. 
As a result of this kindly act, Napoleon was enabled to seize and con- 
fiscate over two hundred American ships. 

The effect of the embargo on England was more marked, but not 
so marked as had been hoped. It brought great suffering to the pooi 
1 State Docuineuts, edited by H. V. Ames, No. 1, pp. 26-42. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 403 



in the manufacturing cities ; but it proved an advantage to shipping 
interests and to land owners, whose crops brought double their usual 
prices. But England suffered a permanent loss from the fact thai 
the embargo turned the people of New England to manufacturing, 
and from this small beginning that branch of industry has grown 
until the New World rivals the Old in manufactories. 



CHARACTER OF JEFFERSON 

Of all the public characters in our early history, Jefferson is the 
most difficult to classify. He was many-sided, and his public life 
was full of contradictions.^ He had organized a new party as the 
champion of the people's liberty, and as a state-rights Republican; 
but no other President interfered so much with personal liberty, and 
few have come so near to driving the states into open rebellion.^ 
These conditions, however, were brought about by foreign wars, and 
had no place in Jefferson's original purpose. His enemies pronounced 
-Jefferson a doctrinaire and an impractical idealist, and they were in 
(some measure right. In consequence of his ideals, which he attempted 
to carry out in practice, he made many blunders. His statesmanship 
■was far-sighted in its ultimate aims, but not always so in its means 
of attaining an end. His dread of a national debt was almost child- 
ish ; his no-army and no-navy theories were centuries in advance of 
his age. 

Two theories had this dreamer, Thomas Jefferson. Both were 
vast in scope and revolutionary in the world of human government. 
To carry out these two Ke devoted his life, and on these he staked 
his reputation. One was his belief that the nations can live in har- 
mony — without war. In this belief he destroyed his ships and dis- 
banded his armies. In this belief he sacrificed his popularity, his 
fortune, and his friends. What a sublime and admirable confidence 
in an untried theory ! Jefferson failed in this, and the bitterness of 
his disappointment was known only to his own soul. A century has 
passed since then, and Jefferson's dream is still a dream. But the 
time will come — we hope it will come — when human warfare will 
be a thing of the past ; when armies and navies will be needed nc 
longer; when an enlightened race Avill reject the barbarous methods 
of a crude civilization of by-gone ages — and then the fame of Jeffer- 

1 Henry Adams, Vol. I, p. 277. 
a Ibid., Vol. IV, p. 454. 



404 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

. — t , 

son will reach its zenith ; then he will be remembered as a voice cry. 
ing in the wilderness. 

The other principle to which the genius of Jefferson was devoted 
may be expressed in the one word — " Democracy." This was his 
chief idol, and without this his type of statesmanship had no excuse 
for existing. The claim, made by many, that state rights was a car- 
dinal object of Jefferson's devotion, is erroneous. He was a strong 
friend of state rights, it is true, not from state pride, nor from a 
local and limited patriotism ; but because he saw, and was the first 
to see, that the power of the states was the most promising safe- 
guard against the threatened encroachment of the national govern- 
ment. State rights was therefore but a means to an end with 
Jefferson. Why should he care more for state rights than for 
county rights or township rights, except in so far as they promoted 
the great object for which he entered public life — to secure the 
rule of the democracy ? 

Again, Jefferson had founded his party on the theory of strict 
construction, and to this day shallow historians assert that he failed 
in the great aim of his life, because he gradually abandoned his 
theory of constitutional interpretation and adopted the old Federal 
doctrine of loose construction. In sober truth, Jefferson cared 
nothing for strict construction. It was to him, like state rights, 
only a tool, a weapon, the means of gaining an end, and that end 
was the triumph of Democracy. I may even go farther and say 
that Jefferson was not an enemy to a strong central government. 
His life-work bears out this statement, though his words often con- 
tradict it. He first opposed a strong government because he feared 
that it would foster class rule, to the exclusion of the masses, and 
his life struggle was against class rule. No longer did Jefferson 
oppose a strong government when it was the creation of the people, 
and existed at their pleasiire and for their good; but he was an 
unrelenting foe to such a government by any power except the 
power of those who were to be governed. Jefferson studied into 
the European monarchies till his heart was sick with loathing at 
their corruptions and their tyrannies. He believed that the human 
mind was dwarfed by over-government and oppression, and that the 
remedy lay in self-government. 

So great was Jefferson's popularity at times that many were led 
to believe that his chief object was to win popular applause, rather 
than to serve his country. Let us examine. If devoted to self- 



CHARACTER OF JEFFERSON 405 

interest, why did he, an eldest son, abolish the law of entail and of 
primogeniture in Virginia? Why did he, a slaveholder, oppose 
slavery all his life ? If a seeker of popular applause, why did he 
appear in no northern city during the last thirty years of his life, 
including his entire presidency? Why did he suppress the date 
of his own birth in order to abolish the monarchical practice, as he 
termed it, of celebrating the birthdays of public men ? These are 
not the acts of a time server or a self seeker.^ 

Jefferson, on becoming President, could not always carry out his 
theories, and he often found himself standing on old Federalist 
ground. He became nationalized by the responsibility of power. 
His statement, that the chief object of government was to restrain 
men from injuring one another, had to be modified ; but thir. did not 
indicate a change of principles ; it was a rising to an emergency, an 
adjusting of his sails to the veering of the wind. With all his 
changing he never changed in the one thing, the idol of his hearty 
the passion of his life, — his desire for a rule of the democracy. To 
this principle he was as constant as the northern star. 

Democracy has won in the United States, and the spirit of its 
founder lives in all our political parties. He has stamped his 
individuality on the American government more than any other 
man. Democracy is supreme in this country. In all matters of 
government the people rule, except where their own lethargy has 
suffered the political boss to gain a temporary ascendency. If 
combinations of wealth or other interests gain control of the govern- 
ment, it is because the people do not use the machinery that is in 
their hands. We have also nationality, strong and firm ; but this 
has its being only at the will of the democracy. All constitutions, 
laws, congresses, and courts are subject to this great, final, national 
tribunal — the People, No statesman can rise above and disregard 
this power ; no act of Congress is so stable that it may not be ground 
to powder by the ponderous weight of public opinion. This vast 
being, the Public, has discovered his strength, and it was Thomas 
Jefferson above all men who awakened him to self-consciousness. 

NOTES 

Jefferson's Religion and Learning. — There has been much dispute about 
the religious belief of President Jefferson. Many of his contemporaries were of 
the opinion that he was an atheist, or at least an Infidel ; but this was erroneous, 

1 This thought is suggested by Henry Adams. 



406 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

• ■ • ■ — — — — — — — ' * 

and it had its origin in the part he played in disestablishing the church ia 
Virginia, and in certain excerpts from his writings. While Jefferson was a 
vestryman in the Episcopal church for many years, to the time of his death, he 
was very broad in his religious views, and made no quarrel with his neighbor 
for believing " in one God or twenty gods." He had no patience with Puritan- 
ism, and his strife with the New England clergy ended only with his public life. 
There is no doubt that he was sincere and even devout. He pronounced Chris- 
tianity the purest and sublimest system of morals ever delivered to man. To 
John Adams he wrote : "An atheist I can never be. I am a Christian in the 
only sense Chiist ever wished one to be." He was probably a Unitarian in 
belief. He was doubtless a man of pure morals, notwithstanding the attacks of 
some of his enemies. 

Jefferson was very studious. His learning was remarkable for its compass, 
and could scarcely be equaled in his times. It was said that he " could calcu- 
late an eclipse, survey an estate, tie an artery, plan an edifice, try a cause, break 
a horse, dance a minuet, and play the violin." One of his biographers quotes a 
northern man who spoke thus of Jefferson : "When he spoke of law, I thought 
he was a lawyer ; when he talked about mechanics, I was sure he was an en- 
gineer ; when he got into medicine, it was evident that he was a physician ; 
when he discussed theology, I was convinced that he must be a clergyman ; 
when he talked literature, I made up my mind that I had run against a college 
professor who knew everything." Even Buffon, the naturalist, wrote him, "I 
should have consulted you before publishing my natural history, and then I 
should have been sure of the facts." 

Theodosia Burr. — There was one pathetic vein that ran like a scarlet thread 
through the strange career of Aaron Burr — his relations to his daughter. His 
wife had died young and had left him this beautiful child, Theodosia, who 
reigned over his home like a princess and grew into a queenly woman. Her 
mental endowments were unusual. She believed her father the most perfect of 
men, and never seemed to doubt the honesty and sincerity of his motives. At 
Richmond she followed the trial with the keenness of a trained lawyer, and won 
the admiration of every one that came within her iniluence. When all others 
execrated her father as a villain, she clung to him with the greater devotion. 
While he was in Europe, she wrote: "I witness your extraordinary fortitude 
with new wonder at every new misfortune. . . . My vanity would be greater 
if I had not been placed so near you, and yet my pride is our relationship." 
On Burr's return to America, Theodosia left her southern home to fly to his 
arms She was in mourning for her only child, a bright and promising boy, who 
had recently died and, like Rachel, she refused to be comforted. She embarked 
on the sea at Charleston, and her father watched and longed with painful anxi- 
ety for the coming of his one remaining friend, whose faith in him had never 
faltered. But he waited in vain. The ship was lost upon the ocean, and not 
a life was saved. When Burr realized that his faithful daughter had found a 
grave at the bottom of the sea, and his own utter loneliness, his grief was almost 
unbearable ; yet he suppressed it with wonderful self-control. He lived beyond 
his fourscore years, dying in 1836, and was buried with his fathers at Princeton, 
New Jersey. His father, the Rev. Aaron Burr, had been president of Princeton 



NOTES 40t 

College, and his mother was a daughter of the great Puritan divine, Jonathan 
Edwards. 

Impressment of Seamen. — The insolent methods often employed by Eng- 
lish shipmasters in searching American vessels, and their indiscriminate reckless- 
ness, which resulted in their seizing many who were not British subjects, were 
exasperating in the extreme, and cannot be condoned. But it is a mistake to 
believe that the British government maintained the right orf impressing seamen 
simply to annoy the United States. This is far from the truth. In fact, im- 
pressment was almost a necessity to England at this time. She was engaged in 
a life-and-death struggle with Napoleon. Her sailors deserted in large numbers 
and engaged with American ships because of better pay and easier service. 
At one time, complains the English minister, twelve of his Majesty's ships lay 
at Norfolk, Virginia, unable to move, owing to desertions. Many English sailors, 
on reaching an American port, would purchase forged papers of American 
citizenship for a dollar or two, or secure them by perjury before a magistrate. 
Nevertheless England was much more to blame than America because of her 
persistent refusal to agree to an exchange of deserters. 

Fulton and the Steamboat. — The wonderful revolution in the means of 
travel and transportation wrought by the use of steam had its most conspicuous 
demonstration on the Hudson in 1807. Robert Fulton, born in Pennsylvania in 
176.5, was of Irish parentage. He was an arti.st, but he abandoned art and became 
an inventor. The world has chosen to honor him above all others as the inven- 
tor of steam navigation. But he only improved on the work of others. In 1786 
James Rumsey exjierimented on the Potomac with a steamboat, and the same 
year John Fitch made similar experiments on the Delaware. Both were partially 
successful, but both failed to awaken the interest Of the great public. Twenty 
years later Fulton did this, though Fitch was doubtless a greater genius than he. 
Fulton's first trial was on the river Seine in France. Here he won the interest 
of R. R. Livingston, our minister to France, and the two became partners, 
Fulton furnishing the brains and Livingston the money. Their next trial was 
on the Hudson. The vessel, named the Clermont, after Livingston's country 
seat, made its first trial in August, 1807, witnessed by a vast crowd of people. 
The boat, described as " a monster moving on the waters, defying wind and tide, 
breathing flames and smoke," ran from New York to Albany in thirty-two hours. 
From this moment steam navigation made rapid strides, until it revolutionized 
the world of trade and travel. 

The Yazoo Frauds. — The Georgia legislature in 1795 sold to a combination 
of land companies a vast tract of western land owned by the state, thirty-five 
million acres, for the nominal sum of $500,000. It was soon found that the 
members of the legislature had been bribed, and the next year the anti- Yazoo 
party controlled the legislature and revoked the sale. Many claims then sprang 
up, and the matter was referred to Congress, as the Georgia lands were afterward 
ceded to the Union. The matter was not settled till 1810, when the Supreme 
Court decided (Fletcher vs. Peck) that the original fraudulent sale was valid, 
on the ground that the Constitution forbids a state to impair the obligation 
of a contract. In 1814 Congress voted $8,000,000 in land scrip to satisfy the 
claimants, and the long disturbance was ended. 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE WAR OF 1812 

NoTWiTHSTANDiKG the decline in Jefferson's popularity, many of 
the state legislatures invited him to stand for a third election. But 
he declined ; not on the ground taken by Washington twelve years 
before, but because, as he claimed, it was well to establish a precedent 
for the future. He was the author, therefore, of our unwritten law 
that no man serve more than eight years in the presidency. He 
was one of our two or three Presidents who, having served two 
terms, might have been elected for a third ; yet many believed that 
his embargo would have rendered his election doubtful had he 
desired a third term. But he did the next thing — he practically 
chose his successor. It was mainly through Jefferson's influence 
that his secretary of state was preferred before the other two 
aspirants, James Monroe and George Clinton. A week after the 
inauguration Jefferson left the Capital City on horseback "for the 
elysium of domestic affections." He reached Monticello, March 15, 
and in the remaining seventeen years of his life he never again 
passed beyond the bounds of his native state.^ 

The little man of quiet, simple manners, who now stood before 
ten thousand people and read his inaugural address in a '' scarcely 
audible tone," had been a leading figure in public life 
for many years, and was by training eminently equipped 
for the great office. James Madison as a framer of the Constitution 
had done more than any other man in making that instrument what 
it is ; he had been a leader in Congress under Washington, and had 
now just completed his eight years as chief in the Cabinet of Jeffer- 
son. Certainly he knew the inner workings of the government as 

1 Jefferson's popularity soon rose to its normal standard, and as long as he lived 
he was the chief adviser of his party, being in constant correspondence with Presi- 
dents Madison and Monroe. After 1812 he became reconciled to his old friend and 
rival, John Adams, and the two were friendly correspondents as long as they lived, 
though they never met again. Both died on the national holiday, July 4, 1826, but 
few hours apart. 

408 



MADISON BECOMES PRESIDENT 40& 

few could know them. Moreover, next to his retiring chief, Madison 
was the ablest man in the country, save one, Albert Gallatin. 

The new President's trouble began from the day of his installa- 
tion. He sincerely desired to make Gallatin secretary of state ; but 
there was a faction of Democrats in the Senate, headed by Senators 
William B. Giles of Virginia, Samuel Smith of Maryland, and 
Michael Lieb of Pennsylvania, who hated Gallatin and determined 
to prevent his confirmation. This faction, encouraged by George 
Clinton, who was again Vice President, and aided by the Federalists, 
could control the Senate, and Madison had to yield. Gallatin re- 
mained in the Treasury, and Robert Smith, a brother of Senator 
Smith from Maryland, was made secretary of state. The arrangement 
was humiliating to the President, who was thus forced to accept for 
the chief place in his Cabinet a man wholly incompetent, a man in 
sympathy with a faction that used its power to weaken the adminis- 
tration. For two years this arrangement dragged on, when at last 
the patient Gallatin lost patience and threatened to resign from the 
Cabinet. This awakened the slow-moving Madison, and led him for 
once to play the master. He defied the Senate faction by dismissing 
Robert Smith and choosing James Monroe as secretary of state. The 
country and even the Senate sustained him, and a signal victory was 
gained for the administration. 

DEIFTING TOWARD WAR 

There was a delicious ray of sunshine that brought joy to many 
at the beginning of the Madison administration. Mr. Erskine, the 
English minister at Washington, receiving instructions from Canning, 
the British foreign secretary, announced that the Orders in Council 
would be withdrawn on June 10, on condition that the President re- 
move the non-intercourse restriction, in as far as it concerned England. 
Whereupon Madison made a proclamation suspending the non-inter- 
course act with England. Great was the rejoicing on all sides. The 
eastern ports became beehives of industry. Vessels were quickly 
laden with the long-accumulated produce, and in a few weeks a 
thousand had launched upon the sea for foreign ports. 
Madison enjoyed a moment of intoxicating popularity; jg^* ' 
but it was only a moment. The bubble soon burst. 
The overzealous Erskine had exceeded his instructions, and he was 
disavowed and recalled. When the news reached America that 



4l0 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

the Orders in Council were still in force, the President issued a 
new proclamation, reviving the non-intercourse act with Great 
Britain. 

Francis James Jackson was then sent to replace Erskine. 

Jackson was a man of much pride and little tact, who boasted an 

acquaintance with " most of the sovereigns of Europe," 

1809'"^^'^' ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^* ^^® ^^^^ ^^^^^ *° *^'®^* ^^^*'^^ ^ ^°^ °^ " savage 
Democrats, half of them sold to France." He began by 

accusing the administration of deception in treating with Erskine 
in the knowledge that he was exceeding his instructions. Madison 
informed him that such insinuations were inadmissible from a for- 
eign minister dealing "with a government that understands what it 
owes to itself." In the face of this warning, Jackson, with incredi- 
ble effrontery, repeated his accusation, and was informed that no 
further communications would be received from him. Thus inglo- 
riously ended his diplomatic career in America. 

Meanwhile our relations with France were approaching another 
crisis. In the spring of 1810 the American Congress removed the 
restrictions on foreign commerce, but forbade intercourse with Eng- 
land or France if either continued hostile to our trade. This has 
been pronounced the most disgraceful act on the American statute 
book. " When Great Britain and France were raining upon us blows 
such as no powerful nation had ever submitted to before, we folded 
our hands and bowed our heads with no word of protest, except to 
say that if either one of them would cease its outrages, we should 
resent the insults of the other." ^ Napoleon had issued his Ram- 
bouillet Decree, confiscating all American ships- found in French 
waters. But on learning of this act of Congress, he offered to revoke 
his Berlin and Milan decrees. This was only a contemptible trick 
by which to draw more of our vessels into his trap, and all that were 
entrapped were seized in accordance with a secret order. 

While our foreign relations continued in this strained condition, 
an event in the Northwest recalled the attention of the people to 
important matters at home. The Indians of the Northwest had 
given little trouble for several years after their defeat by Wayne in 
_ 1794. But in recent years they had again become 

hostile, owing chiefly to the ambition of a great leader, 
Tecumthe or Tecumseh, who belonged to the Shawnee tribe. Te- 
cumseh's ambition was to unite all the tribes of that region into one 
1 Gordy, Vol. H, p. 72 (Revised Ed.). 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 411 

great Indian nation, and through it to restrict all further encroach- 
ments of the white man. He was a man of remarkable eloquence 
and powers of leadership, and he was assisted in his plans by his 
twin brother, known as the Prophet. 

The governor of Indiana Territory was William Henry Harrison, 
a future President of the United States. He was a son of Benjamin 
Harrison, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, _ 
a governor of Virginia, and an intimate friend of Wash- 
ington. At the time of St. Clair's defeat by the Indians in Ohio, young 
Harrison, a boy of nineteen years, was a medical student in Phila- 
delphia. At the advice of both Washington and Jefferson, he left 
his studies and went to the West to aid in the war against the 
Indians. With a brave heart he set out to win glory for himself 
and honor for his country. In 1801 he became governor of Indiana 
and superintendent of Indian affairs. In September, 1809, Harrison 
made a treaty at Fort Wayne with the Delaware, Miami, Kickapoo, 
and other tribes, by which three million acres on the upper Wabash 
were ceded to the United States. The twin brothers were not 
present, nor had the tribe to which they belonged any part in the 
ownership or sale of the lands. But when they heard of the ces- 
sion, they were wroth, and declared that the land belonged to all 
the tribes, and that a part had no right to sell without the consent 
of all. They pronounced the treaty void and threatened to kill 
every chief that had signed it. A year passed, and the Indians, 
while professing friendship for the whites, kept up a series of 
outrages on the frontier. Harrison advised them that the depre- 
dations must be stopped ; but they continued, and he prepared for 
an attack. 

With some nine hundred men. General Harrison marched into 
the Indian country in the auti;mn of 1811. Tecumseh was absent 
in the South. His brother, the Prophet, occupied the 
town of Tippecanoe on the Wabash. Harrison marched Th)T)e* anoe 
on and encamped near the town. The Prophet sent 
word that he wished a conference with the American general on the 
morrow. Harrison, suspecting treachery, had his men sleep on their 
arms, and an hour before day next morning about five hundred 
Indians, with fearful yells, emerged from the underbrush and made 
an attack. The soldiers seized their guns, and a desperate struggle 
raged for two hours, when the Indians broke and fled. They aban- 
doned their village, which the Americans burned, and then hastened 



412 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

back to the white settlements. The battle of Tippecanoe did not 
belong to the war with England that was soon to come, nor had the 
British much, if anything, to do with inspiring it; but it gave Har- 
rison an excellent military reputation, and it prepared the people for 
the greater events that were to follow. 

The prophetic words of Benjamin Franklin were destined to come 
true — that the war ending with the surrender of Cornwallis was 
p. . simply the war of Kevolution, and that the war of 

leaves Ion- Independence was yet to be fought. Two events in 
don, Feb- 1811 hastened the crisis with England, — the withdrawal 
ruary, . ^^ ^^^^ minister from London, and an impromptu duel 
between two vessels at sea. William Pinkney, one of the ablest 
diplomats ever sent to a foreign court by the United States, after 
laboring and struggling in vain for five years with the British 
ministry, took " inamicable leave." This event had stirred the 
ministry a little. It had led them to hasten in appointing a min- 
ister to Washington, Augustus John Foster, the first since the in- 
glorious failure of Jackson a year and a half before. While Foster 
was on the sea en route for his new field of duty, the other event 
occurred. 

On the partial reopening of our trade with France, British armed 
vessels were again sent to blockade New York, and they amused 
themselves capturing vessels bound for France and impressing 
American seamen. One of these ships, the Guerri^re, was said to 
have impressed a man named Diggio, and the secretary of the navy 
sent the President, a 44-gun frigate under Captain John Rodgers, not 
only to rescue Diggio and other unfortunates, but tc " protect Ameri- 
can commerce," to "vindicate the injured honor of our navy," and 
to support the honor of the flag " at any risk and cost." This was 
a new spirit for the nation that had suffered twenty years of the 
impressment business and had defended itself with protests alone. 
Rodgers was under full sail from Annapolis to New York, when he 
sighted a vessel which he believed to be the Guerri^re; but she 
showed no colors, and he was not sure. He gave chase, and eight 
The President ^^^^^^ later, at nightfall, tlie President was within hail- 
and Little ing distance. Rodgers shouted through his trumpet, 
5eZ<, Mayl6, ''What ship is that ? " The answer from the stranger 
was an echo of his own words, and Rodgers asked 
again, when instantly a flame of fire leaped from the dark hull of 
the strange vessel, and a shot was lodged in the mainmast of the 



THE PBESIDENT AND THE LITTLE BELT 413 

President} The lesson of the Chesapeake had not been thrown 
away ; the President was prepared. In a moment both vessels were 
thi'owing broadsides. In fifteen minutes the strange vessel was 
silenced and disabled. At daybreak next morning Rodgers discov- 
ered that he had been fighting the Little Belt, a British corvette of 
twenty guns and about half the force of the President. Her encounter 
with the President proved disastrous. Twelve men lay dead and 
twenty-one wounded on her decks ; '' all the rigging and sails cut to 
pieces, not a brace nor a bowline left," ^ while one boy was wounded 
on the President. This incident was hailed Avith delight by the 
American people as the avenging of the outrage on the Chesajjeake. 

Meantime Foster arrived. Pinkney, while yet in London, had 
asked the significant question. What was Foster to do when he 
arrived in Washington ? Foster had no power to promise a repeal of 
the Orders in Council, and the administration would treat with him 
on no other ground. He offered to settle the Chesapeake affair with- 
out even demanding reparation for the greater disaster to the Little 
Belt; but even this made no impression. Every subject brought up 
by the British minister received the same answer, The Orders in 
Council must be repealed. If America was in earnest, all signs 
pointed to the same thing, namely, that the United States had at 
last taken a stand — that if the Orders in Council were not repealed, 
there would be war. Foster wrote this to his government, but the 
British Cabinet, led by the short-sighted Spencer Eerceval, refused to 
be moved. 

The Twelfth Congress met in December, 1811. It differed greatly 
from its immediate predecessors. No longer do we find the tempo- 
rizing spirit ; no longer was Congress dominated by the 
fathers of the Revolution. A new generation had arisen coneress ^^ 
to take charge of public affairs. Especially in the House 
did this spirit of the rising generation manifest itself. Here were 
half a dozen young leaders, war Democrats, as they were called, 
who took control of the House and shaped legislation for years 
to come. The leaders of this new school were Henry Clay of 
Kentucky and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, both destined 
to spend nearly half a century in the forefront of national life. And 
these were ably seconded by Felix Grundy of Tennessee, and Laug- 

1 This account was given under oath by Rodgers and all his crew ; but Captain 
Bingham of the Little Belt gave a different account, claiming to have been fired on first 
3 From Captain Bingham's report. 



414 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

don Cheeves and William Lowndes of South Carolina; and closely 
associated with them was the aged John Sevier, whom last we saw, 
a third of a century ago, directing the battle at King's Mountain. 
Henry Clay was elected speaker the first day he entered the House,^ 
and this position he continued to hold so long as he was a member 
of that body. Born in the "slashes" of Virginia, Clay wa,s left 
fatherless and penniless in childhood. He read law, and afterward 
migrated westward and made his home in the new state of Kentucky, 
where he soon rose to fame as a member of the bar. Now he began 
his remarkable career as a party manager that has few parallels in 
American history. Under his leadership the Twelfth Congress set 
itself to restore the sullied honor of the country, and to do this there 
was no alternative but war. 

President Madison still hesitated. He was almost as fondly de- 
voted to peace as had been the great Democrat who preceded him. But 
a new election was drawing near, and the young leaders in Congress 
gave the President to understand that he could not have their support 
for reelection unless he was willing to declare war. Madison yielded. 
During the winter Congress sounded the war triimpet ; it voted to 
raise the regular army from ten thousand to thirty -five thousand 
men, and authorized a loan of $11,000,000. But these measures 
were not passed without much debate and strong opposition.- Early 
in April an embargo of ninety days was laid, as a preliminary to a 
declaration of war. A little later Congress authorized the President 
to call out one hundred thousand militia for six months. On June 1 
the President sent his war message to Congress, urging an imme- 
Declaration diate declaration of war. The primary reasons given 
of war, June were four in number : the impressment of our seamen ; 
18, 1812. British cruisers harassing our shipping along the Ameri- 

can coast ; pretended blockades of the European coast, by which 
American ships had been plundered on every sea; and the Orders ir 
Council. 

1 He had served a short time in the Senate by appointment, but this was his 
first entrance into the House. 

2 In the spring of 1812, one John Henry, an Irish adventurer, sold to the admin- 
istration for $50,000 certain "disclosures," showing that he had been employed by 
Governor Craig of Canada three years before (during Jefferson's embargo) as a 
secret agent to New England to connive with the Federalists with a view of separat- 
ing that section from the rest of the Union. Madison, believing that tliese letters 
proved the British government to have attempted to break up the Union, and that 
this would be a good war card, purchased them. But tbor^^ was little in them not 
before known. 



OPENING OF THE WAR 415 



As to this declaration, two things are notable : first, there had 
been equal casus belli constantly for five years, and at certain times 
greater cause than at this moment ; second, France during the same 
period had offended equally with England, or nearly so. Why de- 
clare war now ? and why against England and not against France ? 
The first question is answered by our account of the change in 
party leadership. As to the second, it would have been suicidal to 
fight both England and France. England was the mother country, 
and it was more irritating to receive from her such unrelenting harsh- 
ness than from the free lance. Napoleon, who made little pretense 
of observing international custom. Another cause of this decision 
was that France presented no vulnerable point. She possessed no 
territory to invade on this side of the water, and her navies had been 
destroyed and her commerce swept from the seas. Yet the war 
might have been averted. The British ministry was slowly yielding. 
England did not want war, and would have yielded sooner had she 
seen that America was in earnest. Even now the yielding process 
was slow, owing to the obstinacy of Premier Spencer Perceval ; but 
on May 11 Perceval was shot dead in the House of Commons by a 
lunatic, and the Orders in Council were repealed June 23. But five 
days before this, and weeks before the news of the repeal had 
reached America, Madison had set his hand to the declaration of 
war. The repeal came too late. 

HOSTILITIES ON THE GREAT LAKES 

The country was ill prepared for war in 1812. The ten old regi- 
ments, scarcely half filled, were scattered through the West in gar- 
risons of scarcely a hundred in a place. Detroit, the scene of the 
desperate and vain efforts of the great Pontiac; Fort Dearborn, 
where was to rise in the next generation the city of Chicago ; Fort 
Wayne, Fort Harrison on the Wabash, and other posts — each was 
held by a handful of men who could ill be spared, for the Indians 
were sure to cast their lot with the British. The seacoast was un- 
giiarded. ""The raising of armies was exceedingly slow work, and the 
eleven million loan was only a little more than half taken by the first 
of July. Henry Dearborn, a former member of Jefferson's Cabinet, 
was made senior major general and commander in chief. The other 
major general was Thomas Pinckney, who was to command the 
southern department. The brigadier generals appointed were, Jamea 



416 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



Wilkinson, formerly connected with Burr's conspiracy, Joseph Bloom- 
field, ten years governor of New Jersey, Wade Hampton of South 
Carolina, James Winchester of Tennessee, William Polk of North 
Carolina, and William Hull, governor of Michigan. These were all 
elderly men, all had seen service in the Ee volution, none had ever 
commanded a regiment in battle, and most of them had " sunk into 
sloth, ignorance, or intemperance." ^ But worst of all, the people 
were not united. The Federalists constituted an anti-war party, 
and did everything to hamper the administration. They were also 
gaining at this moment ; they had won in the recent elections in 
New York and Massachusetts, and even in Congress 
Opposition to ^j^g Democrats lost one fourth of their strength in the 
final vote on the declaration of war. Had the vote 
been deferred a month, as the Federalists urged, the news of the 
repeal of the Orders in Council would have reached America, and 
the war may have been averted. After the declaration had been 
passed, a number of the New England Federalists issued a protest, 
declaring that the war was a party and not a national war, and dis- 
claiming all responsibility for it.^ When Madison called upon the 
states for militia, the governors of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and 
Rhode Island flatly refused to send their quota. Thus at the out- 
set the administration was greatly handicapped by the want of una- 
nimity among the states.^ 

Our navy consisted of six first-class frigates, built in old Fed- 
eralist days, and twice as many smaller vessels, while England boasted 
nearly a thousand war ships. Such was the deplorable condition ot 
the United States at the opening of war with the British Empire. 
But there were a few advantages : England was engaged in European 
wars ; her navy was scattered over the seas of the world ; our little 
navy was in the hands of young and able men ; Canada was open to 
invasion. 

At the opening of this war occurred what is considered the most 
disgraceful event in American history, — the surrender of Michigan 
Territory without a battle. The invasion of Canada was the first 
and chief aim of the administration. To this end Dearborn was to 

1 Scott's " Autobiography." 

2 " Niles's Register," Vol. II, p. 309. 

8 There was also some disaffection on the British side. There was armei 
resistance at Montreal, which was soon put down ; 367 Canadians joined Hull, 9 
were executed for treason in 1814. See " Cambridge Modern History," Vol. VII, 
p. 337. 



HULL SURRENDERS DETROIT 411 

cooperate from the Niagara frontier with an army from Michigan. 
But Dearborn was incapable of grasping the situation. He spent 
the summer in Boston and Albany getting ready and doing nothing. 
William Hull was governor of Michigan. Detroit contained some 
eight hundred people and a fort, a square inclosure of two acres. 
Receiving orders to invade Canada from the west, Hull crossed the 
Detroit River and prepared to besiege Fort Maiden, a few miles 
below. Meantime he wrote Mr. Eustis, the secretary of war, that 
cooperation from Niagara was absolutely necessary to success ; but 
Dearborn was still loitering at Boston and undecided what to do. 
The British began to strengthen their fort, and in quick succession 
news reached Hull of the fall of Michilimackinac, and that a large 
body of Indians were moving toward Detroit, that his supply 
train from Ohio had been cut off by Tecumseh, and that a force 
of British had passed Niagara en route to Detroit. Hull was dis- 
heartened. He gave up the siege of Maiden and returned to 
Detroit. 

The British forces in Upper Canada had the good fortune at this 
time to be commanded by a man of remarkable energy and military 
ability, — General Isaac Brock. When Hull recrossed the river, 

Brock, with a few hundred men, was hastening with all , „ , 

ls3(£ic Srock 
speed toward Detroit. Reaching Maiden, he moved up 

the river and sent to Hull a summons to surrender the fort with a 
threat of Indian massacre in case of refusal. The demand was re- 
fused, and next morning Brock crossed the river with about seven 
hundred regulars and militia and six hundred Indians, and moved 
upon the fort for an attack. Hull was vacillating and utterly dis- 
couraged. As the enemy approached, he was greatly agitated ; he 
sat on an old tent with his back against the rampart, moody and 
uncommunicative. Yet he might have made an immortal name that 
day. He had two 24-pounders planted so as to cover the road on 
which the enemy was advancing, and his army almost equaled that 
of Brock.^ But Hull imagined the forest swarming with savages, 
and he thought of the women and children in the fort, surrender of 
among whom was his daughter. His supplies would Michigan, 
last but a month, and then at the inevitable surrender, August 16, 

1812 

woe to those who remained alive ! Hull's former 

bravery now forsook him utterly, and to the astonishment of 

friend and foe he surrendered the fort and his army without a 

1 Rossi ter Johnson gives Hull's force at one thousand, " War of 1812," p. 35. 
2b 



418 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

struggle — and all Michigan Territory. On the same day Fort 
Dearborn (Chicago) was burned to the ground by a horde of sav- 
ages, the garrison having been massacred, the day before, to the last 
man. 

Hull was afterward tried by court-martial and sentenced to 
death, but was pardoned by the President in consideration of his 
services in the Revolution. Hull did not play the man on that day 
at Detroit, and cowardice in a soldier is a crime. But Hull was 
not alone at fault. He was not properly supported, and part of the 
blame should have been borne by General Dearborn, by Secretary 
Eustis, and by President Madison.^ 

But one week elapsed after the capture of Detroit when the 
energetic Brock reached Fort George, at the mouth of the Niagara, 
with his prisoners. The British government, on repealing the 
Orders in Council, had requested an armistice between the two 
countries in the hope of settling the other differences without war. 
The news of this had not reached Brock when he captured Detroit. 
But now on his return both sides hesitated for some days — until 
it was seen that the armistice would come to naught. American 
troops were meanwhile hastening to the lake region from Pennsyl- 
vania, New York, and New England. Commodore Chauncey was 
building a fleet on Lake Ontario. General Stephen Van Rensselaer 
commanded the New York militia, and was stationed at Lewiston. 
General Alexander Smyth was at Buffalo with sixteen hundred men. 
But these two commanders were each independent of the other, and 
a rivalry prevented their cooperation. Van Rensselaer then detei'- 
mined to act alone. He would cross the river and attack the enemy 
on the heights above Queenstown. 

Long before the dawn of October 13 several hundred men, under 
Colonel Christie, embarked in thirteen boats upon the rushing 
Niagara, and silently rowed for the Canadian shore. Three of 
the boats lost their way and returned. In one of these was Christie, 
and the command fell on Captain John E. Wool, who landed safely 
with the other ten. Up an unguarded path Wool led his men, and 
at daybreak he attacked an English battery near which stood Gen- 
eral Brock, who barely escaped capture by flight. Brock then made 
an attack on Wool ; but an American bullet penetrated his breast, 

1 Henry Adams goes back still farther and holds Jefferson chiefly responsihln 
for this disaster, as he was the author of the system by which the country was left 
unprepared for war. See Vol. VH, Chap. XVI- 



COWARDICE OF THE MILITIA 



419 



and he fell dead. The British loss in the death of this young and 
gallant leader was irreparable. 

Wool was painfully wounded, but for some hours he held the 
ground he had won, when Colonel Winfield Scott came and took 
command. Six hundred American troops now occupied battle of 
the heights, when early in the afternoon they saw in Queenstown 
the distance a large force of the British advancing from lieiglits. 
Fort George, under General Sheaffe, who had succeeded Brock. 
Van Rensselaer, who had also crossed the river, now hastened back 




to Lewiston to bring over the militia, but they refused to cross. 
The general rode among them and urged them to go to the rescue 
of their brethren on the hill, but all his efforts were fruitless. The 
men gave as their reason for not crossing the fact, as they under- 
stood it, that they were engaged in a defensive war, and were not 
obliged to leave the soil of the United States. The true reason was 
cowardice. The noble six hundred on the heights beyond the river 
were attacked by more than twice their number, driven back, down 
the hill, over the precipice to the brink of the river. Here they 



420 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

found no boats, and nothing was left but to surrender. Nine hun 
dred, including many who had not ascended the heights, were taken 
prisoners. Though the British won a clear victory this day, their 
loss in the death of General Brock was far more serious than that 
of the Americans. General Van Rensselaer now resigned from the 
army in disgust. 

The chief figure in the next scene of the drama was General 
Smyth. Succeeding Van Rensselaer, he made a feint of invading 
Canada, and issued a bombastic proclamation; but after a few weeks 
of bluster he was hissed out of the army, and was dismissed from the 
service. The year 1812 closed with little encouragement to the Ameri- 
cans except from their success on the ocean, to be noticed later. Hull 
had surrendered all Michigan ; Van Rensselaer, unable to control his 
militia, had sacrificed an army at Queenstown; Smyth had ended his 
brief military career in a fiasco. The only American success on land 
this year was the repulse of about seven hundred British at Ogdens- 
burg, New York, by a force under Jacob Brown, a Quaker farmer, 
who proved himself the most vigorous American commander yet in 
the field. 

VICTORIES ON THE SEA 

In striking contrast with our continued failures in the lake 
region during this eventful year were the unexpected victories on 
the ocean. Little was expected of our navy, which was a pygmy 
compared with that of England ; but ere the close of the first year 
of the war the world was astonished at our naval victories. With 
no attempt to give a naval history of this war, we must notice 
briefly a few of the notable sea fights of the year 1812. 

The most famous of these naval duels was that between the 
Constitution, a 44-gun frigate, and the Guerrih-e, a British frigate 
of thirty-eight guns. The Constitution was commanded by Captain 
Isaac Hull, a nephew of the unhappy governor of Michigan. Late 
in July, while cruising off the Atlantic coast, he came upon a 
British squadron from Halifax. Hull saw that he and his vessel 
were lost unless he could escape. He fled, and the squadron gave 
chase, and for three days and nights the exciting race was kept up, 
partly by kedging, as there was little wind, when the Constitution 
left her pursuers so far behind that they gave up the chase. The 
race was one of the most remarkable in naval history, and was very 
complimentary to American seamanship. 



A GREAT NAVAL VICTORY 421 

The Constitution reached Boston in safety, but soon again put to 
sea. On August 19 she sighted the Guerri^re, one of the squadron 
that had chased her. The meeting was welcomed by constitution 
both sides. The English ship was inferior to the and Gwerricre, 
American as seven to ten, but this counted little to August 19. 
the audacious tar who represented the Mistress of the Seas. A Lon- 
don paper had boasted that no American ship could cope with the 
Guerri^re, and her own captain, Dacres, had only a few days before 
challenged any one of our frigates to battle. Each vessel recognized 
the other on sight as a mortal foe, and here upon the rolling deep, 
eight hundred miles from land, they both prepared for an immediate 
duel to the death. After wearing an hour for position, with an occa- 
sional shot, the two ships came within easy range side by side, and 
each began to pour broadsides into the other. A few minutes after 
this deadly fire began, the mizzenmast of the Guerri^re was shot away, 
and within half an hour the mainmast fell and the vessel, a help- 
less wreck, struck her colors and surrendered. The Constitution was 
not greatly damaged. Her loss in killed and wounded was fourteen, 
while the enemy's loss was seventy-nine. Captain Hull set fire to 
the remnants of the proud English vessel, took his prisoners and 
hurried back to Boston to receive the plaudits of his countrymen. 
Even the Federalists joined in the glad shout of victory that spread 
over the land.^ Why so much ado about sinking this one ship, 
when England had a thousand more ? The fact is, this victory 
meant more than appeared on the surface, — it meant the beginning 
of the end of the impressment of seamen ; it meant an awakening 
in the American sailor, a self-confidence that he had not felt before ; 
it meant a disputing with England the right of way upon the seas 
where she had reigned, a queen without a rival. " A small affair it 
might appear among the world's battles," says Henry Adams; "it 
took but half an hour, but in that one half hour the United States 
of America rose to the rank of a first-class power." ^ 

The defeat of the Guerrih'e, however, was not the first of our 
naval victories. Six days before this, the American frigate Essex, 
thirty-two guns, Captain David Porter, had captured the British 
sloop of war Alert, twenty guns. 

Next in point of time after Hull's victory came the affair of 

1 The victory of the Constitution occurred but three days after the surrender of 
Detroit, and the news of both reached the coast at the same time. 
a Vol. VI, p. 375. 



42B HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

tli« Wasp and the Frolic. The former was an American sloop oi 
Wafp ^^^^' ^^ eighteen guns, Captain Jacob Jones. The Frolic 

and Frolic, was a British vessel of almost the same size and equip- 
October 18. meiit. They met five hundred miles off the coast of 
North Carolina, and one of the bloodiest of naval battles was the re- 
sult. The sea ran high, and the two ships, riding upon the waves 
or sunk within their troughs, poured forth their broadsides with 
deadly ferocity. They drifted so near together that the rammers of 
the American guns touched the side of the Frolic. At length, after 
Jones had raked the enemy from stem to stern, and less than twenty 
of the one hundred and ten Englishmen were left alive and unin- 
jured, the Americans, who had lost but ten in killed and wounded, 
boarded the enemy's deck and hauled down the British flag. The 
pitching of the vessels in the rolling sea had furnished a fine test of 
marksmanship, and the result was wholly favorable to the Ameri- 
cans. But they were not allowed to enjoy the fruits of victory, 
for on the same day the two vessels were captured by the British 
seventy-four, Poictiers, and carried to Bermuda. 

Exactly one week after this battle a greater one took place far 
out on the Atlantic, between the United States, one of our largest 
The United fi'igates. Captain Stephen Decatur, and the British 
States and frigate Macedonian. The two ships compared in size 
Macedonian, ^.nd force in favor of the United States about as did 
the Constitution and the Guerrih'e. Again the American gunnery 
was greatly superior to the English. The battle continued nearly 
two hours, when the British vessel, after receiving a hundred 
shots in her hull, surrendered, her killed and wounded being nine 
times greater than on the United States. The Macedonian was 
brought to America, repaired, and added to our heroic little navy. 

One more of these brilliant victories closed the year's events. 
The now famous Constitution, " Old Ironsides," had put to sea again, 
under Captain Bainbridge, who had commanded the 
&ndJavT^ lost Philadelphia in the Mediterranean, and had lain for 
a year and a half in a Tripolitan prison. On December 
29, Bainbridge encountered the English 38-gun frigate Java off the 
coast of Brazil. A desperate battle of two hours ensued. The Java 
was entirely destroyed, and her captain, with some sixty of his men, 
were among the slain. Thus ended the wonderful six months' 
record of our navy. The Americans had won in all these desperate 
duels on the sea^ and in each case the proportion of British loss in 



WAR ON THE SEA 423 



killed and wounded was far greater than the difference in the vessels 
account for. Meantime, three hundred British merchant ships had 
been captured, chiefly by privateersmen. The British had also cap- 
tured many of ours, and in addition to the TFasj), as stated above, they 
had taken two little brigs, the Nantihis and Vixen} 

This marvelous showing in our favor created a tremendous sensa- 
tion in England as well as in America. " It cannot be too deeply 
felt," said Canning in Parliament, " that the sacred spell of the invin- 
cibility of the British navy is broken." But no one expected this to 
continue, at least no one expected our little navy to triumph in the 
end over that of England. Congress was so elated with our successes 
thus far that it voted, early in 1813,. to build four new battle ships of 
the first class, and six frigates and six sloops of war. The honors 
on the sea for the year 1813 were about even between the two na- 
tions.^ The first sea fight, between Lieutenant James 
Lawrence of the Hornet and Captain Peake of the Pea- \^V^^^ ^*' 
cock, both of twenty guns, resulted as usual. They met 
in West Indian waters, and after a short, fierce battle the British ves- 
sel was destroyed, and her brave commander. Captain Peake, died 
at his post. So destructive had been the American fire that the 
Peacock sank before all her survivors could be rescued. Nine of her 
crew and three of the Hornet's crew, who had boarded her, went 
down with the wreck. Congress voted a gold medal to Lawrence, 
and put him in command of the Chesapeake, the famous ship that 
had been attacked by the Leopard six years before. 

Now, for a time, our good fortune suffered a reverse. While the 
Chesapeake lay at Boston, she was challenged to a duel by Captain 
Broke of the British frigate Shannon, lying off the harbor. Law- 
rence accepted the challenge. Gathering his untrained shannon and 
crew, he went out to meet a ship of the same size as his Chesapeake, 
own, but with a crew that had been trained for weeks ^^"^^ ^> ^^^^ 
for just such a purpose. The action was short and bloody. The 
Chesapeake, partially disabled at the beginning, fell afoul of her 

1 Oti the night of Decemher 8 a naval ball was given to Hull in Washington in 
honor of his victory over the Guerriere. While the festivities were at their height 
a messenger from Decatur entered the ball room with the news that the United 
States had captured the Macedonian, and laid the ensign of the latter vessel at 
the feet of the President's wife. On this the guests broke forth into the wildest 
enthusiasm. See Schouler, Vol. II, p. 371. 

2 One reason for the change in our fortunes was that the British admiralty issued 
an order directing captains not to engage with American ships of superior force. 



424 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

antagonist, and was raked from stem to stern. Her brave young com. 
mander received a mortal wound, and as he was being carried below 
he cried, " Don't give up the sliip," and this became a rallying cry 
to his countrymen. But Captain Broke and his men had leaped 
aboard the Chescq^eake, and she soon became their prize. The killed 
and wounded on the Shannon numbered eighty-three, and on the 
CJiesapeaJce one hundred and forty-six. The prize was taken to 
Halifax, and Captain Lawrence died on the way. England rejoiced 
exceedingly over this victory, and well she might, for this was her 
first naval victory of importance since the beginning of the war. 

This disaster was soon followed by another. The American brig 
Argus, one of our fastest sailers, <while cruising in the English Chan- 
Pelican and ^^®^' captured some twenty merchantmen. One of these 
Arc/iis, was laden with wine, and of this the sailors drank 

August 14. freely. Then they set fire to the captured vessel, and 
the light revealed the Argus to the English brig Pelican. The two 
came together in a fierce fight. Many of the Americans were in- 
toxicated with the captured wine, and within an hour the Argus 
struck her colors and became a British prize. Her brave captain, 
William Henry Allen, who had been an officer on the Chesapeake when 
it was attacked by the Leopard in 1807, was mortally wounded. 

In September the American brig Enterprise captured the English 
brig Boxer, both of fourteen guns, off the coast of Maiiie. But both 
commanders were among the slain, and they were buried at Portland, 
side by side, with the honors of war. 

By the end of the year 1813 the English had captured seven 
American war vessels mounting 119 guns, while the Americans had 
captured twenty-six British war vessels mounting 660 guns.^ What 
a marvelous showing for our little navy ! But its power was now 
exhausted. On the day of the capture of the Chesapeake by the 
Shannon, Decatur, with the United States, the Hornet, and the cap- 
tured Macedonian, was blockaded in the harbor of New London, 
Connecticut, and, watched by a squadron of British ships, was com- 
pelled to remain there to the end of the war. His ships escaped de- 
struction by the protection of shore batteries. Whenever he planned 
to escape, the enemy was warned by blue lights on shore. This was 
supposed to have been the work of anti-war Federalists, and hence 
they received the opprobrious designation of " Blue-light Federal- 
ists." Chesapeake Bay, the Delaware River, and indeed every port 
1 Johnson's " War of 1812," p. 206. 



WORK OF THE PRIVATEERS 426 

and harbor on the entire Atlantic coast, together with the mouth of 
the Mississippi were blockaded by cordons of British vessels. Ad- 
miral Cockburn, who commanded off the southern coast, burned and 
sacked the towns and committed many unnecessary deeds of cruelty; 
while Commodore Hardy, who commanded in New England waters, 
abstained from all such barbarous practices and proved himself a 
generous foe and a high-minded gentleman. 

One of the last of the American vessels to yield was the plucky 
Essex, commanded by Captain Porter. After her victory over the 

Alert, as noted above, she made a wonderful cruise in ^ _ 

. . The Essex. 

the Pacific Ocean, capturing many British whalers. In 

December, 1814, we find the Essex blockaded by two English ships, 
the Phoebe and the Cherub, in the harbor at Valparaiso. At length 
she was attacked by both in disregard of the neutrality of the port, 
and the battle that ensued was one of the most dreadful in naval 
history. The odds against Porter were too great, the Essex was al- 
most shot to pieces and took fire, after three fourths of her 255 men 
had been killed or wounded. The battle had been witnessed from 
shore by thousands of people who had gathered on the 
heights to view the magnificent spectacle. Among j-arraeiit 
the crew of the captured Essex was a boy of thirteen 
years, whose name was yet to be placed in the first rank of naval 
heroes. Other naval battles we must leave unmentioned and give a 
brief notice to the merchant marine. 

The victories of our war ships could do little toward destroying 
the powerful British navy ; it was the moral prestige that they gave 
the United States that made them important. But it was far other- 
wise with the inroads of our privateers on the commerce of England. 
The loss inflicted upon British shipping during the two and one half 
years of war was incalculable. Congress licensed about 250 ships, and 
these scoured every sea in search of the defenseless merchantman, and 
the prizes they took numbered many hundred.^ Many of the priva- 
teers plowed the seas for months in vain ; others were extremely fortu- 
nate. The True-blooded Yankee took a town on the coast of Scotland, 
burned seven vessels in the harbor, and captured twenty-seven vessels 
in thirty-seven days. The Surprise made twenty prizes in a month. 
The Leo captured an East Indiaman worth two and a half million 

1 It has been estimated that sixteen hundred British merchantmen fell victims 
to the privateers and the war ships. Many of these were recaptured by British 
vessels before reaching port. 



#26 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

dollars, but it was recaptured. No English merchantman was safe in 
the Irish Sea or the English Channel. One American captain issued 
a burlesque proclamation, declaring the entire coasts of England and 
Ireland in a state of blockade. The merchandise taken reached 
many millions in value, and represented the industries of every 
clime and every seaport on the globe, — sable furs from the Siberian 
desert, silks and tea from China and Japan, ivory from Africa, 
Turkish carpets, silks, wines, gold, and diamonds — all kinds of 
merchandise carried in English vessels became a prey to '.hese bold, 
insatiable rovers of the sea, the American privateers. 

There has been much recent criticism of privateering. The asser- 
tion that it is legalized robbery is true ; but war itself is worse than 
robbery. Why should property, especially that which has a military 
value, be held more sacred than human life ? How could a nation 
without a navy cope at all with a great maritime power except through 
privateering? Is it less humane to destroy an enemy's property than 
to destroy the lives of his men ? Abolish privateering ? Yes, by 
all means; but abolish war at the same time, and let the nations 
settle their disputes by arbitration. Had not privateering been 
permitted in the war we are treating, the English could have dis- 
posed of our little navy and then harassed our coasts for indefinite 
years — until we came to their terms of peace. It is certain that 
Great Britain would not have been ready to come to peace when 
she did but for the fearful wounds she was receiving through the 
privateers. 

FURTHER OPERATIONS ON THE LAKES 

We left General Dearborn on the southern shore of Lake 
Ontario in the vicinity of Sacketts Harbor, where Commodore 
Surrender of Chauncey had built a fleet of fourteen vessels. The 
York, April monotony of the winter was broken by sporadic raids ; 
27, 1813. ]3^|3 ij^ ^\^Q spring of 1813 Dearborn planned to capture 

Toronto (then called York), the capital of Upper Canada. For this 
purpose he sent General Zebulon M. Pike, the explorer. After a 
rough voyage in Chauncey's fleet, the troops landed near the town, 
and were met by an equal number of British and Indians led by 
Sheaffe. After some hours of sharp fighting the Americans cap- 
tured the town, when suddenly the ground was shaken by a terrific 
explosion. The magazine containing five hundred barrels of powder 
had exploded, and the falling debris killed nearly a hundred men 



WILKINSON ON THE ST. LAWRENCE 427 

and wounded twice as many. Among the mortally wounded was 
General Pike, who was struck by the fragment of a stone wall while 
sitting on a stump talking with a captured British sergeant. The 
British claimed that the explosion was an accident, and the fact 
that nearly half the killed were their own men, seems to justify the 
claim. It is impossible to believe that they would have engaged in 
such wanton destruction of life after having surrendered the town. 
The British flag was hauled down, and General Pike died with it 
folded beneath his head. 

Soon after this, Dearborn sent General Boyd, who had succeeded 
Pike, to capture Fort George. Boyd succeeded after several sharp 
skirmishes, and over six hundred of the enemy were made prisoners. 

At the same time Sir George Prevost, governor general of Canada, 
sailed from Kingston in a fleet of nine vessels bearing a thousand 
men for an attack on Sacketts Harbor. But Prevost 
was wanting in military skill, and he soon withdrew 
his ships and returned to Canada. 

General Dearborn was relieved of his command in June, 1813, 
and General Wilkinson was called from New Orleans to take com- 
mand. John Armstrong, author of the famous New- chrystler's 
burg addresses, had become secretary of war instead of Field, Novem- 
Eustis, and he planned another invasion of Canada, berll,1813. 
with Montreal as the objective point. In the autumn, Wilkinson 
moved from Sacketts Harbor down the St. Lawrence with an army 
of seven thousand men, while an additional force under Wade 
Hampton was to cooperate in moving on the Canadian city. But 
these old generals were jealous of each other, and Hampton refused 
to serve under Wilkinson. The latter moved on, passed Ogdensburg, 
and when within ninety miles of Montreal met a British army and 
was defeated in the battle of Chrystler's Field. Hearing now that 
he would not be supported by Hampton, Wilkinson abandoned the 
expedition. Meantime the British in the Niagara region had rallied 
and recaptured Fort George. But the Americans, before leaving, 
had wantonly burned the village of Newark, and the British in 
retaliation crossed over and burned half a dozen towns, including 
Buffalo, then a village of fifteen hundred inhabitants. 

We now come to the most famous American victory in the lake 
region during the war. Lake Erie was held by a small English fleet 
commanded by Commodore Barclay, who had fought with Nelson 
at Trafalgar. The Americans determined to dispute the control 



428 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

of its waters, and Oliver Hazard Perry, a valiant young naval 
officer, sought and obtained permission to undertake the task. The 
undertaking was prodigious. The timber of the coming fleet was 
still standing in the woods; the iron works, stores, canvas, and 
cordage were in New York and Philadelphia, and there was no 
railroad or canal by which to transport them. So during the 
winter scores of sleds and wagons struggled through the deep 
snows of northern Pennsylvania, bearing the necessary equipment ; 
Avhile over fifty ship carpenters at Presque Isle, now Erie, were busy 
hewing out the timbers. The work was protected b}^ an excellent 
harbor inclosed by a bar over which the British could not sail. But 
Barclay would remedy the evil ; he would attack the new-born fleet 
while crossing the bar, and he watched and waited. Perry's work 
progressed rapidly. He named his flagship Laiorence, after the 
brave commander whose dying words, "Don't give up the ship," 
now became the motto of the vessel that bore his name. By the 
end of July the fleet was finished, and fortune favored it from the 
beginning. The vigilant Barclay lost his vigilance for a day. He 
accepted an invitation from a rich Canadian to a Sunday 
■ dinner, and took his fleet to the northern shore. On 
that day Perry's fleet crossed the bar. It was a difficult feat. 
The larger vessels were lightened and borne up by scows, and after 
a day and a night of severe toil they were launched on the bosom 
of the lake, and there they stood defiantly when Barclay returned 
next morning. The British commander now seemed to have lost 
his desire to fight, and he wheeled about and fled westward. It took 
Perry a month to find him ; but he did so at Put-in-Bay about sunrise 
of September 10, and before sunset of that same day Great Britain 
was without ships or sailors on Lake Erie. 

The two fleets were of nearly the same force. Perry had ten 
vessels with fifty -five guns, and Barclay six vessels with sixty-five 
Battle of Lake g^^^is. Each had about four hundred men. The battle 
Erie, Septem- opened at noon, and for some hours there was an in- 
ber 10, 1813. cessant roar of artillery. Several of the English vessels 
directed their fire upon the American flagship, and by two o'clock 
over two thirds of her hundred and thirty men were killed or 
wounded. At length the Lmcrence seemed about to sink, and the 
undaunted Perry, waving his banner, passed in an open boat in the 
face of the enemy's fire to his next largest vessel, the Niagara. 
Presently two of the British vessels fouled, and the Americans, 



PEKRY'S VICTORY ON LAKE ERIE 429 



taking advantage of this, raked their decks with a murderous fire ; 
but only for twenty minutes, when the British fleet raised the white 
flag and surrendered. 

Perry's laconic dispatch to General Harrison, "We have met 
ihe enemy and they are ours," soon became as famous as the noble 
words of Lawrence, which he had made his motto. This brilliant 
victory transferred the control of the lake wholly to the Americans, 
rendered the recovery of Michigan comparatively easy, and gave to 
the young American commander an undying fame. 

Before the battle of Lake Erie the land forces of both belligerents 
had been gathering in northwestern Ohio. The British and Indians 
were there under Colonel Henry Proctor and Tecumseh, ^^ ^^_^ 
the Americans under General Harrison, of Tippecanoe massacre, 
fame. The fall of Detroit had roused the blood of the 
young men of the West, and they determined to wipe out the dis- 
honor. Early in the year 1813, General James Winchester was 
moving through western Ohio with a thousand Kentucky troops, 
and before the close of January he reached Frenchtown on the 
river Raisin, eighteen miles from Maiden. Here he met Proctor 
with a large body of r>i-itish and Indians, and a battle was fought 
in which the Americans were defeated, and many of them taken 
prisoners. Then occurred one of those scenes of carnage so common 
to Indian warfare. Many of the Americans while retreating were 
ambushed and tomahawked ; others were butchered in cold blood 
after they had surrendered. Next day Proctor started back to 
Maiden with his prisoners, among whom was Winchester, and left 
thirty wounded Americans at Erenchtown. But ere they had gone 
far, two hundred Indians turned back and massacred the wounded 
men and set fire to the buildings. "Remember the river Raisin" 
became the rallying cry of their surviving comrades in the North- 
west. The American loss in this affair was about four hundred 
killed or wounded, and over five hundred captured. 

After this disaster, Harrison with twelve hundred men built Port 
Meigs at the rapids of the Maumee. Proctor besieged this fort in 
vain for some time, and then turned his attention to Fort Stephenson. 
This fort stood on the site of the present city of Fremont, in northern 
Ohio, and was held bv a hundred and sixty men, commanded by Major 
George Croghan, a nephew of General George Rogers Clark, whom 
we have met in the Revolution. Proctor's demand for a surrender of 
the fort, with the usual threat of Indian massacre, was answered by 



430 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

the brave Croghan, that every man would die at his post rather than 
surrender the fort. Croghan had one small cannon, a six pounder, 
which he masked and placed so as to enfilade a ditch 
Ste *henson ^P which the British were approaching. On they came 
with sublime confidence, and leaped over the pickets, 
shouting, "Show the Yankees no quarter." Next moment the can- 
non, loaded with a double charge of slugs, was discharged, and this, 
followed by a rifle volley, mowed down every man in the ditch. 
Again the plucky Britons tilled the ditch, and again the single piece 
was discharged, with the same result. It was now night, and next 
morning the British had disappeared. 

As the summer passed the two armies lay watching each other, 
until on September 12 the Americans were electrified with the 
famous dispatch, " We have met the enemy and they are ours," which 
meant that Lake Erie had passed into American hands. But this 
was not all. Harrison's army was about to be more than doubled. 
Ohio was yet in its infancy, and the older state of Kentucky was 
the main dependence of the Northwest. And Kentucky did nobly. 
Governor Shelby, who had fought by the side of Sevier at King's 
Mountain, marched northward with thirty-five hundred troops, and 
Colonel Richard M. Johnson came with a thousand cavalry. Harri- 
son now determined to invade Canada. He sent Johnson to Detroit 
with his mounted thousand, but the enemy had fled ; and Michi- 
gan, which Hull had surrendered without a blow, was 
Miciiigan recovered without a blow. The main army was then 
conveyed in Perry's fleet to Canada and set ashore be- 
low Maiden. But Proctor, though he had nearly a thousand regu- 
lars and more than three thousand Indians, refused to fight, burned 
his stores, and abandoned the fort. Tecum seh, who commanded the 
Indians, was chagrined at the apparent cowardice of Proctor, and 
compared him to a fat dog that had carried its tail erect till it 
became frightened, when it dropped its tail and ran. 

Harrison moved up the river and was joined by Johnson's 
cavalry. Proctor continued his flight ; the Americans pursued. 
The pursuit was vigorous and comparatively easy, as Proctor ne- 
glected to destroy the bridges across the streams. The British army 
was overtaken at Moravian Town on the Thames River, Here, 
it is said, Tecumseh m. ""e a stand and informed Proctor that the 
disgraceful flight should >e continued no farther ; and the result 
was the battle of the Thai 3S, and the death of one of the greatest 



DEATH OF TECUMSEH 431 

of Indian warriors. Harrison had little to do with planning the 
battle ; it was the work of Johnson, whose cavalry, aided slightly by 
Shelby's riflemen, did all the fighting on the part of the Americans. 
The American loss of life was slight. The British loss Battle of the 
in killed and wounded was not great, but their loss in Thames, Octo- 
prisoners was four hundred and seventy-seven and their ^^^ ^' 1813. 
rout was complete, Proctor escaping with a few followers by flight 
through the swamps and wilderness. The Indian leader Tecumseh 
was among the slain, and he was said to have met his death at the 
hand of Richard M. Johnson, a future Vice President of the United 
States. Among the spoils were six brass cannon captured from 
Burgoyne at Saratoga thirty-six years before and surrendered by 
Hull at Detroit. 

The campaign ending with the battle of the Thames wholly 
destroyed the alliance between the British and the Indians, killed 
the most dangerous Indian enemy since the days of Pontiac, and 
destroyed all hope of an Indian confederation of tribes. It also 
resulted in the restoration of Michigan, in the capture of a small 
British army, cleared the entire Northwest of the enemy, and ended 
the war in that section. Harrison now stationed a thousand men at 
Detroit under Lewis Cass, disbanded his Kentuckians and sent them 
rejoicing homeward, and with the remainder of his troops embarked 
on Perry's fleet for Buffalo. 

Two severe battles in the region of the lakes took place the 
following summer, — Chippewa and Lundy's Lane. In March, 1814, 
Wilkinson was relieved from the service, and thus ended a long and 
exceedingly checkered military career. The command now fell to 
General Brown ; and, aided by a few young and vigorous spirits like 
himself, the ablest of whom was Winfield Scott, he soon infused 
new life into the army. And it was quite time for such a change ; 
for Napoleon had abdicated the throne of Prance and retired to Elba, 
thus setting free a large number of British veterans, who " had not 
slept under roof for seven years," and fourteen thousand of these 
were now sent to Canada to fight the Americans. 

At the beginning of July, 1814, we find Brown in the neighbor- 
hood of the great waterfall with some thirty-five hundred effective 
men and a few Indians, while General Riall, the British j^ttle of 
commander at Fort George, had a somewhat larger Chippewa, 
force, partly on garrison duty at the neighboring posts, ^^^y ^' 1814. 
On hearing of the American advance, Riall hastened forward 



432 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

with two thousand men and took a strong position at Chippewa, 
just above the falls. Here he was met by General Scott with thir- 
teen hundred men, and after a fierce battle of one hour the British 
broke and fled. 

This battle of Chippewa is noted as the only one during the war 
in which two armies of regulars, nearly equal in numbers, fought on 
an open plain with no advantage of position.^ Whatever advantage 
there was belonged to the British ; they were slightly greater in 
numbers, they opened fire first, while the Americans were crossing 
a bridge, and Scott had to form in line while under fire. The result 
was wonderfully gratifying to American pride. Not only did the 
Americans win the battle in less than an hour, but their killed and 
wounded numbered less than half those of the British.^ 

Twenty days after this battle the two armies met again, in a more 
desperate encounter. Riall had taken his stand at Lundy's Lane, 
within a mile of the boiling Niagara, on the Canadian side, and in 
easy hearing of the thunders of the mighty cataract. His army 
was augmented on July 25 by the arrival of his superior, General 
Gordon Drummond, with a fresh body of troops, many of whom 
were Wellington's veterans, and the army now exceeded three thou- 
sand men. The effective force of the Americans had dwindled 
to 2644 men. In the evening glow of that broiling summer day 
the American advance guard of 1300 under Scott met 1800 of 
the enemy led by Riall, and the battle was immediately opened. 
Brown heard the firing and reached the field with the rest of the 
army about dark ; the British were reenf orced at the same time, and 
Battle of ^^^® battle continued. The Americans suffered severely 

Lundy's Lane, from an English battery on a little hill in the midst 
July 25, 1814. Qf ^-[^q fighting line. General Brown ordered Colonel 
James Miller to capture it. " I'll try, sir," was the modest answer, 
and half an hour later the work was accomplished, every man at 
the battery having been shot down or having fallen at the point of 
the bayonet. For five hours in the darkness the battle raged, each 
army directing its fire by the flash of the enemy's muskets, while 
the thunder of artillery answered the roar of the falling river in the 
rear. Three times the British surged up the hill to recapture the 
stolen battery, but they were always repulsed. Soon after eleven 

1 Adams, Vol. VIII, p. 43. 

2 In this battle on the American side was the famous Indian, Red Jacket, whom 
Halleck has immortalized in a poem. 



LUNDY'S LANE AND FORT ERIE 433 

o'clock the firing ceased as if by common consent. At midnight the 
Americans gatliered up their wounded and retired to their camp at 
Chippewa, leaving the heavy guns to the enemy. 

This murderous night battle at Lundy's Lane was an extraordi- 
nary one. Brown was wounded, Scott was wounded, and the command 
devolved on Ripley, one of the brigade commanders. Drumraond 
was wounded, and Riall was wounded and taken prisoner. The 
total American loss, 853, was about one third of the army. Drum- 
mond reported a loss of 878. The American army then proceeded 
to Fort Erie at the head of the Niagara, and took a Attack on 
strong position. Drummond now committed the most Fort Erie, 
serious blunder of his life. He made a determined ^"S^st 15. 
night attack on the fort and was repulsed with the loss of over 900 
men, while the American loss was but 84. Soon after this the 
Americans attacked the British in camp, and each side lost several 
hundred, after which the British withdrew and gave up the siege. 

Before these events had fully taken place the British had deter- 
mined on an invasion of New York from another quarter, and their 
chances seemed excellent. Early in August eleven hundred more of 
Wellington's veterans reached Canadian soil, and more were coming. 
For two reasons the British needed to possess Lake Champlain and 
northern New York. First, their supplies, cattle and provisions, 
had been drawn from the unpatriotic residents of New York and 
Vermont, and Congress was about to make a determined effort to 
stop this traffic. Second, the British had overrun a large part of 
the coast of Maine, and had required the people to take the oath of 
allegiance. This territory England determined to hold at the com- 
ing of peace, and to do this a solid military basis was necessary.^ 
Hence northern New York must be conquered and held. 

At Plattsburg, at the head of Lake Champlain, General George 
Izard held five thousand men, and on the lake Lieutenant Thomas 
Macdonough commanded a little fleet of five vessels 
and a few gunboats. But Secretary Armstrong ordered ^^^ -^^^^ 
Izard to Sacketts Harbor with three fourths of the 
army. Izard obeyed and left General Alexander Macomb at Platts- 
burg with scarcely fifteen hundred effective men, soon to be joined 
by several thousand militia from Vermont and New York. While 
the Americans were in this weakened condition. Sir George Prevost 
inarched from the St. Lawrence Valley at the head of a veteran 

1 Adams, Vol. VIII, Chap. IV. 
2f 



434 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

army of at least twelve thousand men, over the same route taken 
by Burgoyne thirty-seven years before, and with a larger and bettei 
army than that of Burgoyne. Prevost was supported by a Britisli 
fleet under Commodore George Downie. The attack by land and 
water was to be simultaneous, and it took place a year and a day 
after tht noble victory of Perry on Lake Erie. The two fleets were 
nearly equal in force. Downie had little opportunity to show his 
fighting qualities, as he was killed early in the action, Macdonough 
has been pronounced by McMaster the greatest naval commander in 
America before the Civil War. He was but thirty years old, but he 
had seen severe service in the Mediterranean against the piratical 
Barbary States. The battle opened fiercely and continued for two 
hours. It seemed to be going against the Americans, when Macdon- 
ough made a move that won him the victory. He had taken the fore- 
thought to lay a kedge anchor at each bow of his flagship, the 
B ttl f Saratoga, by the aid of which, if one broadside were 

Plattsburg, disabled, the other could be turned on the enemy. He 
September now made use of this means and reopened the battle 
11,1814. ^^^^j^ renewed vigor. Presently the English flagship, 

the Confiance, struck her colors, and finally the whole fleet surren- 
dered except a few gunboats, which escaped. 

On the same day Prevost attacked Macomb with a large portion 
of his army, but the latter defended his position with success. The 
loss on each side was slight, nor were the killed and wounded in 
the naval fight nearly so great in proportion to the numbers engaged 
as in the battle of Lake Erie. Prevost, with no supporting navy, 
gave up the expedition and returned to his familiar haunts on the 
St. Lawrence ; and the Empire State has ever since been free from 
invasion by a foreign enemy. 

THE WASHINGTON CAMPAIGN 

James Madison had been reelected President over De Witt Clin- 
ton, who had been supported by the Federalists and the disaffected 
Democrats. Madison would have made an excellent President in 
time of peace ; but he was ill fitted to manage a war. His first secre- 
tary of war, Eustis, displayed a woeful incapacity in military affairs ; 
and his second, John Armstrong, was but a shade better. The Czar 
of Russia had offered his services in bringing peace ; but while Madi- 
son eagerly accepted the proposition, and sent Gallatin and Jamea 



ENGLISH ADVANCE ON WASHINGTON 



43S 



A. Bayard to join John Q. Adams, minister to Eussia, at St. Peters- 
burg, England refused, and the war went on. Nearly a year later 
England made direct overtures to the United States for peace. The 
President again accepted, and sent Henry Clay and Jonathan Rus- 
sell to join the other peace commissioners in Europe ; and while the 
negotiations were in progress, the armies in the field kept on batter- 
ing one another. 

The British government determined to strike the heart of its 
enemy by attacking our large cities along the coast. The first of 
these expeditions, under the com- 
mand of General Robert Ross, 
who had served under Wellington 
in Spain, and had stood by the 
side of Sir John Moore when that 
hero fell at Corunna, reached 
the Chesapeake early in August, 
1814. The army consisted of 
thirty-five hundred veterans, soon 
increased by a thousand marines 
from the fleet of Cockburn. 

For months rumors of the 
coming of the enemy had been 
afloat, but almost nothing had 
been done for protection. The 
President had urged Armstrong 
to prepare for defense ; but the 
latter, with singular dilatoriness, 
had done nothing. At length 
Madison appointed General Wil- 
liam H. Winder to command 
the defense. Winder possessed 
little military ability, but he was willing, and with great effort 
he collected an army of five hundred regulars and fifteen hundred 
militia. Ross landed at Benedict, on the Patuxent River, some 
forty miles southeast of Washington, and by easy marches moved 
northward toward Bladensburg. The inhabitants could easily 
have impeded his march by felling trees or by burning bridges, 
but nothing of the kind was done. Commodore Barney, who com- 
manded a flotilla on the Chesapeake, burned his vessels, and, with his 
four hundred marines joined the army of Winder. The two armies 




436 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

— _ _ — < 

met at Bladensburg just after noon on August 24, the American 
army having been increased by militia till it numbered probably 
six thousand men. The President and his Cabinet were 
Bladensburg, ^^g^ ^^ ^-^^ ground at the opening of the battle. Soon 
after the fighting began many of the militia found 
safety in flight, and the British would scarcely have been checked 
but for the brave stand made by Barney and his marines. Barney 
held his ground till he was wounded and captured. 

The battle over, the British rested two hours, when they marched 
upon the capital, then a village of eight thousand people. The Presi- 
dent and Cabinet had returned, and were now fleeing in various 
directions to escape capture. Mrs. Madison had carefully secured 
Stewart's famous picture of Washington and the original draft of 
the Declaration of Independence before leaving the White House. 
The British army encamped at nightfall within a quarter of a mile 
of the Capitol, while details of troops, led by Eoss and the notorious 
Coekburn, proceeded to burn the public buildings. It is said that 
Cockburn, followed by a rabble, entered the hall of the House of 
Sack of Wash- Representatives, climbed into the speaker's chair, and 
ington, Au- put the question, " Shall this harbor of Yankee democ- 
gust, 1814. pg^Q-y \yQ bumcd ? " The vote in the affirmative was 
unanimous, and the torch was applied. The White House was next 
set on fire, as was also the Navy Yard (by order of Secretary of the 
Navy Jones), and the triple conflagration lit up the whole surround- 
ing country. All the other government buildings, except the Patent 
Office, were given to the flames ; after which the invading army 
hastened away and boarded their ships at Benedict. 

This destruction of public buildings that had no relation to the 
operations of war, with many "public archives, precious to the 
nation as memorials of its origin . . . interesting to all nations, as 
contributions to the general stock of historical instruction and politi- 
cal science," ^ will admit of no defense. We are glad to note that 
no reputable Englishman attempts to defend the outrage. Knight 
says there was a general feeling in England that the destruction of 
these non-warlike buildings was " an outrage inconsistent with civil- 
ized warfare," and he also points out the fact that from this time to 
the end of the war the Americans were victorious in every contest.' 
The first American victory after this wanton destruction of the capita] 

1 See Madison's Proclamation. 

8 " ffistory of England," Vol. VIU, p. 378. 



FAILURE TO TAKE BALTIMORE 4dT 

was won at Plattsburg, as we have seen; while the second, almost 
simultaneous with the Plattsburg victory, was the repulse of Ross's 
army before Baltimore. 

The capture of AVashington had been a task so easy that the 
British seemed confident of making a prize of the larger and richer 
city of Baltimore. After making a raid up the Potomac, and plun- 
dering Alexandria, they sailed up the Chesapeake and anchored off 
the mouth of the Patapsco, September 11. But the city had not been 
idle. The fate of the capital had taught the people a much-needed 
lesson. Led by the mayor, they threw up embankments on all sides, 
and erected batteries ; while the militia poured into the city, till four- 
teen thousand were present and ready for duty. General Ross, who 
had boasted that he would make Baltimore his winter quarters, and 
who " didn't care if it rained militia," landed at the dawn of day — 
the day after Macdonough had killed Downie and captured his fleet 
on Lake Champlain — and began his march toward the city. It was 
fourteen miles, and five were traversed without an obsta- 
cle when Ross met General Strieker with three thousand ^^ 
men to dispute the right of way. A hot skirmish, known 
as the battle of North Point, ensued. The British drove the 
Americans back ; but it took three hours to do this, and it cost 
three hundred men, and among the dead was General Ross, in 
whose breast had lodged a musket ball from one of the despised 
militia.^ 

A large fleet under Admiral Cochrane had meantime blocked up 
the Patapsco, an arm of the Chesapeake ; but it failed to pass the 
guns of Fort McHenry, and hence was unable to throw shells into 
the city. All day and far into the night the bombarding continued ; 
but at dawn the American flag was still waving from the walls of 
the fort. On that night the young American poet, Francis Scott 
Key, had rowed to the British fleet under a flag of truce to beg the 
parole of a friend, and the British admiral detained him during the 
night. Eagerly he watched the fluttering banner above the fort, lit 
by the powder flashes ; and when at dawn he found it srill waving, 
he wrote the beautiful national hymn, "The Star-Spangled Banner." 
The enemy now abandoned the siege, and the soldiers returned to 
the fleet, which sriled away to foreign waters to return no more. 

1 Two weeks before this Sir Peter Parker had left his ship, the Menelaus, in the 
Chesapeake to dislodge two hundred militia at the mouth of the Sassafras River; 
but the British were repulsed, and Parker and thirteen of his men were killed. 



438 . HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



WAR IN THE SOUTH 

Soon after the battle of the Thames, General Harrison resigned 
Ms commission ; and another future President, one who was to play 

a great part in American history, was made major 
Andrew general. No other American commander during the 

war, except, perhaps, Jacob Brown, can be compared in 
vigor and energy with Jackson. Born in North Carolina^ a few 
days after the death of his father, he grew to manhood in poverty 
and obscurity. At the time of Tarleton's fearful raids through the 
South we find Jackson, then a boy of thirteen years, among the fight- 
ing patriots. He was taken prisoner, and here the spirit of the man 
appeared in the boy. A British officer ordered Jackson to clean his 
boots, but Jackson refused, stating that he was a prisoner of war 
and not a servant ; whereupon the officer struck him with his sword, 
inflicting a wound that left a scar which he carried to his grave. 
When released from prison, he walked forty miles to his home while 
suffering with smallpox. He lost both his brothers in the war, and 
his mother died from exposure while ministering to the wants of 
the patriots. Thus while yet a boy Jackson found himself without 
parents or immediate friends. On reaching his majority, after hav- 
ing read law for a time, he migrated to the then far West, and made 
his home in Tennessee. Here he became successively the public 
prosecutor, a planter, a storekeeper, a judge, and a member of Con- 
gress ; and he was now commander of the Tennessee militia. He 
became the first representative of his adopted state in the Lower 
House of Congress, and served also a short time in the Senate. 

Early in the War of 1812 the Creek Indians became hostile; not 
that they had a grievance against the United States, but through 

the influence of Tecumseh, who had visited them, and 
Tonmrna because British agents in Florida had offered them five 

dollars apiece for scalps of Americans, men, women, or 
children.^ In August, 1813, the most dreadful Indian massacre in 

1 The dispute as to whether Jackson was born in North or South Carolina seems 
to be settled by Parton, his biographer. According to him, the Jackson family lived 
in South Carolina very near the boundary line between the two colonies. In March, 
1767, the elder Jackson died, and his wife, on the day of the funeral, was taken to 
the home of a relative who lived across the boundary in North Carolina, and here, a 
few days later, she gave birth to Andrew. Her two other sons, Hugh and Robert, 
had migrated with them from Ireland two years before. 

2 Johnson's " War of 1812," p. 179. 



JACKSON DEFEATS THE CREEKS 439 

American annals took place in southern Alabama. It is known as 
the massacre of Fort Mims. This so-called fort was a stockade 
inclosure made for cattle by a farmer named Mims, and to this the 
settlers came for protection when the Indians became hostile. 
There were now more than five hundred men, women, and children 
gathered in the place, Avhen a thousand Creek warriors, led by a 
half-breed named Wetherford, burst upon them and slew more than 
four hundred in a few hours. Nearly two hundred of the inmates 
were volunteers, and so brave was their defense that about half of 
the Indians were killed. 

The country was horrified at the news of the massacre at Fort 
Mims. Tennessee first came to the rescue; her legislature voted 
thirty-five hundred men to march into the Indian country under 
the command of Jackson. With a band of cavalry under General 
Coffee and a large body of militia, Jackson overran the territory of 
the Creeks, defeated them with great slaughter at the battles 
of Talladega and the Horse Shoe, and forced the tribe to sue for 
peace. It was soon after this that Jackson was appointed major 
general and given command of the southern military district of the 
United States; and as the government at Washington had been para- 
lyzed by the invasion of Ross, he was left independent and practically 
dictator over his district. 

In the autumn of 1814 the rumor spread through the country 
that England was about to send a large fleet to the Gulf of Mexico, 
with New Orleans as the objective point. The rumor proved true. 
General Ross of Washington fame was appointed to command the 
expedition to southern waters ; but Ross fell before Baltimore, and 
General Sir Edward Pakenham, who had won an enviable fame in 
the Peninsular War, was chosen for the place. Pakenham was a 
brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington, and with him sailed 
Generals Gibbs, Keane, and Lambert, — all famous commanders in 
their day. The fleet of more than fifty vessels, commanded by 
Admiral Cochrane, bore at least sixteen thousand veterans and a 
thousand heavy guns. The avowed object was to "rescue the whole 
province of Louisiana from the United States"; and so confident 
were the British of capturing ISTew Orleans that they brought with 
them a collector of the port and the machinery of city government. 

Jackson heard of the approach of the British, and after making 
an incursion into Spanish Florida lie began his long horseback ride 
through the wilderness to New Orleans, arriving there on the 2d of 



440 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

< 

December. He found the people in a wild state of excitement 
and without defense; and great was the commotion when the 

magic news that Jackson had arrived ran through the 
tiS^British * city. The British fleet arrived on December 10, entered 

Lake Borgne, and destroyed the American flotilla of 
six gunboats. The news of this first blow of the campaign struck 
terror to the city of New Orleans. Jackson put it under martial 
law and assumed the power of a dictator. He sent to General 
Coffee, above Baton Rouge, to hasten to the city with his twelve 
hundred cavalry, and Coffee made the distance of 120 miles in two 
days. A brigade of Tennessee militia and another from Mississippi 
also hurried down the river. There was no time to lose, for sixteen 
hundred men under Colonel Thornton, who had led the English ad- 
vance at Bladensburg, occupied the Villiere plantation, but six miles 
below New Orleans, two days before Christmas. Calling together his 
regulars, his militia and volunteers, and Coffee's mounted riflemen, 
Jackson threw them between the enemy and the city. The two 
armies came together late in the evening, and a severe night battle, 
similar to that of Lundy's Lane, was the result. Neither side could 
claim a victory. The British loss was the greater ; but the Ameri- 
cans had been greatly aided by the guns of the Carolina, a schooner 
lying near by in the river. On the next day, December 24, as the 
two armies were recovering from the shock of the battle and laying 
their plans for another, a different kind of scene was enacted in a 
far-away village across the sea. On that day the two warring na- 
tions, through their agents, signed a treaty of peace ; but the tele- 
graph was then unknown, and the war in Louisiana went on. 

Withdrawing a mile toward the city, Jackson began to intrench 
his army between a cypress swamp and the river. So great was his 

vigilance that for four days and nights he did not sleep, 
duel *^ ^^^^ ^® took most of his meals while sitting on his horse.^ 

Meanwhile the British army was greatly reenforced by 
the arrival of Pakenham with fresh troops. On the first day of the 
new year the armies met for an artillery duel. The British used hogs- 
heads of sugar as a breastwork, and the Americans used cotton bales — 
both of which proved ineffective. The battle lasted for several hours, 
and the Americans were completely successful, disabling and silenc- 
ing every English gun. This Vas the only time during the war in 
which a fair, even fight with heavy guns took place, and the Briti>»h 
1 Parton, Vol. II, p. 117. 



GREAT BATTLE AT NEW ORLEANS 



441 



officers frankly acknowledged that their defeat was due to the supe- 
riority of the Americans in handling artillery. 

These battles were but preliminary. Everybody knew that the 
decisive battle was yet to come. A week passed, and Jackson spent 
the time strengthening his embankment. Day and night the work 
was pushed with the utmost vigor, and there was scarcely a horse, 
a mule, or an ox in the city that was not pressed into the service. 
The cotton bales had been discarded and earthworks thrown up. 

The fateful 8th of January was now at hand — and the vessel 
that bore the tidings of peace was battling with the wintry tides in 
mid ocean. The morning was chill and dense with fog. Long before 
the dawn the two armies were astir. Jackson rose at one o'clock 




British Batteries British Batteries ^A^^l , 

BATTLE OF NE'SV ORLEANS 



and roused his sleeping army, and by four every man was in his 
place. The British were also in battle array hours before the dawn. 
Pakenham had intended to make the attack while it 
was yet dark ; but his plans miscarried, and he failed Orleans ^^ 
to do so. After detaching twelve hundred men for the 
west bank of the river, he divided his army, about fifty-five hundred 
men, into three parts. General Gibbs with twenty -five hundred was 
to strike the Americans on the left, farthest from the river and near a 
cypress swamp ; General Keane with twelve hundred was to attack 
the right, along the river bank; while Lambert was to hold the re- 
mainder in the center as a reserve. The main attack was that of the 
British right, to be made by Gibbs. There was some forced merri- 
ment along the lines ; but the feeling that they were entering a death 



44:2 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

trap could not be shaken off. Colonel Dale, who commanded Keane's 
Highlanders, handed his watch and a letter to a friend and said sadly, 
" Give these to my wife ; I shall die at the head of my regiment." 

Behind the earthen breastwork crouched the American army, 
thirty-five hundred strong, with a thousand in reserve. Twelve 
cannon frowned over the parapet. Soon after daybreak the scarlet 
lines of the British columns were seen through the fog near the cy- 
press trees. A little later the American cannon opened on the 
advancing foe, and great lanes were cut through their ranks ; but on 
they marched toward the works until they came within musket range. 
The musketeers then poured in one murderous volley after another, 
and the top of the American works for half a mile was an unbroken 
line of spurting fire. The slaughter of the British was frightful. 
The killed and wounded fell in heaps. One cannon, loaded to the 
muzzle with musket balls, mowed down two hundred men at a single 
discharge. No army, however heroic, could stand before such a 
storm, and the British columns began to fall back in disorder. At 
this moment General Pakenham rode from the rear to the head of 
the retreating column and cried, " Fpr shame, remember that you are 
British soldiers." Next instant a musket ball shattered his right 
arm and another killed his horse. He leaped on a second charger 
and kept on cheering his men, apparently unconscious of his wound. 
But his time was short. A grapeshot tore open his thigh and killed 
his second horse, and the two fell together. The wounded general 
was caught in the arms of friends ; but ere they could bear him to the 
rear, a third shot entered his body, and after gasping for a few min- 
utes his life was gone. Scarcely had Pakenham been borne away 
when Gibbs received his death wound, and at almost the same mo- 
ment Keane, who was fighting valiantly on the river bank, was 
severely wounded; and Lambert became the commander of the 
army. A very few of the English floundered across the ditch and 
climbed the American parapet ; but none survived except Lieutenant 
Lavack, who was made a prisoner. Major Wilkinson was one of 
those who mounted the parapet, but he instantly fell, riddled with 
bullets. The Americans, struck with admiration at his heroism, 
leaped forward to save him ; but he was dying, and lived only long 
enough to request that his commander be informed that he died 
like a soldier and a true Englishman. 

Between this main attack made by Gibbs and the river, Keane 
had made a similar one on the American right and had suffered a 



CLOSE OF THE WAR 443 



gimilar repulse, but with less loss of life. A simultaneous battle was 
progressing on the west bank of the Mississippi. The American 
loss in the main battle east of the river was but eight killed and thir- 
teen wounded,^ but including the west side the loss was seventy-one. 
The British left seven hundred men dead upon the field, and twice 
as many were wounded. The battle continued for two hours ; but 
the chief attack with its fearful slaughter had occupied but twenty- 
five minutes. The Americans forbore to cheer at their marvelous 
victory on account of the appalling scene of death and despair that 
la}-^ before them, and they did all in their power to aid and relieve 
the wounded.- Lambert decided not to risk a second attack. He 
withdrew Thornton from the west side and retreated toward his 
ships, and on the 27th the whole army reem barked and sailed away, 
and were seen no more on the shores of Louisiana.^ 



NATIONAL FINANCES 

Aside from the passing of necessary laws for carrying on the 
government and the war, the chief business of Congress and the 
administration was to wrestle with the financial problem, and 
the problem proved an insoluble one at the time. Albert Gallatin, 
the secretary of the treasury for thirteen years, was a great finan- 
cier; and had not Congress persistently disregarded his advice, the 
story of the War of 1812 would not be so humiliating to the Ameri- 
can reader. It was doubtless the incompetency of Congress that 
brought about the serious condition during the war — a distrust by 
the people of the credit of the government. The internal revenue 
system of old Federalist days had been done away ; the embargo and 
non-importation laws had depleted the Treasury, and Congress, against 
the advice of Gallatin, refused to recharter the United States Bank 
at the expiration of the old charter in 1811, thereby cutting off the 
one sure source of government loans. The members of Congress 
seemed to think that the peojjle would readily make loans to the 

1 In a letter to a friend in 1839, Jackson stated that in the main battle his loss 
was six killed and seven wounded. See Parton, Vol. Ill, p. 633. 

2 At the close of the battle some five hundred of the British rose unhurt from 
among the dead and gave themselves up as prisoners. To save their lives, they had 
dropped down and lain as if dead until the battle was over. Parton, Vol. II, p. 209. 

3 Lambert stopped at Mobile and captured a fort ; Cockburn ravaged part of the 
coast of Georgia late in January ; and the w;ir on the ocean continued for some 
months before the treaty of peace became known. 



444 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

government wlien not even the interest could be paid except through 
other loans. But the people were slow to risk their money with their 
government. The first loan of eleven millions, called for in the 
spring of 1812, was taken but slowly, as previously stated. The 
next year a loan of sixteen millions was authorized, and Gallatin 
succeeded in placing it only with great effort, paying six per cent 
interest for the greater portion of it, and selling the stock at eighty- 
eight cents on the dollar. Another loan of seven and one half millions 
was soon afterward placed, the discount being the same. Only a small 
portion of these loans was taken by Xew England, which was still 
under the sway of the Federalists. At the same time many people 
of that section actually lent money to the enemy by purchasing 
British bills of credit, and they also sold supplies to the British and 
Canadians. 

Exasperated at this, President Madison, in December, 1813, 
recommended that Congress pass an effective embargo act, and it 
was done without delay. Then arose a mighty cry from New Eng- 
land. In Massachusetts many public meetings were held to denounce 
the law as unjust and oppressive. Madison was not, perhaps, alto- 
gether without a vindictive spirit in this matter. It can be believed 
that one of his objects was to punish New England for its persistent 
opposition to his policy. This embargo was removed in March, 1814. 

At an extra session of Congress in 1813 the Democratic party 
departed from another of its theories. It laid a direct tax and an 
internal revenue tax on the people. It imposed a stamp tax, and 
laid taxes on salt, sugar, carriages, and the like. Most of the people 
saw the necessity of these measures, and responded cheerfully. The 
next year Madison reported that they had paid the extra taxes with 
the " greatest promptness and alacrity." 

In January, 1814, a bill was passed to refill the ranks of the 
armies, offering a bounty of $124, in addition to a tract of land of 
one hundred and twenty acres, to every one who would enlist for five 
years, or during the war. Another loan, twenty-five millions, was 
then authorized (March, 1814) ; but the people were slow to respond. 
Months passed ; Washington was captured by the enemy ; the specie 
of the country drifted to the New England banks. Public credit fell 
to the lowest ebb; every bank in the Middle and Southern states sus- 
pended specie payments ; the state banks floated great quantities of 
paper, and all sorts of corporations issued so-called ticket money, good 
only in the locality in which it was issued. The country at large 



TREATY OF GHENT 445 



was without a stable and adequate currency, and was on the verge 
of bankruptcy. The Boston banks would receive the notes of a 
Baltimore bank only at a discount of thirty per cent, and the treasury 
notes, issued from time to time, at a discount of twenty-five per cent.^ 
It was found that the new loan could be secured only at the ruinous 
rate of seventy-five cents on the dollar. 

At this juncture, Mr. Dallas, who had succeeded Gallatin in the 
treasury,^ recommended that a national bank be established. After 
months of sparring, Congress passed a bank bill ; but Madison vetoed 
it in the belief that it would not furnish the needed relief. Another 
bank bill was soon introduced ; but before it could be passed the news 
of peace was received, and a further consideration was postponed. 

OBSERVATIONS 

The agents of the two belligerents had met at Ghent, Belgium, 
in midsummer, 1814.^ The instructions from their respective gov- 
ernments were such that it seemed at first impossible to reach an 
agreement. The English demanded, among other things, that America 
cede large portions of northern New York and Maine, and set apart 
a broad tract in the Northwest for the Indians. But when the news 
of the defeat of Prevost at Plattsburg and of Ross at Baltimore 
arrived, they abandoned their extravagant demands ; while the 
Americans, on the other hand, yielded on the impressment question. 
The treaty, as finally arranged, is more remarkable for what it 
omitted than for what it contained. It was little else jj-ga^^y Qf 
than a mutual agreement to stop the war, as both peace signed, 
nations were tired of it. The subject of impressment December 24, 
was omitted with the understanding that, as the Euro- 
pean wars were apparently over, England would no longer need to 
follow the practice. There was no cession of territory by either side. 
The treaty provided for the restoration of boundaries as fixed in 1783, 
and for peace with the Indians, and left all the old boundary dis- 
putes and the fisheries question, as also the British right to navigate 
the Mississippi, for future negotiation. Both nations agreed to use 
their best endeavors to promote the entire abolition of the slave 

1 The government issued $40,000,000 in treasury notes during the war. 

2 Mr. Campbell of Tennessee served a short time between the terms of Gallatin 
and Dallas. 

8 The American commissioners were Albert Gallatin, James A. Bayard, Henry 
Clay, Jonathan Russell, and John Q. Adams. The English commissioners were Lord 
Gambler, Henry Groldbum, and William Adams. 



446 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

trade. The news of peace and of the victory at New Orleans reached 
the Northern states at about the same time, and the rejoicing was 
tremendous. 

Tlie dying Federalist party had opposed the war to the last, 
though many of its members had fought bravely in the armies. 
The legislature of Massachusetts made a call for a 
Hartford convention of the New England states to meet at Hart- 

ford in December, 1814. Twenty-six delegates assem- 
bled, and they sat for three weeks with closed doors. The fact that 
the sessions were secret gave ground to the rumor that the assembly 
was treasonable and sought to destroy the Union. What its discus- 
sions were, was never known, except from its report embodying a 
set of resolutions, afterward made public. 

To one who reads this report there can be no doubt that the pro- 
ceedings of the convention were unpatriotic. " A severance of the 
Union by one or more states, against the will of the rest," says the 
report, " and especially in a time of war, can be justified only by ab- 
solute necessity." Then it proceeds to show that the necessity had 
come, averring, however, that absolute proof Avas not yet conclusive 
that the time for disunion had come. On state rights we find, 
"That acts of Congress in violation of the Constitution are ab- 
solutely void," and that the " states which have no common umpire 
must be their own judges and execute their own decisions." Here 
was a reproduction of the Kentucky and Virginia resolution in a 
more virulent form. The convention made a demand also on the 
government for a share of the taxes collected within those states, 
and it proposed certain radical amendments to the Constitution, urging 
that the New England states "persevere in their efforts to obtain such 
amendments until the same shall be effected." ^ The apparent inten- 
tion was to force these demands upon an unwilling administration 
while it was hampered by a foreign war, or in case of refusal to make 
such refusal a pretext for dismembering the Union. 

The supposed object in calling the Hartford convention was to 
protest against the refusal of the general government to bear the 
expenses of the Massachusetts militia, which the governor had re- 
cently called out to protect the state. The report complains bitterly 

1 Among these proposed amendments are these : That no new states be admitted 
to the Union except by a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress ; that Congress 
have no power to lay an embargo for more than sixty days; that a President be 
ineligible for reelection, and that a President be not elected from the same state two 
terms iu succession. See State Documents, No. 2, p. 41, edited by H. V. Ames. 



GAINS AND LOSSES OF THE WAR 447 

of this, but does not state that the sole reason for this refusal was 
that the governor refused to place his militia under the command 
of Federal officers. An additional object of the convention was 
obviously to hamper and cripple the administration to the last 
degree, at a moment when the country was overrun by a foreign foe, 
to overthrow tlie party in power, or to break up the Union. The 
men of this convention were among the leading Federalists of the 
country, and with all their good qualities it is evident that theii 
patriotism was shallow. The very fact that the Democrats had 
adopted the loose construction theories of the old, the real Federal 
party is conclusive proof that the Hartford convention acted, not on 
principle, but from partisan hatred. But its work came to naught. 
The news of peace that soon reached America rendered the whole 
proceeding ridiculous ; and the members that composed the conven- 
tion, as well as the party they represented, thus brought on them- 
selves an odium from which they never recovered. 

The war on the part of Great Britain was a serious and costly 
blunder. She did not acquire a foot of land, nor establish a prin- 
ciple, nor win a friend. She might have conciliated America with a 
few slight concessions, and have made us an ally against Napoleon. 
She could have dealt that monarch a stunning blow by opening her 
ports to our commerce, and thus reducing to a nullity all his preten- 
sions to blockade her coasts. But she suffered the dispute with us 
to come to blows, and thereby lost her monopoly on the sea, never 
to be regained ; sacrificed thousands of lives ; and expended money 
enough to have raised the pay of her sailors to such a figure as to 
prevent desertions, and to render impressment unnecessary. A 
remarkable feature of the war is found in the high mortality of 
British commanders. Seven sea captains were slain in action, be- 
sides Generals Brock, Ross, Pakenham, and Gibbs, Tecumseh, and 
Sir Peter Parker. 

On the other hand, the Americans gained greatly by the war, 
though this did not appear in the treaty, nor at first on the surface. 
The war had been expensive to the United States also. It had cost 
thirty thousand lives and a hundred million dollars; the currency 
had been so debased as to threaten every business interest in the 
country; the capital had been captured and burned; a portion of 
the people had been disaffected and had given aid and comfort to the 
enemy. But with all this, the war had been a successful one to the 
Americans. It had brought commercial independence and a final 



448 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

separation from European affairs, so necessary to national develop- 
ment. Europe had decided long before that a republican government 
could not succeed, and ancient Greece ana Rome were always held 
up as examples ; and even France, which had become a republic 
within that generation, had again relapsed into a monarchy. It 
was believed that our government would also fail, and great was 
the contempt across the Atlantic for the United States. But when, 
without a great leader, we held our own on the land for nearly 
three years, and more than held our own on the sea against the 
greatest naval power of the earth, the whole world was astonished 
Before this war, the United States was never considered a first-class 
power ; since then it has never been considered anything else. It 
was then that the nations began to realize that America was a rising 
giant, and that it demanded their respect ; and they have never since 
withheld it. 

In our home relations our success was equally marked. The 
people for the first time began to feel a national consciousness ; they 
saw with clearer vision than before that the nation had a future, a 
destiny, that no European interference could disturb. French and 
English factions in American politics forever disappeared. Soon 
after the close of the war began th-at wonderful tide of emigration 
from Europe that has poured an unceasing stream upon our shores 
from that day to the present. Then, also, began that wonderful era 
of prosperity which has swept down through the century like a tidal 
wave, and which has no parallel in the history of civilization. 

NOTES AND ANECDOTES 

War in the Mediterranean. — During the war the Dey of Algiers had again 
practiced his depredations on American vessels. In the spring of 1815 Decatur 
sailed into the Mediterranean with a fleet of ten vessels. Two days later he 
fell in with the Dey's finest frigate in search of American merchantmen. In 
half an hour Decatur had captured her, and a few days later another met a 
similar fate. Decatur then forced the Dey to sign a humiliating treaty, giving 
up all his prisoners without ransom, and making indemnities for all liis extor- 
tions. He then sailed to Tunis and Tripoli and exacted similar reparation ; and 
from that time American shipping was safe in the Mediterranean, 

Stories of Tecumseh. — Tecumseh was probably the greatest orator ever 
known among the Indians. His language was remarkable for poetic beauty. 
When he addressed an audience, his face shone with a passionate emotion 
that worked like magic on his hearers. He was a man of sensitive dignity, as 
shown by the following incident : When he and his warriors held the famous 



NOTES 449 

conference with Harrison, he looked around, after concluding his address, for 
a seat ; but none had been reserved for him, and he seemed offended. A white 
man quickly offered him a seat near General Harrison, saying, "Your father 
wishes you to sit by his side." — " The sun is my father," answered Tecumseh ; 
" the earth is my mother, and I will rest on her bosom," and he sat down on the 
ground. 

Tecumseh promised Harrison that in case of war between the whites and the 
Indians he would not permit his warriors to massacre women and children, and 
he kept his word. At the siege of Fort Meigs, while the Indians were murdering 
some prisoners, Tecumseh ran between the Indians and the prisoners, and bran- 
dishing his tomahawk dared the former to kill another man. Then turning to 
General Proctor, who had witnessed the massacre without protest, he exclaimed, 
" Why do you permit this ? " — " Your Indians cannot be restrained," answered 
Proctor. "Begone," cried Tecumseh, " you aje unfit to command ; go and put 
on petticoats." 

At the opening of the battle of the Thames, Tecumseh turned to his friends 
and said, "Brother warriors, I shall never come out of this battle alive; my 
body will remain on the field." He then unbuckled his sword, and, handing it 
to a chief, said, " When my son becomes a noted warrior, give him this, and 
go tell my people that Tecumseh died like a warrior and a hero." 

Stories of Jackson. — In the early part of the war Jackson raised two thou- 
sand troops and was sent down the Mississippi as far as Natcliez. But as no 
enemy appeared, he was ordered, in the spring of 1813, to disband the army. 
Jackson was very indignant at this order. It was cruel and outrageous, he 
said, to lead men five hundred miles from home and turn them out without 
money or food. He chose to disobey the order ; he marched the men back to 
Tennessee, at his own expense. But the government afterward assumed the 
expense. The general had three good horses ; but these he gave to the sick, 
while he walked with the rest. While tramping along, some one said, "The 
general is tough," and another added, "As tough as hickory." From this he 
soon came to be called " Old Hickory," and the name clung to him through life. 

Jackson engaged in a disgraceful street fight with the future Senator Benton 
and his brother, and the latter inflicted a terrible wound in Jackson's arm with 
a pistol shot. The future President was laid up for many weeks. He was still 
in bed when the Tennesseeans were arming to avenge Fort Mims. A friend 
called on Jackson and expressed his deep regret that the commander of the 
militia was not in condition to lead the army against the Creeks. Jackson's 
eyes flashed instantly, and he answered, "The h — 1 he isn't," whereupon he 
leaped from his bed, and an hour later he was astride his horse at the head of 
the army. He carried his arm in a sling during the entire campaign. On one 
occasion when the soldiers mutinied for want of food and started in a body for 
their homes, Jackson called on them to halt, and they refused. He then rode 
in front of the column, and with a volley of oaths and the fire flashing from his 
eyes, drew his musket with his one well arm, and declared he would shoot the 
first man that took another step. The men sullenly went back to their duty. 
After the Creeks had been crushed, Jackson set a price on the capture, dead or 
alive, of the half-breed Wetherford, who had led the Indians in the campaign, 
2o 



450 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

as also in the massacre of Fort Mims. One day as Jackson sat in his tent a big 
Indian chief wallied in and said : " I am Wetherford. I have come to asli peace 
for my people. I am in your power ; do as you please with me. I am a soldier. 
If I had an army, I would still fight ; but my warriors hear my voice no longer. 
Their bones are at Talledega and the Horse Shoe. Do as you will with me. You 
are a brave man. I ask not for myself, but for my people." Jackson was 
astonished at this visit. He had intended to put Wetherford to death ; but now 
felt that he could not do so. He gave the chief his liberty on his promise to 
keep peace in the future — and the promise was kept. 

Jackson's v?onderful nerve and physical courage were never shown to greater 
advantage than in his duel with Charles Dickinson in 1806. Dickinson was one 
of the richest men, and certainly the best marksman, in Tennessee. He and 
Jackson had long been enemies, and he frequently tried to provoke Jackson to 
a duel with intent to kill him. At last he succeeded by reflecting on the charac- 
ter of Jackson's wife, and the challenge came. The two parties rode north into 
Kentucky, and at daybreak, on May 30, the duel was fought. Jackson was an 
excellent shot ; but he could not compare with Dickinson, and every one expected 
that he would be killed. At the word "fire," Dickinson fired instantly, and 
a puff of dust was seen at Jackson's breast ; but he stood like a statue, with 
clenched teeth. Dickinson stepped back and cried, " My God, have I missed 
him ? " General Overton, Jackson's second, drew his pistol and ordered Dickin- 
son to stand still. Jackson deliberately fired and shot Dickinson through the 
body. As they went to the inn it was noticed that Jackson's boots were full of 
blood. "General, you are hit," cried Overton. "Oh, I believe he has pinked 
me a little," said Jackson ; " but don't mention it over there," pointing to the 
house where Dickinson lay dying. It was found that Dickinson's aim had been 
perfect, but that his bullet had only broken a rib and raked the breastbone. 
Jackson, asked how he could stand motionless with such a wound, said, " I should 
have hit him if he had shot me through the brain." See Parton, Vol. I, p. 299. 

Prohibition of the Slave Trade. — As we shall soon have to deal with the 
great question of slavery, it is well to notice here the national prohibition of the 
African slave trade. A part of one of the compromises of the Constitution was 
that Congress must not interfere with the slave trade before 1808. Long before 
this time, however, the Southern states put an end to the traffic, each within its 
own bounds. But in 1804 South Carolina reopened it (after it had been closed 
in that state for fifteen years), and in the remaining four years imported about 
forty thousand negroes. In 1807, Congress passed a law to take effect January 1, 
1808, prohibiting the trade, under severe penalties. In 1820 an additional act 
made the traffic piracy punishable by death. But in spite of all vigilance of the 
government, aided by the British government, there continued a smuggling trade 
up to the Civil War. In all this period there was but one execution for smug- 
gling negroes, and that after the opening of the Civil War. 



CHAPTER XX 

JAWN OF NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

Nothing is more interesting to the student of American political 
history than the gradual change wrought in the Democratic party 
during the first sixteen years of the nineteenth century. The party 
had been founded on the principles of strict construction of the 
Constitution ; but it did not gain control of the government until the 
Federalists had committed the country to a policy of broad construc- 
tion. Had the early theories of Jefferson on construction been 
strictly carried out, the Union could not have existed a quarter of a 
century. Jefferson was wise in being able to see the necessity of 
abandoning his former theories. His party was founded on the 
theory of strict construction and state rights, and yet no President 
ever departed farther from this policy than he in the purchase of 
Louisiana, and in the laying of an unlimited embargo. He believed 
that the nations could live in harmony without war ; his party waged 
a foreign war eleven years after it came into power. One of the 
party's theories was that no navy was necessary ; it voted in 1813 
to build a navy. Another was its opposition to direct taxes and 
internal revenue; it established both in 1813. At first the party 
opposed internal improvements at national expense ; in 1806 it 
passed a law to build the Cumberland Road, and internal improve- 
ments have flourished from that time to the present. For years the 
party opposed a national bank ; in 1816 it established one. What, 
then, can we say of a party that abandons the very foundation stones 
on which it was built ? Simply, that it was wise enough to grapple 
with new problems, to adapt itself to new conditions. What, then, 
of Thomas Jefferson, who had been forced to discard, one by one, 
nearly every plank on which he had stood at his first election to the 
presidency ? As noted on a former page, it was not state rights, nor 
a weak central government, to which Jefferson gave his lifework. 
These were but means, which he erroneously believed to be necessary 

451 



452 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

means, to a sublimer end. The end was the rule of the democracy, 
a government by the people. And this he won, — not immediately, 
not fully during his lifetime; but he started the current, which 
gathered in force and in later years became irresistible. 

EECUPERATING 

Marvelously soon after the close of the war the people returned 
to their respective vocations and set about repairing their broken 
fortunes. But it was the government, rather than the people, that 
had suffered. The great question now before Congress was that con- 
cerning the adjustment of the finances. The money of the country 
was in a frightful condition. The sources of issue exceeded four 
hundred in number. Much of the " wild-cat " money, as it was called, 
was counterfeit ; much came from alleged banks that had no exist- 
ence.^ Mr. Dallas of Pennsylvania had proved himself an able 
financier. He now sought to bring about specie payments as soon as 
possible, and to do this he again urged upon Congress the advantage 
of chartering a second United States Bank. The charter of the old 
United States hank founded by Hamilton had expired in 1811, and, 
Bank char- as we have seen, a recharter was defeated in Congress. 
tered, 1816. g^^; j^qw a twenty-year charter for a national bank, with 
$35,000,000 capital, was readily obtained. The government sub- 
scribed $7,000,000 of this and the remainder was taken by individu- 
als and corporations. The bank paid the government a bonus of 
$1,500,000 for the charter. It had a wonderful effect in restoring 
confidence, and in a short time the national debt was steadily de- 
creasing, while the people were busy and prosperous and happy. 

To the two great industries of the country, agriculture and com- 
merce, a third, manufactures, was now added. The temporary sus- 
pension of commerce, through Jefferson's embargo and the war,^ had 
forced the people to begin manufacturing on a large scale to supply 
their own wants. Before the embargo all the cotton and woolen 
cloth, tools, china, glass, and the like were brought from England ; 
but at the close of the war hundreds of manufactories, encouraged 
by societies formed for the purpose, by prizes and by special acts of 
state legislatures, had sprung up, and most of these articles were 
made at home. 

1 McMaster, Vol. V, p. 307. 

* Daring the war the duties on foreign imports had been doubled. 



JAMES MONROE 453 



Soon after the coming of peace the country was flooded with aL 
manner of merchandise from England, and the people, seeing theii 
new industries threatened, called upon Congress to pro- 
tect by taritf laws what the embargo and the war had jof^i^ °' 
protected for them before. The response was the tariff 
of 1816, fathered by William Lowndes of South Carolina. By this 
tariff duties were raised to an average of about twenty per cent,^ and 
this not only greatly increased the revenue, but proved ample for 
protection; and the business of manufacturing increased and flour- 
ished throughout the land. 

There was little speculation as to who would succeed Madison to 
the presidency. It seemed to be generally understood that James 
Monroe would be chosen, the only objection being that he was a 
Virginian, and Virginia had furnished all the presidents thus far 
except Adams. Monroe, however, would have been eclipsed, and 
would probably have been beaten, by the more brilliant De Witt 
Clinton of New York, but for the fact that Clinton had Monroe 
bolted the regular party candidate four years before, and elected 
had permitted himself to be the candidate of the anti- President, 
war Democrats and the Federalists. He never rose again to national 
favor, and Monroe now had clear sailing. The Federal party was 
no longer formidable. The war, which the party had so diligently 
opposed, had ended happily, and this continued opposition, with the 
odium of the " Blue Lights " and of the Hartford convention, was 
a burden too heavy to be borne ; and after casting 34 electoral votes 
for Rufus King against Monroe's 183, the party disappeared from 
national politics. Daniel D. Tompkins, the vigorous war governor^ 
of New York, was chosen Vice President. 

The time for retiring, after a long and useful public career, now 
came to James Madison. With his accomplished wife, known as 
" Dolly " Madison, he retired to his rural home at Montpelier, Vir- 
ginia, and there he grew old gracefully amid the scenes of his young 
manhood. He was the last survivor of the illustrious band that had 
framed the Constitution, dying in 1836, after twenty years in private 
life. No President in his declining years ever enjoyed a deeper 
reverence of the whole people than did Madison. 

Monroe has been called the last and least of the great Virginians. 
He was less original than his great predecessors, it is true, nor was 
he brilliant nor dashing in any sense ; but none was better fitted foi 
1 Tausig's " Tariff History," p. 19. 



454 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

the presidency at this moment than he, for the people were no\V 
dreaming of national greatness, and were not in the mood for hero- 
worship, Monroe had made few enemies. He was so open-hearted, 
generous, amiable, and industrious that he had won the confidence 
of all classes. " If his soul were turned inside out," said Jefferson, 
'' not a blot could be found upon it." Soon after the inauguration 
the new President made a tour of the country, ostensibly "to inspect 
the national defenses," but in fact to strengthen patriotism, to win 
over disaffected elements, and to obliterate party lines. And his 
tour was eminently successful. In ISTew England the remaining 
Federalists vied with the Democrats in doing honor to this " last of 
the revolutionary fathers." In every town he was met 
Monroe's ^^ ^-^^ leading men, and was cheered by thousands 

of school children, and by young men and women of 
every walk in life. It was said that the farmer left his plow in 
the furrow, the housewife left her clothes in the tub and her cream 
in the churn and hastened to the towns to see this real President of 
the United States. While the presidential party was in New Eng- 
land a Boston newspaper gave rise to the well-known expression, 
" Era of good feeling," which is still used to characterize the admin- 
istration of Monroe. From New England the President passed 
through northern New York, to Sacketts Harbor, Niagara, and 
thence to Detroit, returning through Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Mary- 
land. This tour, covering three and a half months, was followed 
by another to the South, and their great usefulness in cementing the 
Union and awakening a livelier sense of patriotism was denied by 
no one. 

Monroe had chosen a strong Cabinet. John Quincy Adams 
became secretary of state, William H. Crawford, secretary of the 
treasury, Crowningshield of Massachusetts, secretary of the navy, 
while John C. Calhoun took the war department and William Wirt 
became attorney general. Of these five men, three — Adams, Craw- 
ford, and Calhoun — were yet to become important figures on the 
political stage. 

One of the most notable episodes of this quiet administration was 
that known as the Seminole War, notable mainly because it brought 
prominently before the public, for the second time, a remarkable 
character, a future President — Andrew Jackson. The Seminole 
Indians, a wandering portion of the Creeks, together with some 
Spaniards and negroes escaped from their masters, kept stirring up 



JACKSON AND THE INDIANS 455 

trouble with the Americans along the northern border of Florida, 
■which then belonged to Spain, and Jackson with fiftefen hundred men 
was sent against them. He was successful at every turn, and the war 
was soon over. In this brief campaign Jackson showed that spirit of 
lawlessness so characteristic of him through life. Monroe was care- 
ful not to offend Spain, and through Calhoun, his secretary of war, 
he instructed Jackson not to lead his army on Spanish 
soil. But the general thought he knew best, and he led w™^°iot o 
the army across the border without ceremony.^ He 
captured St. Marks and Pensacola, both on Spanish territory, and 
even sent General Gaines against St. Augustine, which was not at 
all concerned in the war ; but Calhoun recalled Gaines, and the town 
was not taken. Again Jackson exhibited his lawless propensities 
in dealing with two English captives — Ambrister and Arbuthnot. 
Ambrister was a young Englishman, who was taken in the act of 
leading the Indians against the Americans. Arbuthnot was an old 
Scotch trader suspected of stirring up the Indians. A court-martial 
sentenced both to death; but it reconsidered the decision ^n the case 
of Ambrister and gave him a lighter sentence. But Jackson, believ- 
ing both men to be guilty, reversed the second decision of the court 
and ordered both men to be put to death, and it was done. Great 
was the indignation in England against Jackson when the facts 
became known. He was denounced as a murderer all over England ; 
but Parliament was more considerate and decided not to allow the 
matter to make trouble between the two nations, as it was evident 
that the two men had violated international rights. A British states- 
man, however, said that if the ministry would but raise a finger, all 
England would rush to arms at a moment's notice. 

But Jackson's trouble was not over. He made enemies in Wash- 
ington. There were several secret cabinet meetings in which his 
conduct was discussed. All the cabinet were against him except 
John Quincy Adams ; but none wished to become his open enemy, so 
the meetings were kept secret. Now Jackson thought that Calhoun 

^ Jackson always claimed that he had secret orders from the President, through 
John Rhea, a member of Congress, to conquer Florida. Jackson had said, in a letter 
to the President, " Let it be signified to me through any channel (say Mr. John Rhea) 
that the possession of the Floridas would be desirable, . . . and in sixty days it will 
be accomplished." This authority he and Rhea claimed to have received ; but Monroe 
always denied having given it. In 1830 the subject came up again, and the aged ex- 
President, under oath, declared that he had not granted the authority. Whether 
Jackson and Rhea were right and INIonroe bad forgotten, was never known. Sea 
Magazine of American History, October, 18H4. 



468 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

was his warmest friend and most faithful defender in the Cabinet', 
but Calhoun made the remark in one of these meetings that Jackson 
ought to be court-martialed. This was the costliest sentence ever 
uttered by John C. Calhoun, as will be shown in a later chapter. 
Many of the people denounced Jackson, and he was wroth ; but Mon- 
roe skillfully soothed his feelings, gave up the Spanish forts, and 
avoided war with Spain. And yet Jackson's tribulation was not at 
an end. Congress took up the matter. Jackson had enemies in 
Congress, and a motion was made in the House to censure him for 
hanging the two Englishmen, and was debated for three weeks, much 
to the chagrin of the administration ; for Monroe had already settled 
the matter, and England demanded nothing. The war being over, 
Jackson came to Washington and remained during this strange debate. 
At length he was acquitted and came out with flying colors.^ He 
then made a tour through the North, and was received with great 
demonstration ever3^where. An immense banquet was given in his 
honor in New York City. This was on Washington's birthday, 
1819, and on that very day, John Quincy Adams, secretary of state, 
and Don Onis, minister from Spain, signed the treaty conveying 
Florida from Spain to the United States.^ 

THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 

We must now introduce the reader to a great public question, 
which first became prominent at this period, and which thereafter, 
with brief intervals, was the most overshadowing public issue for half 
a century — the slavery question. It first came up as a sectional 
question in connection with the admission of Missouri into the Union, 
and resulted in the Missouri Compromise. The rising West had 
been rising with great rapidity. Streams of emigration from the 
East had poured into the great valley of the Mississippi, and one 
new state after another had joined the famous sisterhood. Louisi- 
ana had been admitted in 1812, and four years later her northern 
sister of kindred name, Indiana, became the nineteenth state. Indi- 
ana was the first of six states to be admitted in six successive years, 
the others in order being Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, and 
Missouri. It was the last of these that brought up the momentous 
issue that was destined to shock the country almost to its destruc- 

1 In this debate Clay denounced the conduct of Jackson, and thus incurred hia 
everlasting enmity. 

* See note at end of chapter. 



SLAVERY BEFORE THE REVOLUTION 457 

tion, and to be settled at last in blood. The Missouri Compromise 
was purely a slavery question, and a rapid glance at the existence 
of slavery in America before this date is here in place. 

The enslavement of the African race for commercial purj^-.oses 
had its beginning in southern Europe about half a century before 
the discovery of America by Columbus. It was transplanted to 
Central and South America by the Spaniards, and it existed there 
for a hundred years before being introduced into the English colo- 
nies of North America. Soon after the small beginning made in 
Virginia the institution grew and spread to other colonies as they 
were founded; and at the opening of the Revolution there were 
about six hundred thousand slaves in the colonies. The slave-traffic 
during the colonial period was very lucrative and was carried on 
chiefly by English traders. At various times the colonies attempted 
to restrict the evil, but in each case the attempt was crushed by the 
British Crown, simply because the trade was profitable. As early 
as 1712 Pennsylvania passed a law to restrict the increase of slaves, 
but it was annulled by the crown.^ Virginia made a similar attempt, 
a few years later, by laying a tax on imported negroes. South Caro- 
lina attempted to restrict the trade in 1761, as did Massachusetts a 
few years later; but in each ease the effort was sum- 
marily crushed by the Crown. As late as 1770 King t^e^oj^^gg 
George wrote the governor of Virginia, commanding 
him on pain of the royal displeasure " to assent to no law by which 
the importation of slaves should be in any respect prohibited or 
obstructed." Thus while the mother country prohibited slavery 
on her home soil, she not only encouraged but enforced it in 
her colonies.^ But the colonists were in part to be blamed, for 
they purchased the slaves; otherwise the traffic would have died 
out. 

Slavery in the colonies was first opposed by the Quakers and Penn- 
sylvania Germans in the latter part of the seventeenth century. John 
Wesley, the great founder of Methodism, visited the South in later 
years and pronounced the institution the " sum of all villainies." At 
the opening of the Revolution all the colonies had slaves ; but the 
Northern states soon began to emancipate, not so much from motives 

1 Wilson's " Rise and Fall of the Slave Power," Vol. I, p. 4. 

2 Before 1772 slaves were held in England. In that year Chief Justice Mansfield 
decided, in the famous Somerset case, that it was illegal to hold slaves in England, 
and that decision, which freed about fourteen thousand blacks, has never since been 
reversed. 



458 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

of morality as because the institution was unprofitable. Massachu' 
setts abolished slavery by a decision of the courts ; Pennsylvania 
provided for gradual emancipation in 1780 ; New Hampshire, Con- 
necticut, and Rhode Island in 1784 ; New York in 1799 ; New Jersey 
in 1804, and so on. There were a few left in New Jersey as late 
as 1850. Jefferson inserted a clause against the slave trade in the 
Declaration of Independence, but it was struck out. The Ordinance 
of 1787 kept slavery out of the Northwest.^ The law of 1808, pro- 
hibiting the slave trade, brought relief to all opposers of the institu- 
tion, for it was generally believed that the artery of slavery was now 
severed, and that it would eventually die out in the South, as it had 
in the North ; and little was heard on the subject during the next 
ten years. But this hope was a delusion. Whitney's cotton gin, a 
simple machine for separating the seed from the fiber, which enabled 
one man to do the work of three hundred before its invention, brought 
cotton to the front and rendered it eventually the chief agricultural 
staple in America. More slaves were needed to raise cotton in the 
growing states along the Lower Mississippi, while some of the Eastern 
states had more than they needed, and hence was established the 
interstate slave trade. Meantime slavery was fastening itself upon 
the South with a firmer grasp, and at the same time the conviction 
was slowly taking possession of the northern heart that the whole 
system was wrong and should be checked. On both ethical and 
economic grounds the North came to oppose the extension of slavery. 
The South was quick to see that the only way in which to prevent 
future legislation unfriendly to slavery was to increase the number 
of slave states, and thus to increase its representation in the United 
States Senate. 

A vast region was added to the United States by the Louisiana 
Purchase, and as the time approached for this to be carved into 
states, the all-important question arose, Slavery or no slavery in the 
great West ? Missouri was the first of the trans-Mississippi terri- 

1 In 1784 Jefferson introduced an ordinance for the government of the Southwest, 
the territory " ceded already or to be ceded " to the United States, afterward Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, etc., in which a clause prohibited slavery in the terri- 
tory after the year 1800 ; but this clause was struck out by a majority of one. Had 
it been carried and been effective, slavery would have been confined to a few Atlantic 
states in the South, and would doubtless have died a natural death. But a certain 
member from New Jersey, who would have voted for it, was absent on the day when 
the vote was taken. Thus the entire course of American history was changed by the 
absence of one man from Congress on a certain day in 1784. See Greeley's " American 
Conflict," Vol. I, pp. 38-40. 



GREAT DEBATES IN CONGRESS 459 

tories to apply for statehood, and on its application the first great 
battle between the North and the South was fought. The slave- 
holders had stolen a march by settling in Missouri with their slaves ; 
and when the application for statehood came to the Fifteenth Con- 
gress, it provided for slavery in the new state. But it was clearly 
seen that if Missouri were admitted with slavery, it would be very 
difficult to keep it out of any part of the Louisiana Purchase. Slav- 
ery in Missouri must therefore be opposed, and the man for the occa- 
sion was at hand. 

There was a young man in the House from New York, named 
James Talmadge, who now rose and moved to strike out the slavery 
clause in the Missouri bill, or, more exactly, that there 
be no further introduction of slavery into Missouri, and nnJ^Tavfor 
that all children born in slavery after the admission of 
the state should be free at the age of twenty -five years ; and his 
speech in support of the motion was the most eloquent heard on the 
floor of Congress since the time of Fisher Ames. Talmadge was 
powerfully aided by John W. Taylor, also of New York, and the 
two succeeded in defeating the Missouri bill with slavery. But the 
Senate rejected the House ineasure, and it was left over till the next 
Congress. During the interval the subject was discussed on all 
sides, and the agitation was intense ; but the people could do but 
little, as the next Congress had already been elected. 

The Missouri question was not only an ethical and an economic 
one, it involved also a deep constitutional principle. Had Congress 
the power to lay restrictions on new states that were not laid on the 
original thirteen ? Would the new states be coequal with the old 
if admitted under such limitations ? The members from the South 
took the ground that the Constitution gave Congress no such power. 
They argued also that the treaty ceding Louisiana to the United 
States contained the express provision that all property rights must 
be protected by the United States. Those from the North, with some 
exceptions, contended that as Congress had full control in governing 
the territories, it had the power to place conditions on their admission 
as states. 

One notable feature of the debate was that no one from either 
section stood up for slavery as a moral or an economic benefit to the 
country ; all agreed that it was an evil. But the South contended that 
making a slave state of Missouri would simply scatter and lessen the 
evil ■without increasing it. 



460 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

The Sixteenth Congress, ever memorable for the Missouri Compro- 
mise, met in December, 1819, and this great question soon came up 
for a final solution. As Talmadge was not a member 
d^^b^t ^^ *^^^ Congress, Taylor was the champion for free 

Missouri. The leaders on the other side were Henry 
Clay, the speaker, John Tyler, a future President, Charles Pinck- 
ney, a framer of the Constitution, and William Lowndes. Again 
the House adhered to its antislavery position, and again the Senate 
disagreed. In the Senate the debates even surpassed those of the 
House, the leader for slavery in Missouri being William Pinkney of 
Maryland, with E,ufus King of New York as his leading opponent. 
The Senate was balanced, half from slave states and half from free 
states ; but there were a few northern senators who, from constitu- 
tional grounds, or from a desire to please the South, voted with the 
southern members. One from Indiana, and both from Illinois, now 
voted with the South, and the two houses again reached a deadlock. 

It happened that at this time Maine, which had belonged to Mas- 
sachusetts from colonial days, was asking for admission as a sepa- 
rate state ; and the Senate, acting on a suggestion made in the House 
by Mr, Clay, brought in a bill to admit Maine, and to this bill they 
attached the one to admit Missouri, with slavery. This was passed 
February 16, 1820, whereupon Senator Thomas of Illinois made a 
motion to amend the bill by annexing a clause prohibiting slavery 
in all the remainder of the Louisiana territory north of thirty-six 
degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, the southern boundary 
of Missouri. This became the famous compromise line. It was 
adopted by the Senate, but the House rejected it; and still again 
each House voted to stand its ground. Then a joint committee was 
appointed, and this committee agreed to admit Maine and Missouri 
separately, leaving the Thomas amendment to the Missouri bill. 
This report was adopted by both houses; and Missouri, with the 
Thomas compromise line, was admitted as a slave state. President 
Monroe signed the Maine bill on March 3, and the Missouri bill 
March 6, 1820. 

But this did not end the strife concerning Missouri. The act of 
March, 1820, was simply an act enabling the territory to form a con- 
stitution for statehood. When the people of Missouri adopted a 
constitution, they inserted a clause making it the duty of the legisla- 
ture to exclude free negroes and mulattoes from the commonwealth. 
This brought on another great debate in Congress. The objection to 



MISSOURI COMPROMISE 461 

this clause was based on the ground that the Constitution guarantees 
to the citizens of any state all the privileges and immunities of the 
citizens of the several states. The two houses again failed to agree, 
and again the decision was made through a joint committee. Henry- 
Clay was the mover and the chairman of this committee, and from 
this fact he became known as the author of the Missouri Compromise.^ 

This committee reported a bill to admit Missouri on an equal 
footing with the original states, on the condition that its constitu- 
tion should never be construed so as to authorize any law by which 
a citizen of any other state should be excluded from the privileges 
which he enjoyed in other parts of the Union ; and that the legisla- 
ture of Missouri should pass a solemn act declaring its consent to 
this condition. This was accepted by both houses, and became a law 
on the 28th of February, 1821 ; Missouri accepted the condition and 
became a state in the Union. 

The Missouri contest had far-reaching results. It has generally 
been considered a victory for the South, in that Missouri was actu- 
ally admitted as a slave state. But the compromise on the line of 
thirty-six thirty probably brought equal or greater advantage to the 
North. This part of the act was repealed thirty-four years later; 
but meantime it did great service in keeping slavery out of Iowa 
and other portions of the Northwest. 

But there was a deeper principle involved in this decision. The 
fact that a compromise line had been agreed on, thus giving Con- 
gress power over slavery in the territories, and that Missouri was 
admitted with a condition which was not imposed on the original 
states (both in accordance with broad construction), opened the eyes 
of the South to the fact that broad construction had taken deep root 
in the Democratic party, and to the further fact that the status of 
slavery would, in a great measure, rest henceforth on the will of 
Congress. As Professor Burgess has pointed out,^ this new revela- 
tion to the South brought about within the next ten years a division 
in the Democratic party. The portion more favorable to non-inter- 
ference with slavery, which became the Democratic party of Jack- 
son, went back, to some extent, to the early doctrine of Jefferson, 
and became strict constructionists, the chief object being to protect 

1 Clay had appointed the House members of the committee that arranged the 
'first compromise of the year before, and his selection of men favorable to the com- 
promise aided also in crediting him with being the author of it. 

2 " The Middle Period," p. 104. 



462 HISTOKY OF TPIE UNITED STATES 

slavery from Congress, which, in the Lower House, must ever be 
dominated by the North. The other portion of the party at length 
became the Whig party, under the leadership of Clay, These mighty 
political forces were set in motion by the Missouri Compromise.^ 

MONKOE'S SECOND TERM 

James Monroe was elected to the presidency a second time by a 
unanimous vote, save one.^ This unanimity indicated, not the over- 
shadowing greatness of the President, nor his inherent power to draw 
all men unto himself, but rather that party lines had been extin- 
guished, that no other aspirant had secured a following, and that 
this mediocre President was considered a safe man, and was trusted 
and loved by all the people. 

In December, 1823, President Monroe set his hand to a document 
that has made his name more famous in foreign lands than that of 
any other of our early presidents except the name of the Father of 
his Country. In his annual message to Congress that year he laid 
down a principle of foreign policy to which the government has 
adhered with the utmost tenacity from that time to the present, 
and this policy took the name the world over of the Monroe Doc- 
trine. This " doctrine " grew ouu of the rebellion against Spain 
of her possessions in the New World. When, in 1808, Napoleon 
put his brother on the throne of Spain, Mexico and the Spanish 
colonies of Central and South America rebelled, and won a tempo- 
rary freedom ; but on the restoration of the old monarchy they 
returned to their old allegiance. When, however, Spain attempted 

1 The aged ex-President, Thomas Jefferson, was one of the first to see the deep 
significance of the Missouri question. Though unfriendly to slavery, he favored its 
extension into Missouri, as it would dilute and scatter the evil without increasing the 
numher of slaves. Jefferson was alarmed at the rise of parties on geographical lines. 
To John Adams he wrote concerning the Missouri debate (December 10, 1819) : " From 
the battle of Bunker's Hill to the Treaty of Paris we never had so ominous a question. 
... I thank God that I shall not live to witness the issue." Jefferson was greatly 
alarmed for the future of the country. After the compromise line had been settled, 
he wrote : " The question sleeps for the present, but is not dead," and, " This momen- 
tous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened me and tilled me with terror. I 
considered it at once as the knell of the Union." But he seems later to have regained 
hope. On December 26, 1820, he wrote to Lafayette, " The boisterous sea of liberty, 
indeed, is never without a wave, and that from Missouri is now rolling toward us; 
but we shall ride over it as we have over all the others." 

2 An elector from New Hampshire, claiming that Washington should stand alonQ 
in being unanimously chosen to the great office, voted for John Q. Adams. 



MONROE DOCTRINE 463 

fco reimpose on them her old colonial system, after this taste of lib- 
erty, they again rebelled, and declared their independence. After six 
years of warfare, Spain being too weak to subdue them, the United 
States acknowledged their independence. In 1823 the king of Spain 
invoked the aid of other European powers (the same that had formed 
the " Holy Alliance " a few years before) to aid him in putting down 
a rebellion at home, and presumably to aid him in subduing his rebel- 
lious American colonies. England had built up a flourishing trade 
with South America, which she wished to maintain, and Mr. Canning, 
the British premier, now suggested that England and the United 
States join in aiding these new-born republics to maintain their free- 
dom. But the United States preferred to act alone, and its action 
consisted in a simple declaration by the President, in part as 
follows : — 

" The occasion has been judged proper for asserting as a princi- 
ple .. , that the American continents . . . are henceforth not to 
be considered as subjects for future colonization by any^ European 
powers. . . . We should consider any attempt on their part to 
extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous 
to our peace and safety." The message further states that the 
United States would not interfere with any existing possessions in 
America of the countries of Europe, but as to those 
which had won their independence, " we could not view j)o^rine. 
any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, 
or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European 
power, in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly 
disposition toward the United States." 

This is the famous " doctrine," the language of which is said to 
have been written by Secretary Adams ; but, being embodied in the 
message of Monroe, it took his name, and has thus been known ever 
since. The first part, as quoted above, was directed chiefly against 
Kussia, as that country had taken possession of Alaska, and was 
extending its settlements down the Pacific Coast. By this a stand 
was taken against further colonization in America by European 
powers. The second part was intended to protect republican govern- 
ment in South America. 

This doctrine was not new with Monroe. Its roots may be found 
in the neutrality proclamation of Washington, in his farewell ad- 
dress, and in Jefferson's warning against "entangling alliances." 
This attitude of non-interference in European affairs expanded until 



464 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

it resulted in a determination to oppose all European interference in 
matters wholly American. It was a settled policy of the government 
for years before being officially proclaimed by Monroe. It was now 
eminently effective. Russia ceased her encroachments on the Pacific 
coast, and the European alliance abandoned all intention of aiding 
Spain against her former colonies. On various occasions since then 
has this doctrine been called into operation, the most notable being 
in 1865 against France in Mexico, and in 1895 against England in 
Venezuela.^ The twofold object of the Monroe Doctrine is to guard 
against that which may be " dangerous to our peace and safety," and 
to protect republican government in the Americas. The Monroe Doc- 
trine is not a part of international law, nor has it been placed on 
the statutes of our country ; it is simply a policy, a declaration of an 
attitude taken by the Executive of this government with reference 
to the relations of the European powers to the republics of this hemi- 
sphere. It is a mistake to believe that the doctrine is becoming 
obsolete ; it is more firmly embedded in the American heart at this 
time than ever before. A still greater mistake is the opinion held 
by some that the ultimate object of the United States is to absorb 
the republics south of us into our own government. Nothing is 
farther from the truth. What the future attitude of the United 
States on this subject may be, we do not pretend to prophesy; but 
for the present it is safe to say that if any South or Central Ameri- 
can state were to seek admission to our Union as a state, or even as 
a dependent territory, the united voice of our people would be 
against it. 

One of the great subjects that attracted the attention of Congress 
during the administration of Monroe was that of internal improve- 
ments. In the last week of Madison's administration a bill was 
passed to set apart the bonus received by the government from the 
bank, and also the proceeds of the shares held by the government, 
for the purpose of constructing roads and canals. The leading advo- 
cate of this bill was John C. Calhoun, and in the light of 
prov^ents' subsequent events it is interesting to note that at this 
period no statesman had broader national views than 
Calhoun. He not only claimed that internal improvements were 
constitutional under the "general welfare" clause, but that they 

1 For a fuller account of the Monroe Doctrine in operation, see Bison's " Side 
Lights," Vol. I, Chap. IX. 



TARIFF LEGISLATION 465 

would go far toward strengthening the government and counteracting 
all tendencies toward sectionalism and disunion. But there was 
much opposition to the bill on the old strict construction grounds, 
and among its opponents was President Madison, who, on the day 
before retiring from office, vetoed the bill. 

Five years later, in 1822, a bill to repair and operate the Cumber- 
land Road, Avhich it will be remembered was authorized in 1806, was 
passed by Congress and vetoed by President Monroe. Two years 
later, however, an act for making surveys, plans, and estimates for 
national routes became a law. This was a second entering wedge, 
the first being the authorizing of the Cumberland Road nearly twenty 
years before. After this the government set apart money from time 
to time for internal improvements ; but the coming of the railway 
rendered the constructing of roads and canals less urgent, and 
national aid in later years was confined chiefly to the improvements 
of rivers and harbors. 

Closely associated with the subject of internal improvements was 
that of the tariff, which received much attention at this period. Not- 
withstanding the tariff of 1816, the people suffered a money panic 
two years later, caused chiefly by the reaction from the disturbed 
condition during the war, and by the inflation due to the springing 
up of several hundred local banks. Most of the people, however, 
believed that a higher rate of protective duties would prove a cure- 
all for the ills of the country. Led by Henry Clay, who had now be- 
come the champion of the " American System " of protection, this 
party passed a tariff bill in the House in 1820 which was defeated 
in the Senate by a single vote. But the people continued their 
clamor for higher protection, and in 1824 the second 
general tariff of the century was enacted into law. By jgg^ 
this tariff the duties on wool, iron, hemp, lead, and many 
other articles were increased, and an average scale of about thirty- 
three per cent was reached. This tariff was not a sectional measure.^ 
Among its opponents were Daniel Webster, Mr. Cambreling of New 
York City, and several leading men from the South. The North and 
the border states, led by Clay, were its chief supporters. 

The Seventeenth Congress, expiring in 1823, had done nothing, 
almost nothing — except to intrigue and plot and counter-plot con- 
cerning the presidential succession. Monroe's term was passing into 
history; somebody must succeed him, and for the first time the whole 
1 See Burgess's " Middle Period," p. 115. 
2h 



466 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

country was at sea concerning the choice of a candidate. The Federal 
party had disappeared, and the Democratic party had absorbed the 
whole people ; but this did not bring political harmony. Four can- 
didates early loomed up on the political horizon, each with his per- 
sonal following, and each claiming to represent the true democracy : 
Henry Clay, the man of the people, the idol of the House of Repre- 
sentatives ; John C. Calhoun, the brilliant young South Carolinian, 
able, far-sighted, patriotic ; John Quincy Adams, son of former Presi- 
dent Adams; and William H. Crawford of Georgia, ex-minister to 
France, now secretary of the treasury, and, as many believed, a 
designing, intriguing politician. Crawford was Monroe's chief rival 
for the nomination in 1816, and so sure did he feel that he would 
The presi- succeed Monroe that in 1820- he piloted an act through 
dential can- Congress known as the " Crawford Act," which gave 
vass of 1824. greater power to the president in the appointment of 
civil service officials. By this act, which stands on our statutes to 
this day, the tenure of civil service officials was reduced to four 
years, whereas before this such officials had been appointed without 
a definite time limit. This gave an immense appointive power into 
the hands of every incoming President. Eight years were yet to 
elapse before the national party convention was to come into exist- 
ence; the congressional caucus still assumed the right to name 
candidates. But the caucus for this purpose had lost its force with 
the people. The last of these was held at this period, and it nomi- 
nated Crawford ; but it was attended by less than half the members 
of Congress.^ The other candidates were nominated by various state 
legislatures. 

As the canvass progressed, another star was added to the constel- 
lation ; and now there were five. As near the close of the War of 
1812 a star had risen in the South that soon outshone all the others, 
so it was now, and it happened to be the same star, — Andrew 
Jackson. The rude but virile state of Tennessee had, as early as 
1822, boldly put forward this grim old hero of New Orleans, who 
was now nearing the completion of his three-score years ; and great 
numbers of the people, weary of the intrigues of the trained politi- 
cians, turned instinctively to this " man of the people " and made 
his cause their own. But the constellation was soon again reduced 

1 About this time Crawford suffered a severe stroke of paralysis, from which he 
never fully recovered ; but during the campaign his friends kept the fact from the 
public as best they could. 



LAFAYETTE'S VISIT 467 

to four, as Calhoun quietly dropped out and accepted second place 
on the ticket. The election came ; tae people spoke through the 
electoral college, electing Calhoun Vice President, but failing to 
choose a President ; and for the second time in our history, and the 
last thus far, this momentous duty fell to the House of Representa- 
tives. Jackson had received the highest number of electors, ninety- 
nine ; Adams came next with eighty-four, Crawford securing forty-one, 
and Clay thirty-seven. The Twelfth Amendment provides that the 
House may vote for the three highest only, and this shut Clay out, 
as he was fourth in the list. But for this. Clay might easily have 
become President, had he chosen to vote and to work for himself, for 
he was speaker of the House and was very popular in that body.' 
The House dallied with the great subject, and before it came to a 
vote every member turned aside to pay homage to a stranger who 
appeared upon its floor. He was an aged, thin-faced, kindly man, 
whom every American revered as a father, — Lafayette, the friend of 
liberty. 

In the dark days of the Revolution, when in the bloom of his 
young manhood, this doughty Frenchman had left his youthful wife 
and his luxurious home to offer his life and his fortune 
in the holy cause of liberty ; and now at the end of half * a-yette. 
a century he returned to visit the land he had never ceased to love. 
And never in the history of the United States has any other foreigner 
received the glad welcome, the universal homage of the people, as he 
did. Lafayette had greatly changed. His love of liberty was still 
warm and young ; but the blithe step was gone, his hair was silvered, 
and his brow was furrowing with age. But greater was the change 
in the land that his eyes now looked upon, — then a few distracted 
colonies struggling toward the light, now a nation that commanded 
the world's respect, with its rising cities, its opening industries, its 
continental domain. 

General Lafayette arrived in New York in August, 1824. As 
he traveled through the country, men and women of every rank 
hastened to the towns to see this hero of a past generation and to 
join in the universal shout of welcome. He visited every state in 
the Union, and spent the winter in Washington. Congress voted 

1 Again, Clay would have been third on the list instead of Crawford, but for a 
trick played on him in Louisiana. When the legislature of that state chose electors, 
it did so when two or three of Clay's friends, who held the balance of power, were 
absent, and thus the state voted for Jackson and Adams instead of Clay. 



468 HISTOKY OF THE UNITED STATES 

him $200,000 and a township of land in Florida, which he was 
asked to accept, not as a gift, but as a partial recompense for his 
Eevohitionary services; and this came good indeed during the 
remaining nine years of his life, for he had lost his fortune in the 
various changes of the French government. In June, 1825, he was 
in Boston, on the greatest gala day that Boston ever saw, and laid 
the corner stone of Bunker Hill Monument, on the fiftieth anniversary 
of the famous battle. After a visit of nearly fourteen months the 
nation's guest departed for his native land in the Brandywine, named 
for the battle in which he had been wounded, in southern Penn- 
sylvania. 

We return to the presidential election. The eyes of the nation 
turned to Henry Clay. His power in the House was so great that 
it was generally believed that he held the election in 
Election of j^^^ hand. Clay was no friend of Jackson, nor of Craw- 
ford ; and even he and Adams were not, and had never 
been, close political friends. But a choice must be made, and one of 
these three must be chosen. At length Clay announced that he 
would vote for Adams; his adherents followed his example, and 
Adams was elected, receiving the votes of thirteen states, while 
seven states voted for Jackson and four for Crawford. 

Adams made Clay secretary of state, and the Jackson party 
raised the cry that there had been a bargain, a corrupt bargain, 
between Adams and Clay. This cry was kept up for four years, and 
it played an important part in the next presidential election.^ Clay 
got into trouble with John Randolph about the matter. Randolph 
was a remarkable man in many ways. He had entered Congress in 
1799, when scarcely more than a boy, and had soon attracted atten- 
tion by his tall, awkward appearance, his ungoveriiable temper, his 
keen wit and biting sarcasm. During his long career in Congress 
he made many an enemy quail, when the object of his sarcasm and 
pointed out by his long, bony finger. As a wit he has never been 
equaled on the floor of Congress. He usually talked as he chose 
about any one ; and on this occasion he referred to Adams and Clay 
as " the Puritan and the Blackleg." Clay was angry when he 

1 Through Adams's Diary we learn that some of Clay's friends did approach 
Adams on this subject before the election ; but there is not the slishtest proof that 
Adams made any promises. The cry of corrupt bargain had, in fact, been raised 
before the election in the House in the hope of coercing Clay to vote for Jnckson. 
Clay's acceptance of a place in the Cabinet was a blunder that he should have avoided. 



ADAMS ELECTED BY THE HOUSE 469 

heard this. He had chafed restively under public accusations. 
Now he could contain himself no longer. He challenged Randolph 
to a duel. Randolph was not angry with Clay. He du^i between 
had called him a blackleg ; but he often used such terms Clay and 
without expecting them to be taken too seriously. But Randolph. 
Clay was not to be appeased, and the two men met on the field with 
loaded pistols. They each fired once without effect. Clay fired 
again, the bullet passing through his antagonist's coat. Randolph 
then fired into the air, threw down his pistol, and stepped toward Clay 
with extended hand. This was too much. Clay's face changed in 
an instant ; he threw his pistol to the ground and ran to meet Ran- 
dolph, and the latter said with mock seriousness, " Mr. Clay, you 
owe me a new coat." — " I'm glad the debt is no greater," said Clay ; 
and the two men indulged in a long, fervent handshake.^ 

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

As a boy of seven years John Quincy Adams had stood with his 
mother and viewed the famous battle of Bunker Hill from afar ; and 
this may be considered the beginning of the longest public career in 
American history. Two years later this boy, who never knew a 
boyhood, was a regular postrider making daily trips from his village 
to Boston. At the age of eleven he accompanied his father to France 
and began a course of severe study. At fourteen he was a private 
secretary to our minister at St. Petersburg. At eighteen he had 
visited every country in Europe ; and, returning to his own land, he 
was graduated at Harvard two years later. No American statesman 
ever lived a more strenuous life, none had a more varied experience, 
and none a cleaner record. When elected President in 1825 Adams 
had been a professor at Harvard, and a practicing lawyer in Boston. 
He had served in the legislature of Massachusetts and in the United 
States Senate. He had aided in framing the Treaty of Ghent, had 
been minister to five European courts, and had completed his eight 
years as secretary of state. No man in America was by training 
better fitted for the presidency than Adams ; and few were less 
fitted by natural temperament. 

No President ever entered upon the great office with a clearer 
sense of duty, or with nobler motives than did Adams. But like 
his father before him he was wanting in tact, in the ability to 

1 For a full account of this, see Benton's " Thirty Years' View," Vol. I, pp. 70-77. 



470 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

manage men. He was a man of the sternest puritanic integrity; 
he subjected himself to severe discipline in his private life and 
public duties. He judged other men by his own high standard of 
morality, and saw their faults rather than their virtues.^ His 
manner was cold and repelling, and with all his wide acquaintance 
he had no intimate personal friend, nor did he make any effort to 
win friends. He enjoyed little popularity among his own class, and 
still less among the masses of the people. As Ezekiel Webster 
wrote his brother Daniel, Mr. Adams's support came " from a cold 
sense of duty, and not from any liking of the man." On the whole, 
Adams was, with all his defects, one of the most admirable public 
characters in our history ; and his greatest service was rendered in 
the House of Representatives, where, after his term as President, he 
spent seventeen years of his old age. 

The single presidential term of Adams may be recorded in small 
space, as both Senate and House were against him, and they refused 
to pass any administration measure of importance. In his first 
message the President recommended a system of internal improve- 
ments on a far larger scale than had been hitherto undertaken ; but 
Congress opposed such extensive improvements, and Adams was left 
powerless to carry out his projects. 

Early in this administration the Panama Congress, a conven- 
tion of the American republics to be held at Panama, became the 
Panama prominent public question. The object was to delib- 

Congress, erate on a continental policy concerning commercial 

^^^^- intercourse, to restrict the extent of blockades, to estab- 

lish firmly the Monroe Doctrine, and the like. Clay was its chief 
promoter in the United States. His object was to organize the 
Americans against Europe for commercial advantage and self-protec- 
tion. He won Adams and the Cabinet to favor sending delegates, 
and Adams announced in his message that this would be done. 
But the Senate was obstinate, professing to fear "entangling alli- 
ances," though its real object was to thwart the administration. At 
length, however, after long delay, the bill passed. But the victory 
of the President was a barren one, for the Panama Congress had 
adjourned before our delegates reached the place. 

The only other matter of national importance — except the " Tariff 
of Abominations," to be noticed later — that belongs to Adams's term 
of office, was that concerning the Indians of Georgia. When Georgia 
1 Schouler, Vol. Ill, p. 400. 



PRESIDENT ADAMS AND GOVERNOR TROUP 471 

aeded her western lands to the United States in 1802, the latter 
engaged to remove the Indians from the bounds of the state when it 
could be done peaceably. Various treaties and purchases 
were made subsequent to this, but in 1824 the Indians ^^ cf^^k^^ 
declared they would sell no more land. The white peo- 
ple of Georgia became enraged at this and demanded that the govern- 
ment carry out its contract. A treaty was made at Indian Springs, 
in 1825, ceding the Indian lands ; but the tribes refused to accept it, 
and put to death the chiefs who signed it. President Adams then 
notified Governor Troup of Georgia that he was expected to discon- 
tinue his survey of the Indian lands until the United States govern- 
ment had completed its negotiations with the Indians.^ Whereupon 
the governor became frantic, and blustered and fumed against the 
• United States to his heart's content. President Adams was not 
appalled by the irate governor ; he sent General Gaines to Georgia 
with instructions to prevent the survey of the lands, by force if 
necessary. The next year, 1826, another agreement with the Indians 
was made by the United States government. By this agreement a 
large portion of the Indian lands were secured to Georgia. But the 
Georgians were not content with the incompleteness of the work, and 
the governor was again defiant, and even prepared to resist the power 
of the United States. 

President Adams, while careful to uphold the dignity and 
authority of the government, was unwilling to allow the matter to 
come to blows without being sure of the support of the country. 
He therefore laid the subject before Congress ; but Congress refused 
to give the matter serious attention. This encouraged the Georgians 
in their attitude toward the Creeks, and they also laid claim to juris- 
diction over the lands occupied by the Cherokees within the state. 
In 1827 the legislature passed a law in accordance with this claim, 
though the lands had been solemnly guaranteed to the Indians in a 
treaty in 1785 ; but Governor Troup declared this treaty not binding 
on the state, on the ground that Georgia and the United States were 
equal and independent powers ! The Indians appealed to President 
Adams for protection in their rights ; but he, about to retire from 
office, chose not to embarrass his successor by committing the gov- 
ernment to any policy in the matter. 

By anticipation it may here be stated that the trouble with the 
Cherokees continued under Adams's successor. Georgia claimed 
1 See Ames's State Documents, No. 3, pp. 25-36. 



472 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

prisdiction over their lands ; they resisted and appealed to tha 
President, who refused to aid them. The matter came before the 
United States Supreme Court, and was decided, in 1832, against 
the Georgians.^ But President Jackson sympathized with the state 
and refused to enforce the decision of the court. At length, a few 
years later, some sort of agreement having been reached, the Chero- 
kees, who had made commendable progress in agriculture and educa- 
tion, were removed to the Indian Territory, beyond the Mississippi, 
where they still remain. The action of Georgia throughout was 
little short of nullification.^ 

As this presidential term drew to a close the country prepared 
itself for a fierce contest. Adams was a candidate for reelection, 
with Andrew Jackson as his opponent. Unlike Adams, Jackson 
was popular ; he could win friends and he could win crowds. He 
had risen from the lower walks of life, and the people regarded him 
as one of themselves. Adams was looked upon as an aristocrat, 
and, moreover, he refused to turn a hand to secure his own election. 
Many of the public servants who held their offices at his discretion, 
including some of his own Cabinet, were openly working for Jack- 
son, but he refused to notice the fact. Even those who worked for 
his election received no word of gratitude or encouragement from 
him. He took the high ground that the influence of the office 
should not be used to further an election. One would think that 
such fidelity to duty would have been rewarded ; but it was not. 
Jackson was elected by a large majority of the popular vote, as well 
as of the electoral college.^ 

MEANS OF TRAVEL AND INVENTION 

Kothing impresses the student of the history of this period more 
than the progress made in the invention of machinery and in the 
means of travel. We have noticed the great flow of humanity across 
the AUeghanies to the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, and the 
consequent admission in rapid succession of five new states of the 
West and South. This movement of the population from the sea- 
board to the interior of the continent awakened an intense desire for 
better modes of travel. The first important advance in this line came 

1 Worcester v.t. Georgia. 

2 See Ames's State Documents, No. Ill, p. 36 sq. 

' All the states except two, South Carolina and Delaware, now chose electors by 
a popular vote ; these two itill retained the old system of choosing by the legislature 



GROWTH IN TRANSPORTATION 



473 



through the general use of the steamboat. By the time of Monroe's 
second election the western rivers, as well as those of the East, were 
covered with steam craft. These were not to be compared with the 
river steamer of the present day. It required thrice as many hours 
to run a hundred miles upstream as to return with the current, but 
the improvement over the fiatboat of earlier days was very marked. 
So it was also along the seacoast. All the leading ports were now 
connected by lines of steam vessels, and a journey from one coast 
city to another became a pleasure trip, and consumed far less time 
than in the old days of the stagecoach. 

But this was not enough for the rising West. The mountain 
walls that nature had thrown between the Eastern states and the 
valley of the great river must be overcome, if in the power of man 




The Erie Canal 



to accomplish it. The great conestoga wagon still lumbered across 
the mountains and the valleys, from Philadelphia to Pittsburg. 
But relief was soon to come, and it came in two forms, — the railroad 
and the canal. 

The first great canal to be completed in America was the Erie 
Canal from Albany to Buffalo, 363 miles, — often called Clinton's 
Big Ditch, as Governor De Witt Clinton was its chief j. • « , 
projector. In October, 1825, after eight years' toil of 
thousands of men with pick and spade and wheelbarrow, the great 
work was finished, and Governor Clinton led a tandem fleet from 
Buffalo to Albany amid the acclamations of the multitudes that 
gathered along the banks. The motley fleet bore a bear, two eagles, 
*wo Indian boys, and other things typical of the land before the 



474 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

coming of the white man,^ and its coming was announced by a con 
tinuous line of cannon placed along the route. From Albany Clin 
ton proceeded down the Hudson, and, pouring two kegs of Lake 
Erie's water into the sea, pronounced the communication between 
" our Mediterranean seas and the Atlantic Ocean accomplished." 

The Erie Canal proved a wonderful boon to New York. The 
cost of transporting merchandise from Albany to Buffalo had been 
over $100 a ton; now it fell to one tenth of the former price, and 
this opened a vast market to the merchants and manufacturers 
of New York City, which soon became the chief metropolis in 
America. Farmers hastened from all sides to purchase farms along 
the canal, and the price of land rose rapidly. But not only was 
New York benefited by the canal. The farmers of Ohio, Indiana, 
and Illinois could now purchase their axes, plows, and other utensils 
for a fraction of what they had formerly paid for them, and indeed 
the business of the entire country was affected by this great 
improvement.'* 

One of its effects was to cause a rage for canals to spread over 

the country. Philadelphia saw its western trade threatened with 

ruin. This led the people of Pennsylvania to decide 

OLJlfil* C3.I1&.1S 

on digging a canal between their two chief cities, and 
the work was soon begun.^ The great Ohio Canal joining Lake 
Erie with the Ohio Eiver, from Cleveland to Portsmouth, was 
begun in 1825. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal extended from 
Pittsburg to Washington. Many other canals of smaller pretensions 
were built, and many were begun and never finished, for another 
and far superior mode of inland transportation was noAv attracting 
the attention of the people. 

The vast network of railroads that now covers the United States 
had its beginning at the time we are treating. John Stevens, an 
inventive genius of the highest order, who had done almost, if not 
fully, as much as Robert Fulton for the steamboat, was now the 
chief advocate of steam railways. A road was soon built from 
Philadelphia to the Susquehanna, but the cars first used were drawn 
by horses. The action of Pennsylvania in projecting canals and 

1 McMaster, Vol. V, p. 132. 

2 It is interesting to note that in 1903 the people of New York voted to expend 
SlOl ,000,000 for the improvement of the Erie Canal. 

* This was never completed ; or rather, when it was completed, it was part rail* 
'•oad. 



USEFUL INVENTIONS 475 



railways alarmed the people of Baltimore lest Philadelphia steal 
its western trade, and they decided to build a railroad to some 
point on the Ohio River. Work on it was begun in July, 1828, and 
this was the origin of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The first 
steam locomotive was brought from England in 1829, where experi- 
ments in steam railways had been in progress for over ten years, but 
it proved a failure. In 1831, however, a locomotive was success- 
fully used in South Carolina, and within a few years 
others were in operation in various parts of the country. ' 

But for years after this beginning many of the cars, even on the 
steam roads, were still drawn by horse power. The roads were 
owned by the state and the cars and engines by individuals or corpora- 
tions. Any one owning a car or an engine had the use of the road. 
The engines were rude machines compared with those of our own 
times, but they went faster than the horses, and this caused much 
confusion. Eventually the railroads passed into the hands of private 
corporations, and horses were everywhere supplanted by the steam 
engine. 

Some of the greatest inventions of our modern civilization belong 
to this period. The rapid progress in steam navigation by land and 
water brought about a wonderful stimulus in manufacturing and 
created a great demand for labor-saving machinery. Hence came 
the sewing-machine, the threshing-machine, the mower 
and reaper, and a few years later the telegraph and 
many other inventions of great usefulness. The first flannel 
made by machinery was produced in Massachusetts in 1824; 
the first illuminating gas was made from coal in New York in 
1827. Thus one invention followed another, and they played a 
great part in laying the foundations of our present industrial 
prosperity. 

In books and literature the country was making a famous begin- 
ning. The newspapers, numbering two hundred at the beginning 
of the century, seventeen of which were dailies, had now greatly 
increased in number ; but their subscription rates were still high, as 
printing was a cumbersome business, the modern steam press being 
yet a thing of the future. The majority of the people did not take 
a newspaper. The postmaster was often the only one in a town who 
took a paper, and on its arrival the villagers would gather about him 
to hear him read the news. 

Some of the most famous American authors were writing during 



478 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

this period. To the older set belonged Washington Irving/ James 
Fenimore Cooper, Fitz-Greene Halleck, William Cullen Bryant, and 
Noah Webster.^ These were all famous before the 
close of the first quarter of the century. Next came the 
galaxy of literary men born in the early part of the century : Henry 
W. Longfellow, Edgar Allan Poe, John G. Whittier, Oliver Wendell 
Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mrs. Sigourney, and N. P. Willis, — 
each of whom had published one or more books by 1830. Many of 
these books, as well as their authors, are world-famous, and have 
taken a permanent place in our literature. Henceforth the curt 
remark of Sidney Smith, " Who reads an American book ? " could 
be readily answered in a single word, — everybody. 



NOTES 

Boundaries. — Two important boundary lines were agreed on while Monroe 
was President. The boundary between the United States and British America 
west of the Great Lakes was fixed in 1818. From the Lake of the Woods the 
forty-ninth parallel was made the boundary westward to the summit of the 
Rocky Mountains. West of this lay the Oregon country extending to the Pacific 
and claimed by both the United States and England, and it was decided that both 
occupy it jointly for ten years ; but twenty-eight years elapsed before the owner- 
ship was settled. 

In 1819 the United States purchased East and West Florida from Spain for 
$5,000,000. Before this the United States had claimed that Texas was a part 
of the Louisiana purchase ; but this claim was now given up and the boundary 
decided on was as follows : The Sabine River from the Gulf to 32° and thence 
northward to the Red River, up the Red River to the one hundredth meridian, 
north to the Arkansas River, up this river to the crest of the Rocky Mountains, 
north to 42°, and west on this parallel to the Pacific. Thus the United States 
did not reach the Pacific at any point. The Pacific slop©, north of 42° belonged 
to the Oregon country, and south of 42° were the possessions of Mexico, known 
as the California country. The United States did not take possession of Florida 
until 1821, when Andrew Jackson became the first governor. 

Migration to the West. — A wonderful movement of the population to the 
West began soon after the war with England had closed. Every road leadhig 
westward from the East was covered with lines of moving wagons, plodding 
their weary way over hills and mountains, streams and valleys. At Haverhill, 
Massachusetts, 4.50 emigrants passed through the town in thirteen days. At 
Easton, Pennsylvania, 511 wagons, bearing over 3000 persons, passed in one 
month. These were moving to the great valley of the Ohio River, and in the 

1 Irving was born in 1783, on the day that Washington made his tTiumphal entry 
into New York, and was one of the first to receive his name. 
* Webster published his Dictionary in 1828. 



NOTES 477 

South a similar movement to the new states of Alabama and Mississippi was 
going on. 

A farmer wishing to better his worldly condition would sell all his goods 
that he coxild not take with him, and provide himself with a strong, light wagon, 
covered with canvas. In this he would pack his goods, leaving only room 
enough for himself and his family. Thus equipped they would bid adieu to old 
neighbors, friends, and kindred, often to meet them no more in this life, and 
start out upon the long and toilsome journey of hundreds of miles through the 
wilderness. Sometimes whole communities went together and settled in the 
same neighborhood in the West ; but more frequently they moved by isolated 
families. Arriving in the western wilderness, the pioneer would purchase a 
quarter section of land of the government, of some land company, or of some 
settler who had preceded him and failed, paying two or three dollars an acre, 
on the installment plan. If the land were wholly unimproved, the family would 
live in the moving wagon until a cabin could be built. The cabin was made of 
logs, notched at the ends so as to fit at the corners, and laid one above another 
until the house was about ten feet high. There was but one room, one door, and 
one window. The door was made of rough boards swung on leather hinges, and 
opposite the door was left an open space on the ground for a fireplace, the chimney 
being built outside of flat sticks like laths, and plastered with mortar. The floor 
was made of planks hewn out with the ax, and the roof of lighter planks resting 
on rafters nrnde of saplings. In such a home many a good family lived for ten 
or twenty years, the ancestors of many of the leading men of the nation to-day. 
The cabin built, the pioneer would begin battling with the forest, clearing a few 
acres each year, carrying his grain perhaps twenty miles on horseback to the 
nearest mill. Soon his land would become more productive ; and at length, if 
thrifty and industrious, he would build a good house and abandon the cabin. 
Other movers would settle near, then a town would be founded, and another, 
and another, and eventually a railroad would be built through the new settle- 
ment. The community is transformed in twenty-five years ; the markets are 
near, the comforts of life have multiplied, the farm of the first settler is now 
worth thousands of dollars, and he has added other hundreds of acres to i'^ 
His children settle on the farm or enter the business or the professional world, 
and the " old settler" spends his declining years amid peace and plenty ; and 
he gathers his grandchildren about him and tells of the days of long ago, of the 
long journey in the moving wagon, and of the time when the forest frowned on 
every side and the wolves howled about his lonely cabin in the wilderness. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE REIGN OF JACKSON 
AMERICAN LIFE IN 1830 

The census of 1830 footed up nearly thirteen million people; 
scattered over about half the present limits of the United States. 
West of the Mississippi River was a vast unbroken wilderness, save 
for Missouri and some parts of Louisiana and Arkansas. Texas and 
California still belonged to Mexico, and the ownership of Oregon 
was unsettled. Little else than a wilderness were Michigan, 
Illinois, and large tracts of other fast-groAving states east of the 
Mississippi. The great cities of the West are all of recent growth. 
Cincinnati was then a considerable town and was called the " Queen 
City of the West " ; but Chicago was a rude wooden village, and 
the buffalo still roamed over the sites of Omaha, Denver, and San 
Francisco. 

Changes were rapidly going on in the East. Virginia was no 
longer the first state in population, nor even second. New York 
was now first, Pennsylvania still held second rank, while Virginia 
was relegated to the third place. The three leading cities each 
boasted a millionaire of untold wealth — Girard of Philadelphia, 
Astor, the New York merchant-prince, and Lawrence, the founder 
of the Boston cotton mills. ^ The telegraph was unknown at this 
day, and our present vast network of railroads was just making a 
beginning. The old stagecoach days were not yet over, and their 
relics are still to be found in various parts of the United States. 
Any one who travels through the country will find here and there a 
house very different from the ordinary farmhouse. These are usu- 
ally large stone buildings, two stories high, with spacious rooms and 
halls, situated in old towns or on the main roads, twenty miles or 
more apart, and are always old. They are relics of the stagecoach 
period, and were called inns or taverns. In some neighborhc ids the 
1 Schouler, Vol. IV, p. 6. 
478 



CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE 470 

aged people still remember and eagerly tell of the good old days 
when travelers from all parts of the country would lodge there; or 
when political meetings were held at the inn, and the people would 
come together to discuss public questions and sing their political 
songs over the social glass ; or when the young people from far and 
near would assemble and spend the night in carousal and merry- 
making. 

/The American of that day was known abroad as the Yankee. 
Every country has its typical citizen, and the typical American, 
whose likeness has been preserved to us in the well- 
known picture of " Uncle Sam," was tall, lean, wiry, and ^gj^aiT 
awkward. He had a roving, keen, inquisitive eye, and no 
stranger could escape him without gratifying his appetite for news. 
He was the keenest bargain driver in the world. To foreigners he, 
was courteous, but he would flare up in an instant, if any one spoke 
against his country,/ 

There were few rich men and almost no poverty. The chief 
subjects that engaged attention were religion, politics, and money- 
making.^ The great majority of the people were religious, though 
the intolerant spirit of colonial days had passed away. Nearly every 
man was interested in politics. He took pride in the fact that he 
was part of the state, and had a voice in shaping the laws. But the 
most conspicuous characteristic of the Americans was the wide- 
spread desire to become rich. In wealth there is power, and here 
were no social castes to keep a man down, however humble his birth ; 
and the American sought wealth, not only for the distinction and 
comfort that it brings, but also that he might give his children 
advantages that he did not have in his youth. 

Democracy reigned supreme by 1830. "The principle of the 
sovereignty of the people," says De Tocqueville, " has acquired in the 
United States all the practical development that the imagination 
can conceive. The people are the cause and the aim of all things ; 
everything comes from them and everything is absorbed by them."^ 
The Declaration of Independence had set forth the dogma that the 
rights of man are inherent and the gift of nature ; but half a cen- 
tury passed before that principle became triumphant. It reached 
high-water mark in American history at the time of Jackson's presi- 
dency. The principles of Federalism were wisely retained in the 
general government, but the current of democracy, set in motion 
1 Schouler, Vol. Ill, p. 4. 2 " Democracy in America," Chap. IV. 



480 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

by Jefferson in the closing decade of the eighteenth century, had 
swollen into a tidal wave, and Federalism existed now only at the 

will of the democracy. Nothing illustrates this triumph 
Triumphant ^£ ^^^ people more than the rapid spread of the suffrage 

and of religious liberty. When the Constitution went 
into operation a property qualification or a religious test was required 
in nearly every state, and probably not more than one hundred and 
fifty thousand of the five million people could vote.^ The new states 
forming constitutions, with rare exceptions, recognized manhood suf- 
frage without the religious or property test. The old states brought 
about the same results by amending their constitutions, and by 1830 
the suffrage of the adult white male population was almost universal. 



THE PEOPLE'S PRESIDENT 

Andrew Jackson, "the people's man," was now President. He 
was the first of our Presidents, but not the last, to rise from the 
ranks of the common people ; all his predecessors were from the so- 
called higher class of society. Until long past middle age, Jackson 
had shown no inclination toward a political career. If he had any 
ambition beyond the quiet life of a planter, it was a military ambi- 
tion. Twice he resigned from the United States Senate before fin- 
ishing his term. He made little impression in Congress, and seemed 
to dislike public life. Thirty years after his first service in the 
House, he was recalled by Gallatin as a tall, lank, uncouth frontiers- 
man, with long hair gathered in a queue and tied at the back with 
an eelskin. After resigning from the Senate in 1797, he lived an ob- 
scure life till the battle of New Orleans, when he suddenly sprung 
into a world-wide fame. As above stated, he did not like public life, 
and there is reason to believe that his candidacy for the presidency 
annoyed rather than pleased him ^ until it reached a certain point, 
until he believed himself to have been defeated by a corrupt bargain 
between Adams and Clay. Then the contest assumed a different 
form, a victory to be won, and his old warrior spirit arose, and 
he left no stone unturned until he was seated in the presidential 
chair. 

1 Thorpe's " Constitutional History of the American People," Vol. I, p. 97. 

2 "Do they think," said Jackson, in 1821, " that I am such a darned fool as to 
think myself fit for the presidency? No, sir; I know what I am good for. lean 
command a hody of men in a rough way, but I am not fit to be President." Parton's 
"life of Jackson," Vol. II, p. 354. 



JACKSON BECOMES PRESIDENT 481 

The outgoing President refused to attend the inaugural cere- 
monies, as his father had done twenty-eight years before. He felt 
that he had good grounds for taking such an attitude. The facts in 
brief are these : During the campaign in the preceding summer, 
Jackson's wife was shamefully attacked, and the poor woman, who 
was doubtless innocent, died a few weeks before the inauguration. 
Jackson believed that her death was partially due to these attacks, 
and he felt very bitter against every editor who had published them. 
The administration organ at Washington had copied them, and 
Jackson, believing that Adams had something to do with their pub- 
lication, and also remembering the " corrupt bargain," refused to call 
on Adams, according to custom, when he reached the Capital City 
some days before the inauguration ; and hence Adams refused to at- 
tend the ceremonies. He remained m the city for a week, then 
quietly left for New England. 

The inauguration of the new President was a grand affair ; the 
day was line, and the crowd was vast. The people had flocked from 
every point of the compass to see the people's man 
made President. Jackson, despite his want of early of jafkson^"^ 
training, was capable of assuming the manners of the 
most highly cultured. He was not in the least overawed by the 
presence of the great, nor did he affect to show contempt for the re- 
finements of social life. His address to the great audience that now 
stood before him revealed no tendency to cringe, nor was it marred 
with a taint of bravado. " His manner was faultless," writes an 
eye-witness who was not his political friend,^ " not strained, but 
natural. There was no exhibition of pride or ostentation — no 
straining after effect or false show." The ceremonies over, a great 
public reception with refreshments was held at the White House, 
and the rabble had full sway. They trampled the fine carpets with 
their muddy boots, stood on chairs and upholstered furniture, and 
among other things smashed an immense, costly chandelier. " Let 
the boys have a good time once in four years," said Jackson, — 
and nothing he ever said gives a deeper insight into the cause of his 
popularity. 

Jackson chose as his secretary of state the rising, smooth- 
tongued Dutch politician of New York, Martin Van Buren, who a 
few months before had been elected governor of his state. Samuel 
D. Ingham was made secretary of the treasury, and John H. Eaton 
1 Thompson's " Recollections of Sixteen Presidents," p. 146. 
2l 



482 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

secretary of war. The Cabinet was now increased to six members 
the postmaster-general being admitted to it, and the first incumbent 
of the new office was William T. Barry of Kentucky. 

During the early months of 1829 an affair at Washington, known 
as the Eaton Scandal, created much public excitement. This mat- 
ter would not merit the notice of serious history but for 
The Eaton ^j^^ permanent effect it had upon the administration. 
Many years before this time, a William O'Neal had 
kept a tavern at Washington, and his house became the lodging 
place of many of the government officials. Among the boarders 
was Senator John H. Eaton from Tennessee. O'lSTeal had a daugh- 
ter, a witty young beauty, known over the city as Peggy O'Neal. 
She was quite free with the inmates of her father's house, and es- 
pecially with Mr. Eaton, — until the gossips were set going and her 
name became tainted. At length Peggy O'lSTeal married a Mr. Tim- 
berlake of the navy, but he died by suicide in the Mediterranean; 
and in January, 1829, Mr. Eaton, who was still in the Senate, 
married the widow. Mrs. Eaton now set out to gratify the ambition 
of her life, — to become a leader in Washington society. But 
her former history was exhumed, and most of the society ladies of 
the city refused to recognize her. This was the state of affairs 
when Jackson arrived in the city. Eaton had been one of his chief 
campaign managers, and the O'Neals had a warm place in Jackson's 
heart, as he also had been their guest while serving in the Senate a 
few years before. 

Remembering the slanders against his own wife, now deceased, 
believing Mrs. Eaton to be innocent, and believing also that the 
gossip about her was inspired by Henry Clay with the object of 
ruining her husband, Jackson determined to espouse the cause of the 
Eatons. He appointed Mr. Eaton to his Cabinet, and did every- 
thing in his power to clear the name of his wife, and to give her a 
standing in society. He wrote scores of letters, he called Cabinet 
meetings, he attended stately dinners — all for Mrs. Eaton. But 
the women who held the key to the inner sacred circle declined 
to open the door to Mrs. Eaton. General Jackson now practically 
informed the members of his Cabinet that their political fortunes 
depended on the recognition by their wives of Mrs. Eaton ; but these 
men were powerless ; their wives simply refused, and that was the 
"end on't." Even the President's niece, the mistress of the White 
House, made a stand. "Anything else, Uncle, I will do for you, 



JACKSON AND VAN BUREN 483 

6ut I caunot call on Mrs. Eaton," " Then go back to Tennessee, my 
dear," said the President, and she went back to Tennessee.^ Thus 
the hero of New Orleans, the old iron warrior who had never known 
defeat in battle, was completely defeated by the women. The Cabi- 
net was now inharmonious in the extreme, and after hanging to- 
gether till the spring of 1831, it broke to pieces and a new Cabinet 
was formed.^ 

Aside from disrupting the Cabinet, the Eaton Scandal had 
another and still more marked effect on American history. It built 
the fortunes of the secretary of state. Martin Van 
Buren was at this time a widower and without daugh- y^^ Buren 
ters, and he could well afford to give his energies to 
the cause that was so dear to his chief. He called on Mrs. Eaton ; 
he arranged balls and dinners for her; he spoke of her virtue in 
every social circle ; he sought out the British and Russian ministers, 
both bachelors, and secured their aid in pushing Mrs. Eaton to the 
front. And he succeeded, not in having her recognized in Washing- 
ton society, but in intrenching himself in the heart of General Jack- 
son. Never from this moment was there a break between the two, 
though as unlike they were as winter and balmy spring. It was 
soon after this time that Jackson decided to name Van Buren as his 
choice for the presidential succession, and his decision was final, for 
his party was all powerful, and he swayed the party as Jefferson had 
done thirty years before.^ 

The chief members of the new Cabinet were Edward Livingston, 
secretary of state, Lewis Cass, secretary of war, and Roger B. Taney, 
attorney-general. Here may be mentioned also Jack- 
son's " Kitchen Cabinet," composed of a few of his inti- cabinet" ^^ 
mate friends, private advisers, but not members of the 
real Cabinet. These men were said to meet the President in a pri- 
vate room, which they reached by means of the back door, hence 
the name. Chief among them were Francis P. Blair, editor of the 

1 Six months later, however, this niece, Mrs. Andrew Jackson Donelson, was 
reinstated in the White House. 

2 Mr. Eaton was sent as minister to Spain. He died in 1856; but his famous 
wife lived to be very old, dying long after the Civil War. 

3 In a letter dated December 31, 1829, to Judge Overton of Tennessee, Jackson 
adroitly names Van Buren for the succession. This letter was to be used in case of 
Jackson's death, and his health was then frail. But he grew stronger, and the letter 
remained a secret for nearly thirty years. See Parton, Vol. Ill, p. 294. But Parton 
wrongly gives the date as December, 1830. See Von Hoist, Vol. VI, p. 163. 



484 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Globe, founded in opposition to the Telegraph, which was under the 
influence of Calhoun; William B. Lewis, who had managed Jack- 
son's first campaign and was a master politician; and, above all, 
Amos Kendall of Kentucky, afterward postmaster-general. Kendall 
was a strange character. Silent, wiry, seedy, and slovenly in appear- 
ance, he glided in and out of the President's private room more like 
a spirit than a man. But withal he was frugal and honest, and was 
possessed of remarkable political sagacity. He devoted all his 
powers to upholding the name and fame of the President, and was 
content to remain almost unknown himself. It is believed that 
Jackson owed more to Amos Kendall than to any other man for the 
successes of his administration. 

THE CIVIL SERVICE 

Eor three things the " reign " of Jackson will ever be remembered 
in our history : The radical changes made in the civil service ; nulli- 
fication in South Carolina ; and Jackson's crushing the life out of the 
United States Bank. 

Andrew Jackson was a man of intense patriotism, and he did 
much for which the country should hold him in grateful remem- 
brance. But for one thing he deserves no credit, and that was his 
debauching the civil service, his introducing, or permitting to be 
introduced, the spoils system into national politics. Before the' 
advent of Jackson civil service officials usually held office for life or 
good behavior. The Crawford Act of 1820, limiting an appointee 
to a four years' tenure, had not been enforced. During the forty 
years preceding Jackson's term but few public officials had been 
dismissed; but Jackson ignored all precedent and removed clerks, 
postmasters, and customhouse officials by scores and hundreds, 
for purely political reasons. This " spoils system " had been in 
practice in New York and Pennsylvania state politics. /It was 
the spirit of triumphant democracy that brought it into national 
politics. I Jackson could have crushed, or at least deferred it, but 
did not do so.^ The system, the motto of which was " To the victors 
belong the spoils," took a powerful hold on the country and was 
followed by Jackson's successors for many years ; each became 
a victim to the system whether he would or not; and it is only 
in recent years that the movement known as Civil Service Re* 

1 See Sumner's " Jackson," p. 147 ; Von Hoist, Vol. II, p. 14. 



THE TWO GREAT SOUTHRONS 485 

form has in part brought us back to the old practice of the early 
Presidents.^ 

JACKSON AND CALHOUN 

Now in addition to the line by which we have traced the career 
of Jackson to this point, let us follow another, almost parallel with 
this one for a long distance, when they diverge never 
to meet again. In this second line we trace the life caihoun 
of another of the most striking figures in American his- 
tory. Von Hoist, the German historian, pronounces the life of 
Calhoun more tragical than any tragedy ever conceived by the 
imagination of man. 

The points of resemblance in the lives of Jackson and Calhoun 
are very remarkable. They were both of Scotch-Irish descent, born 
in the Carolinas, of revolutionary Whig parentage, and each was 
left fatherless at an early age. They were both tall and spare in 
frame, of pure morals and undaunted courage, and each was a born 
leader and commander of men. They both entered Congress at the 
early age of thirty years and were leaders in the same great political 
pai'ty. In 1824 they were both candidates for the presidency, one 
withdrawing and accepting second place, the other being defeated ; 
they were elected four years later, President and Vice President on 
the same ticket.^ 

But these two lines are not wholly parallel ; there is here and 
there a notable divergence. Jackson was entirely without a higher 
education ; Calhoun was a graduate of Yale. Jackson parallel be- 
disliked the tedious work of lawmaking; he was sent tween Jackson 
to Congress three times, and resigned each time with- ^'^'^ ^^^^°^"- 
out finishing his term ; but he was a superb commander on the battle- 
field. Calhoun, on the other hand, never took the field, but he was 
a leader in Congress from the time he entered it in 1811 to the end 
of his long political career of thirty-nine years, with the exception 
of the few years when he was not a member. 

1 Would that all our Presidents had the conception of the great office held by 
Washington! Here is an extract from a letter he wrote to a friend concerning 
another friend who had applied for an office: " He is welcome to my house and to 
my heart ; but with all his good qualities, he is not a man of business. His oppo- 
nent, with all his politics hostile to me, is a man of business. My private feelings 
have nothing to do in the case. I am not George Washington, but President of the 
United States. As George Washington I would do this man any kindness in my 
power — as President of the United States, I can do nothing." 

2 This parallel is adapted from Greeley, " American Conflict," Vol. I, p. 88. 



486 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Tor many years Jackson and Calhoun were fast friends. Cal- 
houn aided Jackson to the presidency in 1828. Jackson gave as" a 
toast at a banquet, " John C. Calhoun, an honest man, the noblest 
work of God." The great ambition of Calhoun's life was to become 
President of the United States. It was almost a passion with him, 
and entered into all his political acts. But Jackson had gained such 
a powerful hold upon the Democratic party that no one could be 
elected without his support, and any one he might name was likely 
to become his successor; yet it was believed from one end of the 
land to the other that Calhoun would be the fortunate one upon 
whose shoulders the mantle of Old Hickory would fall. 

But an evil day came. Calhoun's hopes were blasted forever, 
and he became a changed man, so changed that the Calhoun of later 
years could scarcely be recognized to be the same man as the brilliant 
young patriotic leader of his earlier years. It happened on this wise : 
It will be remembered that Jackson in the Seminole War of 1818 
caused trouble by trespassing on Spanish soil. Calhoun was at that 
time secretary of war in the Monroe Cabinet. The subject was dis- 
cussed in secret cabinet meetings, and in one of these meetings Cal- 
houn suggested that Jackson be subjected to a court of inquiry with 
a view to his punishment. At the same tiine Jackson believed that 
Calhoun was his warmest friend and most faithful defender in the 
Cabinet. It was soon after this that Jackson had toasted Calhoun 
as an honest man, the noblest work of God. Their friendship thus 
continued for many years longer when, in 1830, Jackson heard of 
the attitude Calhoun had taken in the Monroe Cabinet. Jackson 
was dazed at the information. He at once wrote Calhoun asking if 
it could be true. In vain did Calhoun assert that he had never ques- 
tioned Jackson's patriotism or honesty ; in vain did he explain that 
whatever he may have said in Monroe's Cabinet was in accordance 
with official duty, and never intended to mar their personal friend- 
ship. But Jackson was unable to distinguish between personal and 
political friendship. He denounced Calhoun most bitterly, and gave 
him to understand that their friendship was forever at an end. 
And so it was; they were never after reconciled.^ 

A breach between two political leaders is not an unusual occur- 
rence, and may often be passed over as of little importance. Some- 
times, however, such a quarrel may change the entire working 

1 This incident was not the origin or the sole cause of the rupture between Jackson 
and Calhoun. They had been growing apart for some years. 



SOUTH CAROLINA 487 



machinery of the government. This quarrel and permanent breach 
between Jackson and Calhoun became a momentous turning point 
in the life of the latter. Calhoun's great ambition to become Presi- 
dent was now blasted. He was a disappointed man, and the effect 
of his disappointment can be traced through his entire calhoun's 
subsequent course. He was a national man, with broad change of 
national views, and one of the most brilliant and attrac- lieart. 
tive men in the nation till this time. After this change came over 
him he was a sectional man and gave his great talents to the interests 
of slavery as long as he lived. ^ Slavery during its career in America 
had many champions of admirable talents, but no other compares at 
all in ability with Calhoun. The one weapon which he constantly 
used in dealing his powerful blows was state rights, or, more properly, 
state sovereignty. And this brings us to the notable outbreak of the 
time, a product of this doctrine, — 

NULLIFICATION IN SOUTH CAROLINA 

The grievance that caused the outbreak in this little state by the 
sea had been brewing for ten years, and especially for six years — 
since the defeat of Jackson for the presidency b}'" John Quincy 
Adams. It had its origin, not in the quarrel between the President 
and the " great nullifier," nor even in the tariff, as is generally sup- 
posed, but in a growing discontent of the people, a feeling that the 
interests of the North and the South were not identical, and that 
the government was falling into the hands of the Nortli.^ This feel- 
ing was intensified by the tariff of 1828, and a few years later it 
broke into open defiance. During the ten or fifteen years preceding 
this the North and the South had changed places on the subject of 
the tariff. At the close of the recent war with England the South 
was more favorable than the North to a protective tariff. One cause 
of this was, it is claimed, that the South at first expected to work 
its own cotton ; but this it could not do. Slave labor had not the 
intelligence to manufacture ; white labor could not flourish by the 
side of slave labor, and the cotton mills were built in New England 
and Liverpool. Since, therefore, the South could only raise cotton for 
sale, it came to prefer a low tariff so that it might purchase manu- 

1 1 would not be understood to mean that the quarrel with Jackson was the sole 
cause of Calhoun's change of heart ; but without this quarrel he might have become 
President, and remained broad and national in his sympathies. 

' See Harvard Historical Studies, No. Ill, p. 5. 



488 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

factured articles more cheaply, and through fear that a high tariS 
would disturb the cotton market in England. New England, on the 
other hand, was at first so wedded to commerce as its chief industry 
that it favored free trade or a low tariff. But as its manufactories 
grew and clamored for more protection, and as it was further dis- 
covered that protection did not seriously injure commerce, that 
section came to favor a high protective tariff. Thus in the years 
following 1816 the two sections veered around and exchanged places 
on this great national question.^ 

The duties of 1816 were raised in 1824, and these again in 1828. 
This last measure was called the " Tariff of Abominations." It was 
supported by the free traders and made as obnoxious as possible by 
them in the hope that the country would become surfeited with pro- 
tection; but New England swallowed it. This tariff gave occasion 
for the pent-up feelings in South Carolina to find an opening; but 
before continuing the subject, let us turn aside to notice an episode, 
indirectly connected with it, which brought on the most famous 
debate that ever took place in the United States Senate. 

It was in January, 1830, that Senator Foote of Connecticut intro- 
duced a resolution to limit the sale of public lands, or rather to 
inquire into the expediency of doing so, and from this arose the 
great debate which took a wider range, lasted over two months, and 
covered nearly every great question that had agitated the govern- 
ment since its foundation. At length, however, the debate narrowed 
down to the great rising issue between the North and the South, 
with slavery as its background, and threats of nullification and 
disunion as its immediate exponents — and it culminated in the 
famous oratorical contest between Robert Y. Hayne and Daniel 
Webster. 

Senator Hayne was a man of finished education and of refined 
and fascinating manners ; he was as pure as a child in morals, as 
charming and unassuming in his ways ; ^ he had a soft,winning voice, 
was an able lawyer, and was possessed of much oratorical ability. 
And yet Hayne would scarcely be known to our national history but 

1 It must be stated, however, that South Carolina was an exception in the South 
from the beginning. In this state high protection was never popular. In 1789 Sena- 
tor Pierce Butler from that state " flamed like a meteor " against tlie proposed tariff, 
and charged Congress with " a design of oppressing South Carolina." In 1816, when 
Calhoun supported the protective tariff, he did so against the wishes of his constitu- 
ents and was censured for it. He afterward came to agree witli his constituents. 

2 Sargent's "Public Men and Events," Vol. I, p. 171. 



THE PROPHET OF NATIONALITY 



for the fact that he drew from the greatest of American orators the 

greatest oration of his life. The speech of Hayne was 

one of the notable speeches of the period. It covered jj° ^g 

two days, and was made to a crowded chamber. In it 

Hayne advocated with much power the right of a state to render 

null and void an unconstitutional law of Congress. The Southerners 

gathered around him at the close to show their delight at having 

a champion, as they believed, who was more than a match for 

Webster. 

On the next day, with but one night for preparation, Webster 
rose to reply. He took the floor like a gladiator entering the arena; 
his appearance, always impressive, was especially so Webster's 
that day. He was at the prime of life, forty-eight great speech, 
years of age ; and his raven black hair, high forehead, ^*^®- 
shaggy brow, broad shoulders, and deep, melodious voice made an 
impression on the audience never to be forgotten. Webster's argu- 
ment was that the Constitution is supreme, the Union indissoluble, 
and that no state has the right to resist or to nullify a national law. 
■ His well-known closing peroration, ending with the words, "Liberty 
and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable," is one of the most 
eloquent passages in the English language. 

This great oration awakened the people to the fact that a 
new prophet had arisen among them — and so he was, a prophet of 
nationality. The old Federalist party had originally ^j^^j^^^ 
stood on the ground of extreme nationalism ; but that prophet, 
party had ceased to be, and the Democratic party had 
now been in control for thirty years. This party was equally 
patriotic with its predecessor, but less pronounced on national- 
ism, and had some great upheaval occurred within these thirty 
years, who can tell what might have become of the Union ? But 
now at this new menace to the integrity of the Union the new- 
champion of the old doctrine of nationality arose in the person of 
Webster. 

But Federalism had not been dead, nor even sleeping, nor had it 
hovered as a disembodied spirit during those thirty years. Not only 
had its best principles been in a great measure adopted by the democ- 
racy ; but a bridge of living Federalism had spanned this chasm of 
thirty years, from Hamilton to Webster, in the person of the great 
interpreter of the Constitution, John Marshall. It was Marshall 
above all men who gave to the Constitution the meaning that it has 



490 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

fco-day.^ And now as the great jurist was grown old and ready to 
close his earthly labors, it was Webster who took up the cry of 
nationality and sounded it forth with a trumpet sound ; and it took 
hold on the national mind, and increased more and more for thirty 
years, when it was strong enough to put down the mighty rebellion 
against the Union in the sixties. 

But Webster was not the only one, not even the chief one, to 
whom the nation owes its preservation in the thirties. This honor 
must be awarded the Democratic President. Webster was only a 
voice, and the case required action. Webster's doctrine was too 
new to take immediate hold upon a people w^ho had so long been 
schooled in the doctrine of state sovereignty. The condition required 
action ; it required one with power, and Jackson had the power. 
Had he the inclination, the will to do it ? That was the great ques- 
tion in the spring of 1830. 

The muttered rumblings of nullification were increasing in South 
Carolina. There was much dissatisfaction with the tariff of 1828 
in other states, and some were belligerent in their 
Dartv ^^ utterances,^ but no other except South Carolina was so 
audacious as to defy the government. But what will 
Jackson do ? He was a southern man. Would he decide against 
his own section and espouse the cause of the Union, the doctrine of 
this rising sun of Massachusetts ? In a unique way it was decided 
to discover the views of the President on this great subject. A ban- 
quet was to be held in Washington on the birthday of Thomas 
Jefferson, the great apostle of democracy, April 13, and Jackson 
was invited to be present and to give a toast on a subject of his own 
choosing. He readily saw that the general object was, not so much 
to honor Jefferson as to foster nullification and disunion and to 
make Jefferson the " pedestal of this colossal heresy," and the im- 
mediate object to discover his own views on the subject. Jackson 
attended. Many toasts were given, all bearing on state rights, and 
savoring of nullification.^ Jackson was then called on for a volun- 
teer toast. He arose amid profound silence, for his views on the 
exciting subject were unknown. He announced his subject: "The 

1 Marshall, in his great constitutional decisions, did an incalculable service to 
the country during this formative period ; first, in strengthening the national gov- 
ernment ; second, in sustaining the power and dignity of the Federal courts ; and 
third, in restricting the power of the states. 

2 See the case of Georgia, Ames's State Documents, No. TV, pp. 14^16. 
8 Benton. 



SOUTH CAROLINA AGAINST THE UNION 491 

Federal Union ; It must and shall be Preserved ; " and he denounced 
as treason all movements toward mdliiication and disunion. His 
speech fell like a bomb in the ranks of the South Carolinians ; they saw- 
that they could get no sympathy from Jackson, that he was for the 
Union at all hazards. This occurred two and a half months after 
the great debate between Webster and Hayne, and a month before 
the final break between Jackson and Calhoun. 

Notwithstanding the ominous warnings, the South Carolinians 
rushed on where angels might have feared to tread. Their state 

was in great turmoil; but it was in Washington that ._ ,, .. .. 

-, n -,■ • T T • J i 1 1 Nullification, 

the seeds of disunion were nourished into growth under 

the leadership of Hayne. But Hayne was not the real leader; 
those who looked deeper than the surface could see the master 
hand of Calhoun beneath it all. Again in 1832 some tariff duties 
were raised, and South Carolina grew desperate. In November, 
1832, the crisis came. A convention with the governor of the 
state as chairman, met at Columbia, and solemnly decided the tariff 
of 1828 and that of 1832 null and void in that state after the 
first of the following February, authorized the calling out of the 
militia, forbade any appeal to the Supreme Court, and declared 
that if the government attempted to use force, the state would set 
up a government of its own. This was the famous ordinance of 
nullification. It was a bold and daring step for the little state to 
make, especially with such a man as Jackson to deal with at Wash- 
ington. A few weeks after this the President came out with his 
famous December proclamation to the people of South Carolina, in 
which he showed them the folly of their action, appealed to them 
to pause in their madness, and w^arned them that if they went on 
the soil of their beloved state would be drenched in blood; for 
the general government could not and would not yield to their 
demands.^ 

The government, however, did yield to a compromise, the author 
01 w^hich was Henry Clay. By this compromise the duties above 
twenty per cent were to be reduced gradually for ten compj-omige. 
years, when the uniform duty should be twenty per 
cent. It was agreed to by Calhoun, but was signed with reluctance 
by the President, as it was a partial yielding to the hotspurs of 

1 To this the legislature of South Carolina made a rather defiant answer, and 
solemnly declared that any state had the right to secede from the Union. Ames's 
State Documents, No. IV, p. 43. 



492 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

South Carolina. At the same time, however, he had put through 
Congress the so-called Force Bill, which enabled him to send troops 
to South Carolina to enforce the collection of the revenue. This he 
did under General Scott ; but no blood was shed and all was soon 
peaceful. South Carolina had made one serious miscalculation from 
the first. She expected other cotton states to follow her example ; 
but instead of doing so, nearly all of them condemned her action. 
This fact doubtless explains her willingness to yield to compromise. 

THE EEELECTION AND THE BANK 

When Jackson first became President he had no thought of a 
second term, but at the urgent request of his friends, he decided to 
stand for reelection, and Van Buren, whom the Senate had rejected 
as minister to England, was elected Vice President, From Jackson's 
private correspondence we learn that he would have preferred to 
spend the remainder of his days at the Hermitage, near the grave of 
his departed wife, and that with all his successes and with all his 
friends and admirers, he was a " sad arid lonely old man." His 
chief object in consenting to serve a second terra, if elected, was to 
carry out his designs against the United States Bank. His leading 
opponent was Henry Clay, whose party used the name National 
Republican. 

There was another party also in the field in this election of 1832 
— the Anti-Masonic party. It arose in the following way: A man 
named William Morgan of New York published a book 
Ma^sons^' disclosing the secrets of Freemasonry and in so doing 

awakened the implacable hostility of the Masons. One 
day he was abducted at Canandaigua, carried away in a closed car- 
riage to Fort Niagara, and was never afterward seen or heard of by 
his friends. It was believed that he was sunk into the depths of 
Lake Ontario, and the deed was ascribed to the Masons. A violent 
wave of indignation against the Masonic fraternity spread through 
New York and adjoining states. Anti-Masonic societies were formed 
on all sides and they resolved themselves into apolitical party and 
entered the arena of national politics for the election of 1832. This 
party nominated William Wirt, twelve years attorney-general of the 
United States, for President, and carried one state, Vermont, in the 
election. The party soon dissolved, and it would scarcely be remem- 
bered but for the fact that it introduced into national politics three 



CLAY'S BANK BILL 498 



statesmen destined to great renown in the coming generation, — 
William H. Seward, Thurlow Weed, and Thaddeus Stevens, — and 
the more important fact that it instituted the national nominating 
convention, an example soon followed and still followed by all 
other parties. 

Bvit the real contest in 1832 was between Jackson and Clay ; and 
there was but one prominent issue — the United States Bank.^ Jack- 
son was hostile to the bank and sought to destroy it. Clay was its 
friend, and he made a bold move, which proved to be a blunder. Hft 
had pvit through Congress, in the midst of the campaign, a bill to 
recharter the bank. The old charter had four years yet to run, 
and there was no need of such haste ; and Clay's sole object was 
to force the issue by forcing the President to sign or to veto the bill, 
and it was sent to him on the 4th of July. 

The country waited in deep anxiety for the action of the 
President. The test was a severe one. Jackson was known to be 
altogether hostile to the bank ; he had thundered against it in 
his first annual message in 1829, and again in 1830. He had 
said again and again that Nicholas Biddle, the bank president, 
and the directors were using their influence and the bank's money 
to corrupt the people and carry the elections, and that no such 
corporation should exist in a free government. Could he sign 
the bill in the face of all that ? But could he veto it and risk 
awakening the wrath of the people within four months of the elec- 
tion ? The money of the country was still good, and there were yet 
no signs of corruption. What could Jackson do ? Whatever Jack- 
son may have been, he Avas no coward. He waited six days and then 
vetoed the bank bill. As the news of this veto spread, the majority 
of the people were struck with consternation, for most of them had 
come to believe that the bank was necessary to the prosperity of the 
country. 

The issue of the campaign was now settled — it was the bank 
and nothing but the bank. The great trio in the Senate, Clay, Web- 
ster, and Calhoun, combined against Jackson, and the bank officials, 
led by "Nick" Biddle, were active in assisting them. Their claim 
was that the financial equilibrium was so disturbed by the veto that 
widespread ruin must result. On the other hand, Jackson railed 
against the bank ; his followers took up the cry, and erelong the 
whole Democratic press was accusing the bank of corruption, and 
1 For an account of the bank see supra, p. 452. 



494 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

they kept it up until the masses of the people believed that there 
was truth in the accusation — and so there was. 

For some time before the election the popular tide set toward 
Jackson, and Clay received but forty-nine electoral votes out of two 
hundred and seventy-five. 

This appeal to the j^eople sustained Jackson on the question 
before the country ; but the old bank had four years yet to live ; and 
Jackson ^^^® next year Jackson made the boldest stroke ever 

removes the made by a President of the United States. He removed 
deposits. the government deposits from the bank, on his own 

authority. He had determined to destroy the institution, and fear- 
ing that by his death or through some great change in Congress, the 
bill to recharter it might yet become a law, he decided to ruin the 
bank by withholding the government moneys on which its life de- 
pended. Calling his Cabinet together, he made known his purpose. 
But the entire Cabinet, except Mr. Taney, the attorney-general, dis- 
approved. It was believed that such an act would ruin the business 
of the country by ruining this great fiscal corporation, which had 
practical control of the finances of the nation, and hundreds of 
smaller banks dependent on it. But Jackson believed the bank to 
be corrupt and even insolvent, and he was determined on his course ; 
nothing could stay his hand. By the charter no one but the secre- 
tary of the treasury had power to remove the public money from the 
bank. Jackson ordered his secretary of the treasury, Mr. Duane, 
to do this ; but Duane refused and was immediately dismissed from 
the Cabinet. Taney was then transferred to the treasury, and he 
immediately proceeded to obey his chief. 

Little can we realize at this da}"" the excitement into which the 
people were thrown by this action of the President. Public meet- 
ings were held in every part of the country to protest against it. 
Thousands who had voted for Jackson the year before now be- 
lieved that he had gone entirely too far. Petitions came from 
all sides praying that he replace the bank funds.'' Jackson, when 
approached on the subject, would become furious; he would walk 
the floor like a caged lion. " Go to the monster, Nick Biddle," he 

1 The government deposits in the bank, amounting to near $10,000,000 at this 
time, were removed gradually in the course of business. The accumulating surplus 
was placed in "pet banks " to the amount of .$11,000,000, when Congress passed a law 
loaning the unused surplus to the various states. But after three quarterly pay- 
ments, aggregating some $28,000,000, had been so distributed, a financial crash, to 
be noticed later, put a stop to them. 



FIERCE CONTEST OVER THE BANK m 

would say, " he has millions ; it's all a job of the politicians ; I will 
not yield a hair's breadth." ^ And he did not yield. 

But the trouble did not stop here. In a few months the business 
of the country was greatly disturbed. Banks closed their doors and 
manufactories were shut down. Distress meetings were held in 
every center of trade, and they poured their memorials into Congress 
by the hundreds. Congress met in December, and the Senate de- 
bated the subject for weeks amid the wildest excitement. The 
leader against Jackson was Clay ; but Clay had been so recently 
defeated by Jackson that personal grievance was thought to have 
something to do with his opposition. Clay's right-hand man was 
Calhoun ; but his recent quarrel with the President weakened him 
also with the people. 

Jackson was not withoiit friends in the Senate, the ablest and 
most devoted of whom was Thomas H. Benton, thirty years a sena- 
tor from Missouri. Benton was a national character, known as 
" Old Bullion," from his hard money proclivities. Many years be- 
fore he and Jackson had been enemies and had fought an impromptu 
duel,^ but all this was changed, and with unwearied effort and much 
ability he now defended Jackson against the combination in the 
Senate. He claimed that the sudden distress of the country had 
been caused by the willful designs of the bank directors with a view 
of overthrowing Jackson's popularity and forcing him to replace the 
deposits. The bank refvised its accustomed loans to business men, 
and had forced smaller banks to the wall by demanding immediate 
payment in coin of all debts due it. Benton also showed that the old 
bank in 1811, in order to force the government to grant a recharter, 
had brought on the country a temporary distress of the same kind 
and in the same way. He drew from this a strong argument against 
the existence in a free country of a corporation so powerful as to be 
able to do this. His points were well taken, and in the end had 
great effect on the people. 

The fury of the Senate against the President did not abate; but 
that body was powerless. It was under the magic spell of Clay, and 
would have impeached Jackson beyond a doubt, but the Constitution 
gives all power of impeachment to the House, and the House was 
Democratic by a majority of fifty. The Senate, however, rejected 
Taney as secretary of the treasury, and adopted strong resolutions 
of censure against the President; who in turn sent a long written 
1 Schouler, Vol. IV, p. 161. 2 gge note on p. 449. 



-196 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

protest, which the Senate refused to receive. Benton then gave 
notice that he would move to expunge the resolutions of censure 
from the Senate journal, and that he would succeed in this or keep 
up the subject to the end of his official life. He did succeed about 
three years later, after the Senate had changed political complexion. 

FOREIGN RELATIONS AND INDIAN WARS 

So great were the domestic achievements of the Jacksonian epoch 
that little notice, usually, is given to foreign affairs ; yet these were 
important, and in every dispute with a foreign power, as well as in 
his contests at home, the old warrior President was successful in 
French ^^^ 6nd. First came a wrangle with France. The 

spoliation United States held a claim of $5,000,000 against that 
claims. country for spoliations of American shipping after 

1803. In a treaty of 1831 Louis Philippe, the newly crowned King 
of France, acknowledged the claim. But three years passed and 
the money was not forthcoming, whereupon Jackson came forth in 
a vigorous message in which was couched a menace. This offended 
the French Chambers, and they refused to pay the claims unless the 
President would modify his message. This attitude brought from 
Jackson a second message, threefold more offensive than the first. 
In this message he threatened reprisals on ' French commerce. 
Congress then took up the matter; but the French government 
soon ended the trouble by paying the claims. The administration 
demanded and received payment also of long-standing claims against 
Spain, Denmark, and the Sicilies. These things touched the popular 
heart and strengthened the administration. But still more were the 

people pleased with the opening of the West India 
trade ° trade. Great Britain had closed the ports of the West 

Indies to American ships some years before. The 
Adams administration had sought with unwearied effort to have 
this trade reopened, but in vain. Jackson renewed the negotiation 
through his secretary of state. Van Buren, and by making some con- 
cessions to British commerce, won a complete victory. 

Our relations with Mexico were strained during the whole of 
this administration, and so continued for more than ten years longer, 
Mexico emancipated her slaves in 1827, but her northern province, 
Texas, refused to do so, and soon afterward revolted under the lead- 
ership of Sam Houston. Jackson sent an army under General 



INDIAN WARS 49? 



Gaines to the gulf coast " to keep Texan Indians off our soil," but 
in fact to connive with Houston. Gaines's troops deserted freely 
and joined Houston, and received no rebuke from the government. 
Jackson even demanded damages of Mexico and threatened reprisals, 
when the damage claims should have come from the other side. 
Nothing was plainer than that, contrary to his usual honesty, 
Jackson was unfair in his dealings with Mexico. 

Two Indian wars marked the administration of Jackson. The 
first occurred in the Northwest and is known as the Black Hawk 
War, Black Hawk, a former pupil of Tecumseh, who had, like 
that great chief, espoused the cause of the British in the War of 
1812, was now chief of the Sac and Fox tribes. His 
war with the whites in 1832 arose from the usual cause ^^ i832 
of Indian wars — land cessions. General Gaines, and 
later General Atkinson, were sent against him. Black Hawk was 
defeated and at length taken captive. He was then taken East that 
he might see the greatness of the United States. He called on the 
President at Washington and visited most of the great cities of the 
East. He was highly honored in this tour, thousands of people 
swarming to the towns to see this monarch of the forest. While 
bearing himself with the dignity of a ruler, Black Hawk was deeply 
impressed with the white man's government, and returning to his 
western home, was faithful to his promise to keep the peace in future. 

Ear more formidable was the war with the Indians of the South, 
beginning in 1835, and known as the Second Seminole War, the 
first being that of 1818 with Jackson as the chief figure. The various 
southern tribes had been slow to remove to the lands allotted to 
them west of the Mississippi, and in 1834 the President sent Gen- 
eral Wiley Thomson to Florida to urge their departure. 
But the Indians, led by the strong chieftain, Osceola, -^^^^^ ^ 
rose in rebellion. In December, 1835, Major Dade and 
a hundred soldiers whom he led were ambushed and massacred in a 
Florida swamp ; and on the same day Osceola, with his own hand, 
assassinated and scalped General Thomson, while the latter was 
sitting at the table dining with friends. These acts stirred the 
government to vigorous action. General Scott was sent to take 
command, and he soon subdued the Creeks, and removed thousands 
of them to their new home. But the Seminoles were still hostile, 
and they extended their forays into Alabama and Georgia, attacking 
mail carriers, stagecoaches, and even towns, from which the people 
2k 



498 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

fled for their lives. General Jessup commanded in Florida. H© 
made a treaty with the Indians, but Osceola trampled it under foot 
and refused to be bound by the most sacred promises. Hundreds 
of the troops perished in the swamps of fevers and of the bites 
of venomous serpents. At length Osceola came to General Jessup 
under a flag of truce, and was detained, sent to Charles- 
1837 ^*^^' ^^^^ confined in Fort Moultrie. Jessup was se- 

verely censured for violating the sanctity of a flag of 
truce ; but he explained that as this was the only way in which he 
could stop the career of this treacherous chief who violated every 
obligation, he felt justified in doing as he did. Osceola died of fever 
at Fort Moultrie in 1839. But the war went on, continuing in 
all about seven years, and costing the United States $30,000,000. 

CHARACTER OF JACKSON 

The student of history must search long to find a parallel to this 
remarkable man, who has been pronounced "the incarnate multi- 
tude," and whose will dominated the government of the United 
States for eight years. The period was noted for its great men, and 
yet Jackson stood alone as the transcendent figure of the times. 
Such leaders as Clay, Webster, and Calhoun were powerless while 
Jackson occupied the political stage. His popularity in his party 
was unbounded. The people came to believe that he could do no 
wrong, and that he stood like an angel with a flaming sword, guard- 
ing their interests against the designs of the politicians. It is diflicult 
to rate Jackson as a statesman. He had little training in statecraft, 
but he was gifted with an intuition that proved remarkable for its 
accuracy. His insight into human nature was almost unerring.^ 

The most conspicuous element in Jackson's character was his 
will. This was as inflexible as steel. He usually reached his con- 
clusion on a great subject without apparently considering the mat- 
ter, and then, deciding on his course with equal suddenness, he bent 
every energy to attain his object and trampled every foe and every 
obstacle that came in his way. No expostulations of friends or 
threats of enemies could change his marvelous will. He had a 
Cabinet, it is true, but no real advisers. He called his Cabinet to- 
gether, not to seek advice, but to inform them of his intentions, and 

1 He could be imposed on, however, by artful politicians. But with the excep* 
tion of Swartwout, who stole a million dollars as collector of the port of New York, 
and a few others, his appointments were generally commendable. 



VICTORIES FOR JACKSON 499 

to bid them what to do. Some of them had ten times his experience 
as statesmen, but they sat in his presence as children with their 
schoolmaster, and none that crossed his will or refused to humor his 
foibles or to bend to his purpose could remain long in his favor.' 
Jackson held his party in a grasp of iron, and his discipline was that 
of a general commanding an army. He was not a partisan in the 
ordinary sense ; he was simply master. Every contest with him was 
a battle, and every battle brought him victory. It is a remarkable 
fact that, except in the case of the Batons, Jackson gained every 
important object on which he set his heart during his entire admin- 
istration. His few apparent defeats were more than victories in the 
end. He nominated Van Buren minister to England. The Senate 
rejected his nominee, and Jackson made him Vice President and then 
President of the United States. He then named former Speaker 
Stevenson for the place. The Senate again refused its consent, and 
Jackson left the office vacant for two years, and again sent the same 
name to the Senate, and it was confirmed. His appointment of 
Taney to the treasury was also rejected, and he made Taney Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court. The Senate at last seemed to gain 
a crowning victory over the President — by passing its resolutions 
of censure. This annoyed him exceedingly; but his friends, after 
laboring for three years, succeeded in expunging the hated censure 
— and Jackson was ahead again. Both Clay and Webster were so 
wearied at their successive defeats at the hands of this untutored 
President, that they determined to abandon public life,^ and would 
doubtless have done so, but for the retirement of their unconquer- 
able enemy. 

Andrew Jackson had faults — glaring faults. One was his law- 
lessness. He was a law unto himself, and was impatient of the 
restraints of civil law. This was shown in his Seminole campaign, 
as we have noticed. When President he refused to be bound by the 
Supreme Court, on the ground that he would sustain the Constitu- 
tion as he understood it, and not as it was interpreted by others. 
For example, when Georgia had trouble with the Creeks, she con- 
demned a half-breed named Tassells to be hanged. Tassells appealed 
to the Supreme Court, and the decision was reversed, and the state 
was cited on a writ of error. But Georgia was defiant, and refused 
to be bound by this decision. It was now Jackson's plain duty to 
enforce the decision of the Supreme Court, but he refused to do so. 
1 Schouler, Vol. IV, p. 266, 2 Sargent, p. 344. 



500 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

" Jolin Marshall has made his decision," he is reported to have said^ 
" now let him enforce it " — and Tassells was hanged. Very similar 
was his action in the case of Georgia and the Cherokees, as noted on 
a preceding page. 

Jackson was a man of quarrels. He couldn't be happy without 
one. He loved his friends and hated his enemies. He was not able 
to distinguish between a personal and a political enemy, nor was he 
broad enough to give an opponent credit for honestly differing from 
him in opinion; but he never grew weary of showering favors on his 
devoted followers. 

Now a hurried glance at the other side of his nature. It has been 
truly said that Andrew Jackson, with his vast power, could have 
done his country irreparable harm, had he been a bad man ; but this 
he was not. He was a true child of nature, born with an unhappy 
temper, of which he never had the good fortune to become master; 
while the half-civilized society of the frontier had set its mark 
indelibly upon his life. But his heart was right. No trace in him 
of selfish ambition of the Aaron Burr type ; no enemy, even, could 
accuse him of dishonesty, or couple his name with political corrup- 
tion. His devotion to his country was equal to that of Washington. 
His unjust dealing with Mexico arose from his too great love of 
country — his longing to see Texas a part of the Union. When he 
disobeyed orders while a commander in the field, it was because he 
thought he knew best. When he quarreled with enemies, he doubt- 
less thought he was right and they were wrong, and compromise was 
a meaningless word with Jackson. 

The story of Jackson's home life is scarcely credible to the 
reader who knows him only in the hurricane of battle, and in the 
caldron of political strife. In the domestic circle Jackson was 
the gentlest and most lovable of men. His servants, white and 
black, revered him as a father. His devotion to his wife while she 
lived, and to her memory after she was gone, was rarely beautiful. 
For years after her death he would place her picture in front of him 
on the table before retiring at night, and alternately look at it and read 
from the prayer book that she had given him, and late in life he ful- 
filled his promise to her that he would become a member of the Church. 
In morals he was as chaste as a child, and one of his striking char- 
acteristics was his courtesy and chivalry to women. In appearance 
he was tall and thin, with an erect military bearing, his iron-gray 
hair thrown back in ridges from his forehead, while in his eye was 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF JACKSON 501 

a "dangerous fixedness," and down his cheeks deep furrows ran. 
The prevailing expression of his face showed energy and will power. 
He would be singled out, even among extraordinary men, says an 
English writer, as a man of superior cast. 

The most serious accusation brought against Jackson was that 
his want of respect for law would infuse a similar spirit into his 
followers ; but it cannot be shown that any such result followed. 

The political influence of Jackson upon the country, especially 
upon the northern Democrats, was very great. At the time of his 
power the murmurs of sectionalism and disunion were distinctly 
heard from the South; but Jackson, while a strong friend of state 
rights, was an unrelenting foe to sectionalism and disunion. He 
was national in the broadest and best sense, and this spirit he 
infused into the multitude. Above all men of his times Jackson 
was the idol, the oracle, the teacher of the great unformed democracy, 
the untutored masses, many of whom had but recently received the 
franchise. What they needed above all things was a lesson in 
nationality — and they received it from Jackson. Through him vast 
numbers of men came to love the nation above the state, and it was 
largely through the memory and influence of Jackson that the north- 
ern Democrats came forward in 1861 to aid in saving the Union, 
which he, through their fathers, had taught them to love.^ 

While we cannot sympathize with the spoils system of Jackson, 
nor with his harsh treatment of the Seminoles, nor his double deal- 
ing with Mexico, nor his belligerent propensities in general, it cannot 
be denied that he was a true patriot and an honest man. In ability 
he was almost a Caesar ; and while it is perhaps well that the Ameri- 
can people are inclined to place few Caesars in the presidential chair, 
may it be hoped that whenever they do they will choose as honest 
and unselfish a one as was Andrew Jackson. 

MARTIN VAN BUREN 

The administration of Van Buren properly belongs to the Jack- 
son epoch ; but the term " reign " can be used no longer, as the new 
President lacked the dictatorial power and the popularity of his 
predecessor. It was the intense desire of the outgoing President 
that his favorite from Kew York become his successor. His wishes 
were respected by the party, and Van Buren became President — but 

1 This thought is brought out by A. D. Morse, in an able article in the Political 
Science Quarterly, Vol. I, p. 154 sq. 



602 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Bot without a contest. A new political party had been born. Henry- 
Clay, who had served with the Democrats for twenty years, but who 
was now at variance with them at all points, determined after his 
defeat by Jackson in 1832 to break away entirely from 
Whig party ^j^g ^^^ party. And while casting about for a party 
name the old Revolutionary name Whig was decided on, 
and was first used in 1834. The Whig party absorbed the National 
Republican party, the name by which the opposition had been known 
for some years past. As the old Whig party in England and the 
colonies had opposed the high prerogative of the King, the new 
party now opposed the encroaching power of the Executive. The 
Whigs did not expect to win in 1836, nor was their party sufficiently 
united to concentrate on one man. Their aim was to throw the elec- 
tion into the House. Their votes in the electoral college were scat- 
tered among four men, William H. Harrison of Ohio, Judge White 
of Tennessee, Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, and Willie P. Man- 
gum of North Carolina. Their combined vote, however, reached 
but 124, while Van Buren received 167. The electoral college made 
no selection for Vice President, and Richard M. Johnson of Ken- 
tucky was chosen by the Senate. 

As it was at the inauguration of 1797, so it was now — the eyes 
of the multitude were turned toward the setting rather than the 
rising sun. The quick-moving, smooth-shaven little man who read 
his inaugural on that bleak March day in 1837, and promised to 
tread " in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor," won little 
applause from the vast crowd compared with that given the aged 
specter by his side. Now for the last time this old warrior, who 
had been dictator of American policy for eight years, leaning heavily 
upon his staff under his burden of three-score and ten and the ravages 
of long disease, came forth and received the homage of the masses. 
A few days later he departed for his southern home, and the troubles 
of the new President began. 

Martin Van Buren, the son of an innkeeper and small farmer of 
New York, had been initiated into politics by Aaron Burr, and he was 
a prominent lawyer before the War of 1812. He was a man of greater 
individuality and ability than is generally put to his credit by his- 
torians. In 1821 he entered the United States Senate and was the 
leader in that body during the administration of Adams. On the 
death of De Witt Clinton in 1828 Van Buren was easily the foremost 
man in the Empire State. Resigning the governorship of that state 



MARTIN VAN BUREN 503 

to take the chief place in the Cabinet of Jackson, he was'by no 
means a figurehead even there ; for it was largely due to his skill 
that Jackson made the two brilliant strokes in his foreign policy — 
opening of the West India trade and settling the French spoliation 
claims. But with all this, Van Buren could not have become Presi- 
dent without the aid of his powerful friend ; and while he inherited 
the office without the popularity of Jackson, he also inherited the 
evils of Jackson's administration. 

Van Buren has been pronounced the cleverest political manager 
in American history, and no other man has held so many high 
national offices. He was small in stature, had a round, red face and 
5[uick, searching eyes.^ He was subtle, courteous, and smooth in con- 
versation. His enemies charged him with being noncommittal on 
all subjects. At a great tariff meeting in Albany he was invited to 
make a speech ; he did so, and at its close not a man, woman, or child 
in the audience could tell whether he was for or against a high tariff.'^ 
For two things the administration of Van Buren is prominent in 
history: First, the panic of 1837; and second, the establishing of the 
independent treasury. 

THE PANIC AND THE INDEPENDENT TREASURY 

This panic was probably the most disastrous that the American 
people have yet experienced. Every bank in the country suspended 
specie payments, thousands of leading merchants and manufacturers 
were forced to the wall, and the business of the country was utterly 
demoralized. As to the cause of the panic, there are various versions. 
The Whigs were prompt to put all the blame on the Democrats. It 
is not unusual in American politics for the party out of power to 
arraign the party in power, guilty or not guilty, for every distur- 
bance in financial and business circles. Few statesmen have risen 
above this practice, especially when their own advancement depended 
on it — and in that degree a statesman becomes a demagogue, 

1 Schouler. 

2 One day Van Buren handed an oliQcial paper that he had -written to a clerk to 
be criticised, and the latter declared that he couldn't tell what it was about. " Very 
well," answered Van Buren, " it will answer, then." A member of Congress, it was 
said, made a bet with another that if Van Buren were asked if the sun rose in the 
east or the west, he would not give a direct answer. The question was asked, and 
his answer was, " My friend, east and west are altogether relative terms." The 
reputation of being a M'ily politician rather than a statesman was very annoying 
to Van Buren all through his public career. 



604 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

This panic, like most of its kind, was the resultant of various 
causes, some of which elude the pen of the wisest political economist 
A few of the causes, however, are not far to seek. 
Causes of the Jackson's specie circular, by which payments for public 
lands were to be made in coin, when the people had but 
little coin, hastened the crisis. Another cause was tbs act of 
Congress distributing the surplus of the treasury to the various 
states. This made the states reckless in spending money, and when 
the payments were withheld, the states found themselves with many 
expensive projects in hand which they could not carry out. But 
the chief cause of the panic was the wild spirit of speculaticn that 
haa seized the people. The national debt was paid, banks every- 
where flooded the country with paper money far beyond their 
ability to redeem in coin ; and moreover, English capital poured 
into the country at this time and played its part in throwing the 
people off their guard. ^ The wildest schemes of speculation were 
set on foot. Prices rose and work was plentiful at high wages. 
Great manufactories were begun and never carried out. Scores 
of towns were laid out in the West, many of which are not built 
up to this day. The sale of public lands, which had often fallen 
below 12,000,000 a year, ran up to 124,000,000 in 1835. Banks 
sprung up on all sides, and they inflated the country with worth- 
less paper money. Eailroads, canals, and all manner of internal 
improvements were projected. Men were intoxicated with their 
dreams of growing rich in a night; and the crash came, as it 
always will under such conditions. 

The panic reached its height soon after Van Buren becam,e 
President, and he was besieged from every part of the country by 
delegations representing mass meetings, which had condemned the 
government for bringing about the hard times. The people raged 
and clamored, and begged the President to bring back their good 
times, of which they seemed to think he had robbed them. 

Van Buren's bearing was courteous and firm. His position was 
very difficult, but he faced the storm with great courage and for once 
evinced statesmanship of a high order. He assured the people that 
the object of government was not to manage the private affairs of 

1 Von Hoist shows that English capital, which was at high tide at this time, also 
flooded other countries and produced a similareffect. This is conclusive proof that 
the panic in the United States was not wholly caused by the administration. The 
President's annual message of 1839 says that $200,000,000 of foreign capital were 
then afloat in the United States. See " Jackson's Administration," p. 173. 



THE INDEPENDENT TREASURY 505 

the people, and that frugality and industry with careful management 
of business would alone bring prosperity. The President, however, 
yielded to popular clamor in so far as to call a special session of 
Congress to meet in September, 1837 ; and in his message to Cbn- 
gress at this session, a very able state paper, he urged with much 
force the one and only great measure of his administration — the 
establishing of the Independent Treasury, which, from its many 
subordinate branches in the various cities, has come to be known as 
the " Subtreasury." This is simply a special place or places for 
the funds of the government. Thus the government becomes the 
custodian of its own surplus and is divorced from all dependence on 
the banks. The measure, as urged by the President, was ably dis- 
cussed during this extra session, and again at the regular session. 
It was bitterly opposed by the Whigs and by many Democrats. It 
passed the Senate in June, 1838, but was defeated in the House. The 
administration, however, did not give the matter up, and in 1840 
the bill for an independent treasury passed both houses, was signed 
by the President on the 4th of- July, and became a law. A year 
later the Whigs had control of the government, and they repealed 
the act. But the Democrats still clung to their favorite measure, 
and in 1846 the law was reenacted. From that time to the present, 
this law has been in force, and as all parties now favor it, it seems 
to be a fixture in our government. 

THE HARRISON CAMPAIGN 

The most remarkable presidential contest in our history was that 
of 1840. In spite of anything that the Democrats could do, they 
steadily lost ground during the administration of Van Buren, This 
was largely because of the reiterated cry of the Whigs that the 
party in power had brought about the great industrial depression 
known as the Panic of 1837. Every sign seemed now to point to a 
Whig victory in 1840. That party held its convention at Harris- 
burg in a newly erected Lutheran church, almost a year before the 
election. Three prominent candidates were before the convention — 
Henry Clay, William Henry Harrison, and Winfield Scott — all 
born in Virginia, but now of different states. 

Scott was widely known for his deeds at Queenstown Heights, at 
Chippewa and Lundy's Lane ; but the greatest work of his life — his 
inarch upon Mexico — was still in the future, and he was not seriously 



506 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

considered by the convention. The real contest lay between Clay and 
Harrison. Against Clay many forces were at work. He had been in 
the forefront of public life for thirty years, and his outspoken manner 
had made him enemies ; his views on the tariff were not popular in 
the South, and moreover he was a Freemason. This was his weakest 
point, for the Anti-Masonic party had dissolved, most of its members 
had joined the Whigs, and they would not have given Clay a hearty 
support. Harrison, on the other hand, had been out of public life 
for many years. His views on the great questions of the day were 
scarcely known, and this, according to our anomalous American poli- 
tics, was considered a point in his favor as a vote getter. But 
Harrison had a record. He was the son of a " signer " ; he was the 
hero of Tii)pecanoe ; he had done valiant service in the Northwest 
during the war with England. He had also served in both houses of 
Congress, and had been sent by John Quincy Adams as minister to 
Colombia, South America. After a brief service he was recalled from 
this mission by Jackson, when he settled down to the quiet life of 
a farmer at North Bend, an Ohio village near Cincinnati. 

The majority of the delegates to this convention preferred Clay; 
but the leaders, led by that master political manager of New York, 
Thurlow Weed, and the rising young editor of the same state, Horace 
Greeley, determined to secure the nomination of Harrison if possible. 
They succeeded by skillfully manipulating the committees. Clay 
was disappointed. True, he had written his friends to withdraw 
his name, if in their eyes it seemed the right thing to do ; he had 
also about this time given rise to the oft-quoted statement, "I 
would rather be right than be President." Nevertheless he was 
disappointed at the outcome, and so were his friends. One of these 
whose heart was set on Clay burst into tears, it was said, when 
his favorite was set aside. This was John Tyler of Virginia. 

Harrison'n friends now determined to conciliate the Clay people 
by offering to place one of their number second on the ticket. When 
looking about for a suitable choice — behold John Tyler in tears! 
and he was straightway nominated for the vice presidency.^ But 
Tyler was not a cipher. He had attracted attention in Congress 
away back in the days of the Missouri Compromise. He had 
been governor of Virginia and a United States senator. For many 
years he had been a Democrat, but revolting against the iron rule 

1 This nomination, it should be stated, was declined by two or three others 
among Clay's friends before it was offei'ed to Tyler. 



THE LOG CABIN CAMPAIGN 507 

of Jackson, he became an ardent supporter of Cla}'-. His selection 
was a concession to southern Democrats who had broken with Jackson. 

The Democrats met in Baltimore and renominated Van ]5uien. 
They put forth a platform of ijrinciples, pronouncing against a 
United States Bank, internal improvements at national expense, 
a high tariff, and the like. The Whigs had no platform, and they 
made no avowal of principles; their sole cry during the campaign 
was, in substance, Down with the administration. 

The wild enthusiasm of the Whigs increased in volume during 
the summer and autumn. Harrison was known by his popular mili- 
tary name of Tippecanoe, and the shouts for " Tippecanoe and Tyler 
too " were long and lusty. A Baltimore paper having suggested that 
Harrison was more in his element in his log cabin with his barrel of 
hard cider than he would be in the White House, the Whigs took up 
the cry of " Log Cabin and Hard Cider," and made these the emblems 
of the campaign. Horace Greeley started a newspaper in » j^^- Cabin 
New York which he called Tlie Log Cabin, and it and hard 
bounded into great popularity.^ The Whig mass meet- cider." 
ings were vast beyond any before known in the country. Men would 
come for many miles in farm wagons, bringing their families, and 
remaining whole days and nights at these great meetings. At first 
the people were counted at these gatherings, but as the crowds 
grew larger counting became impossible, and they were measured 
by the acre by surveyors brought for the purpose. The most notable 
feature of the campaign were the songs,^ written for the occasion, 
and learned and sung by the shouting miiltitudes. As Clay remarked, 
the country was ''like an ocean convulsed by a terrible storm." 

The Democrats affected to treat the Whig enthusiasm with con- 
tempt, but in reality they were very angry, and very much alarmed.' 
They too held meetings, but these fell far short of those of the Whigs 
in numbers and enthusiasm. They attempted to reason and argue ; 
but the people preferred to sing and shout. And the result was a 
crushing defeat for Van Buren. He received but sixty electoral 
votes to 234 for Harrison. 

NOTES 

Minor Events. — Imprisonment for debt by the United States courts was 
abolished in 1833, chiefly through the efforts of Richard M. Johnson, the slayei' 

1 The Log Cabin was merged hi to the Tribune in September, 1841. 

2 For samples, see Greeley's Loq Cabin or Elson's " Side Lights," II, p. 2.34. 
8 Stanwood's " History of Presidential Elections," p. 13G. 



508 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

of Tecumseh. The states soon followed the example of the general government, 
and the barbarous practice became a thing of the past. — The death of some oi 
the most prominent men occurred within this period. Ex-President Monroe 
died on July 4, 1831, in the city of New York. The last signer of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, died in 18.S2 at the great 
age of ninety-two years ; and James Madison, the last of the framers of the 
Constitution, died in 1836. John Marshall, America's greatest jurist, and La- 
fayette, the most Iiighly honored in America of all foreigners, both passed away 
in 1835. — In January, 1885, President Jackson narrowly escaped assassination. 
While attending the funeral of a member of Congress, a man from the crowd in 
the rotunda of the Capitol .snapped two pistols at his breast. Both missed fire, 
and the President rushed upon the man with his cane. The man was arrested 
and was found to be a demented Englishman named Lawrence. He was sent 
to an insane a.sylum. The President's escape was very narrow, as both pistols 
were afterward fired at the first trial. 

The Caroline Affair. — In 1837 a portion of the people of Canada, led by 
William Lyon MacKenzie and Louis J. Papinau, rose in rebellion against British 
rule in the province with the view of setting up a republic. After a few sharp 
skirmishes the insurrection was put down, and many of the insurgents took 
refuge on Navy Island, in the Niagara River. The Caroline^ a little steamer 
owned by a citizen of the United States, was employed in carrying .supplies to 
the island, and the British determined to destroy her. On the night of Decem- 
ber 29, 1837, a flotilla of five boats set out for this purpose, but not finding her 
here, they searched until they found her moored at Grand Island, which is part 
of the territory of New York. The British boarded the vessel, overpowered the 
crew, killing one man, set the boat on fire, and sent her burning over the falls. 
The American government then made a demand on the British government for 
reparation ; but the matter was left unsettled for several years, and was at 
length dropped by the United States. 

Meantime, one Alexander McLeod, a worthless resident of Ontario, made 
the boast that he was witli the party that destroyed the Caroline, and had him- 
self killed one of the Yankees. One day while in Buffalo he repeated his boast, 
and was instantly arrested and clapped into prison. The British government 
now made a demand that he be released, and the Pre.sident would gladly have 
released McLeod, but he was in the hands of New York State, and she refused to 
give him up. Great Britain began to mobilize armies and prepare for war. 
New York, meantime, having no foreign relations, calmly held the prisoner and 
had him tried before a court at Lockport for murder and arson. It all turned 
out to be ludicrous in the extreme. It was proved that the blustering braggart, 
McLeod, had not been present at the destroying of the Caroline. His boast 
was an idle and a false one. He was acquitted, and all signs of war disappeared. 
Nothing in our history shows more clearly how a trifling matter may disturb the 
peace of two great nations, and how the defect in our dual system of government, 
state and national, may prove disastrous to the peace of the country. For a 
fuller account of the Caroline affair, see Elson's "Side Lights," Series I, Chap. XL 



CHAPTER XXII 

RISE OF THE SLAVERY QUESTION 

Twenty years had passed since the adoption of that famous com- 
pact known as the Missouri Compromise. That measure was 
expected to give peace to the land, and so it did for about ten 
years. Nevertheless the debates on it left a sting, a wound that 
could not altogether heal ; and they also awakened here and there 
a moral consciousness that eluded the grasp of the lawmaker, that 
could not die ; it could only slumber. 

During this period' there were a few, a rare few, who, like the 
ancient prophets of Israel, ceased not to cry out day and night 
against the evil of the land. First among these was Benjamin 
Lundy. A saddler by trade, he worked for many years at Wheel- 
ing, Virginia, until his interest in the black man became so overmas- 
tering that he determined to give his life to the cause of emancipation. 
Abandoning his occupation, leaving his wife and his children behind, 
he traveled over the country making speeches and organizing socie- 
ties. He traveled in nearly all the states of the Union, in Canada, 
Mexico, and the West Indies, in the interest of the cause he had 
espoused. In 1821 he established Tlie Genius of Universal Emanci- 
pation. In one of his tours to New England, Lundy 
met at a boarding house a young man of ardent spirit, Qarriso^ 
vvho became a convert and a co-worker with him in the 
cause — William Lloyd Garrison. Together the two men went to 
Baltimore and became joint editors of an antislavery journal. But 
they soon parted. Garrison now became the leading Abolitionist 
in the country, and after serving a time in prison for his violent 
utterances, went to Boston.^ Here in 1831 he founded The Libera- 
tor, and in it he denounced all slaveholders with unsparing severity. 
He demanded the unconditional emancipation of all slaves, and pro- 
nounced the Constitution, for permitting slavery, " A covenant with 

1 Burgess says if a name, a date, and a place rmist be given the new movement, the 
Dame is Garrison, the date is 1831, and the place is Boston. " Middle Period," p. 246. 

609 



610 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

death, an agreement with hell." Another noted agitator was the 
Rev. 15. P. Lovejoy of St. Louis, who, after publishing an anti- 
slavery paper for several years, was murdered in November, 1837, 
by a proslavery mob at Alton, Illinois. Antislavery societies 
were formed in various states ; but they were composed chiefly 
of the poorer classes, and had little effect on public opinion. And 
besides, the violence of such men as Garrison produced among 
lovers of peace, even in the North, a proslavery reaction. This 

was intensified by a slave insurrection in Virginia, 
fsai^'^^^^'^' ^®^ ^^ "^^^ Turner, a negro, in which sixty-one whites, 

mostly women and children, were killed. This inci- 
dent sent a shiver of horror throughout the South. It showed what 
might occur, if great numbers of the bondsmen should rise against 
their masters. At this moment slaveholding Virginia, through her 
legislature, seriously considered the subject of emancipation in that 
state. Aud here the institution was denounced as it had seldom 
been denounced at the North. " Tax our lands," said one speaker, 
" vilify our country, carry the sword of extermination through our 
defenseless villages, but spare us, I implore you — spare us the 
curse of slavery, that bitterest drop from the chalice of the de- 
stroying angel." 

There was a rising sentiment against slavery in the North, but 
it was not yet strong nor widespread. Two or three incidents will 

readily show that the sympathies of the people were 
th^^N^rth* generally with the slaveholder, whose desire was to 

keep the black man in ignorance, that he might not be- 
come dangerous. In 1831 it was proposed to found a school for 
colored children in New Haven, Connecticut, but a town meeting 
declared against it as " destructive of the best interests of the city." 
Two years later Prudence Crandall, a school-teacher of the same 
state, was cast into prison for admitting colored girls into her school, 
and the school was broken up by a mob. A similar occurrence took 
place at Canaan, New Hampshire, in 1835, and in New York the en 
deavors to suppress the Abolitionists caused serious riots. 

The cloud that presaged the coming storm seemed as yet no 
larger than a man's hand, but its increase, though slow, was steady 
and irresistible. The antislavery societies numbered three hundred 
and fifty in 1835. Such men as Dr. Channing, the famous Boston 
divine, and Wendell Phillips began to defend the Abolitionists, and 
these were afterward joined by Emerson, John G. Whittier, Theo- 



ANTISLAVERY PETITIONS 511 

dore Parker, and Henry Ward Beecher. And further, there was a 
little political party founded in the North, known as the Liberty 
party. In 1840 it cast but seven thousand votes, but in 1844 the 
number was increased to sixty-two thousand ; still small, it is true, 
but the increase showed the direction of the political wind. The 
South now became thoroughly alarmed. Before this most of the 
southern leaders had frankly confessed that slavery was an evil, and 
had deplored its existence ; but this growing abolition feeling crys- 
talized the South against abolition. The antislavery societies in 
that section soon dwindled away, and at length the whole South, 
led by Calhoun, took the ground that slavery is a good — a 
positive good.^ 

But this new attitude of the South was not caused wholly by the 
opposition of the Abolitionists. It accepted Calhoun's views partially 
from economic grounds. The southern people had come to believe 
that slavery was indispensable to their social and economic welfare, 
and, believing this, they could not do otherwise than defend it. 
This new position taken by the South, that slavery is a positive 
gopd, together with the fear of insurrection, led that section, in- 
cluding non-slaveholders, to unify in the defense of slavery. 

Not long could this great question be kept from the halls of 
Congress, and in two ways it came to be forced upon the govern- 
ment — through petitions to Congress and the use of 
the mails for distributing Abolition literature. For p^t^tfoQ^'^^ 
many years an occasional petition had come in, chiefly 
from Quakers, for the abolition of slavery in the District of Colum- 
bia. About the time Garrison began his agitation these petitions be- 
gan to come rapidly. For some years after this the custom of both 
Senate and House was to receive all such petitions and refer them 
to a committee, in which they were quietly strangled. This refusal 
of Congress to consider the petitions did not discourage or quiet the 
Abolitionists. The petitions increased in numbers, and at length the 
southern members became irritated at this continuous goading. In 
1834 sharp debates began to be heard in the House on the subject, 
and in March, 1836, a resolution was adopted to lay all such peti- 
tions on the table, and that no further notice be taken of them. 
This action only stirred up the Abolitionists to greater efforts, and 
during the two years following the adoption of this rule the number 
of petitions increased tenfold. In January, 1840, the House went 
1 This new doctrine was first set forth by Calhoun in the Senate in 1836. 



512 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

still further. It adopted a standing rule that no petitions or memo- 
rials concerning the abolition of slavery or the slave trade in any 
part of the country " shall be received by this House, or entertained 
in any way whatever." This was known as the " gag rule." 

The Senate had arrived at a practice similar to that of the 
House, and the condition in both was brought about by the radical 
men of the South. These men felt that they had won a victory ; 
but quite the opposite was true. The Constitution guarantees the 
right of petitioning the government, and refusing to receive a 
petition implied a denial of the right to make it. This attitude of 
Congress drew the attention of the whole country ; it led the people 
to identify the denial of the constitutional right with the interests 
of slavery; it awakened sympathy with the Abolitionists and made 
many converts to their cause. 

Most of the petitions that came to the House fell into the hands 
of the venerable John Quincy Adams, who now became the cham- 
pion of the right of petition. With infinite moral 
the^eae^nile courage he bore every insult, and waged unceasing war 
on the gag rule in the House, and after continuing his 
efforts for nearly ten years he won the victory of his life by secur- 
ing its repeal. When the vote was counted, and Adams saw that he 
had won, he sank back into his chair and exclaimed, "Blessed be 
the name of Grod." 

The southern resistance to the use of the mails for the distribu- 
tion of Abolition literature in the South furnished another cause for 
national commotion. In July, 1835, a mob of respectable citizens 
broke into the post office at Charleston, South Carolina, seized a 
bag of Abolition pamphlets and burned it in the street. The matter 
was soon brought before the postmaster-general, Amos Kendall, but 
his decision was undecisive,^ and in December President Jackson in 
his message recommended that Congress pass a law refusing the use 
of the mails to " incendiary publications intended to instigate the 
slaves to insurrection." This would probably have been done but 
for the fact that Calhoun took the extreme state rights ground that 
each state should decide the matter within its own bounds. Thus 

^ Mr. Kendall wrote the postmaster at New York City, who had asked his 
opinion after excluding Abolition matter from the mails, " The postmaster-general 
has no legal authority to exclude from the mails any species of newspapers." And 
he adds, " If I were situated as you are, I would do as you have done." To the post- 
master at Charleston he wrote, "We owe an obligation to the laws, but a higher on© 
to the communities in which we live." 



HARBISON'S BRIEF TENURE 613 

the South lost the aid of the government in its first battle with the 
Abolitionists. 

These early contests concerning the right of petition and the use 
of the mails had a profound effect on the future of the country. 
They directed the eyes of the people to the Abolitionist party, raised 
it to national iinportance, and vastly increased its power. They 
awakened the South to a sense of the fact that an ever increasing 
party in the North existed for the purpose of attacking slavery at 
every point, and from this time forth the North and the South 
drifted steadily apart. 

HARRISON'S BRIEF TENURE 

The joy of the Whigs at their great victory over the Democrats 
was little short of delirium. The winter following the election was 
one long jollification, and little did they dream of the disasters that 
were before theny General Harrison reached Washington, after a 
week's toilsome journey, on the sixty-eighth anniversary of his 
birth. Inauguration day was dreary and cold ; a chilling northeast 
wind blew all day, yet the new President rode on horseback in a 
procession for two hours without overcoat or gloves. He then stood 
for another hour in the open air to read his inaugural address. It 
was believed that the President in exposing himself thus without 
an overcoat, sought to dispel the floating rumor that he was in poor 
health. He recovered, however, from this exposure, and the admin- 
istration started out on a promising voyage, with Daniel Webster at 
the helm as secretary of state. 

The President, used to the easy life of his rural home, now en- 
tertained visitors till long after midnight every night.^ In the morn- 
ing he rose at a very early hour and, against the advice Death of 
of his friends, took long walks in the chilly air. More- President 
over, the ofiice seekers clamored by the hundreds for Harrison, 
positions ; and the President was a man of such kindliness of heart 
that it pained him deeply that he could not gratify them all. His 
health bore this strain but three weeks when he fell ill; and half an 
hour after midnight on the 4th of April, an exact month after 
the day of his inauguration. President Harrison was dead. 

The nation was shocked at the sudden death of the President. 
He was not a great statesman, as compared with some of his con- 

1 Sargent, Vol. II, p. 114. 
21. 



514 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

temporaries, nor a party leader in any sense ; but he was a sincere, 
honest man, and he had won the esteem of all parties. Sadly and 
slowly moved the funeral pageant through the city to the beat of the 
muffled drums and the mournful wail of the trumpet. The casket 
in which the dead President lay was enwrapped with the American 
flag, and the funeral car with nodding plumes was drawn by six white 
horses, and followed by a vast multitude of sorrowing friends. The 
body was laid to rest in the congressional burying ground, but in 
the summer it was taken to the West and was placed in its last rest- 
ing place at the little town where the President had lived, on the 
bank of the river Ohio. 



TYLER AND THE WHIGS 

The Whigs were dismayed at the death of their President. Fifty 
years had passed since the inauguration of Washington, and no 
President had before died in office, and the Whigs had not taken 
such a possibility into account. Tyler at once became President, it 
is true, but the Whigs were not sure of Tyler. He had been placed 
on the ticket with Harrison to console the Clay men and to win, if 
possible, a floating vote from the South. He had been a Democrat 
until within recent years, and his views on the great issues between 
the two parties were not known. He had been simply known as 
" Tyler too," and now for the first time people began to inquire who 
he really was. One thing, however, was known of Tyler. He was a 
southern man to the core ; he believed in state rights in the narrow 
sense and not in the broad Jeffersonian sense ; he alone of all the 
senators cast his solitary vote against forcing South Carolina at the 
time of her nullification. 

Congress had been called, by the late President, to meet in May 
for the purpose of dealing with the finances. In the campaign of 
the preceding year it was generally understood, though little had 
been said on the subject, that if the Whigs elected a President and 
gained control of Congress, they would establish a national bank 
similar to one that Jackson had killed, and to do this was the chief 
object in convening Congress in extra session. Accordingly Mr. 
Clay proceeded, soon after Congress met, to frame a bank bill. But 
rmnors were soon going around that Tyler was not in favor of a 
national bank and also that a rupture between him and Clay was 
imminent. These rumors proved to be well founded. Tyler, it 



TYLER VETOES NATIONAL BANK BILLS 515 

seems, had determined to rid himself of the influeuce of the great 
Whig leader. The bill creating a " Fiscal Bank " was passed by both 
houses, and was sent to the President early in August. Tyler vetoes 
He returned it in a few days with his veto. The Whigs first bank 
were highly indignant and chagrined at this action of "^^^' 
the President, whom they had elevated to power. But the Demo- 
crats were elated with the veto, and in the evening of the day of its 
reception many of the Democratic senators and representatives, 
headed by a future President, James Buchanan, marched to the 
White House to offer him their congratulations. 

The Whigs were discouraged, but a gleam of hope returned to 
them when the President caused the word to go out, through his 
Cabinet, that he would sign a second bank bill, if purged 
of the features to which he had objected in the first, ggco^j^ 
A second bill creating a "Fiscal Corporation" was 
therefore passed, and was sent to Mr. Tyler in September. Whig 
hopes now trembled in the balance, for they distrusted their Presi- 
dent despite his promise. Five days of suspense passed when the 
bill was returned to the House with a veto. 

The Whigs now burst forth in an uncontrollable storm of wrath. 
The entire Cabinet, except Webster, resigned. Clay denounced 
Tyler and his "corporal's guard" of advisers in unsparing terms, 
while the friends of Tyler pronounced Clay the self-appointed dic- 
tator of the Whig party. Tyler claimed to have vetoed the bill on 
the pure ground of conscience and his ideas of the public good. 
This may have been true, but he was utterly in the wrong, neverthe- 
less. That the chartering of the bank would have been a serious 
blunder few will now venture to doubt, but there was no excuse for 
Tyler. If he were not a Whig at heart, he should have come out in 
his true colors before the election. He permitted himself to be ele- 
vated to the great office and then he turned against the party that 
had elected him.^ 

The breach between President Tyler and the Whigs was now 
irreconcilable. The leaders of the party met in solemn conclave 
and deliberately read the President out of the party, putting forth 

1 The opinion of some that the action of President Cleveland in 1896 in opposing 
his party on the silver question was similar to that of Tyler is entirely erroneous. 
Free silver was not a tenet of the party when he was elected, and when it became 
such he had as much right to his convictions on the subject as any other man in the 
country. Had he been elected on a free silver platform and then turned against it, 
his case would be parallel to that of Tyler. 



516 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

at the same time a manifesto to the Whigs of the country. In this 
they set forth the hopes of the party and disclaimed all responsibility 
Tyler read ^^r the acts of the administration. In consideration of 
out of the the fact that three and a half years of this presidential 
Whig party, term yet remained, and of the vast patronage at the 
disposal of the President, this action of the party was a bold stroke, 
and admirable for its courage. There was now presented a spectacle, 
unknown before — a President without a party — and such a crea- 
ture is almost as helpless in shaping legislation as the commonest 
laborer in the street. 

The President had evidently hoped to win the Whig party from 
Clay and to become its head, but that matchless leader held the 
party in a grasp that could not be broken. Tyler then attempted to 
form a new party of the milder Whigs and Democrats. Not suc- 
ceeding in this, he used his utmost efforts to win the Democratic 
party and to become its standard bearer. He called Democrats into 
his Cabinet and filled many of the best offices with them. But the 
Democrats, while they accepted these favors and rejoiced that Tyler 
had foiled the bank measure, at heart despised the man. They refused 
to make a man the leader of their party who had not been true to Ms 
own ; and Tyler was left without a party to the end of his term. 

When the Cabinet resigned, Webster, as stated above, remained, 
his avowed object being to conclude a treaty with England which was 
then pending. This treaty, fixing the eastern boundary of Maine, 
was arranged with Lord Ashburton, and is known as the Webster- 
Ashburton Treaty. Webster, however, continued in the Cabinet for 
nearly a year after this treaty was concluded, and he was severely 
criticised by his fellow Whigs. The fact is, Webster and Clay had 
not been on the most friendly terms for some years, and had Tyler 
succeeded in forming a new party, Webster would no doubt have 
gone with him. But the President, failing in this, at length came 
to desire the retirement of the great New Englander from his 
Cabinet ; not on personal grounds, but because he had now set his 
heart on a great project, and Webster was not the man to carry it 
out. His project was the annexation of Texas. , 

THE STORY OF TEXAS 

As stated on a preceding page, when Mexico emancipated hei 
slaves, in 1827, Texas refused to da so, and there wa& strife from 



THE STORY OF TEXAS 61? 

this time forth between the mother country and her northern prov 
ince. In 1836 Texas declared its independence, and it was after- 
ward recognized by the United States and by several European 
powers as a separate nation. This same year, 1836, witnessed the 
massacre of the Alamo, in which the famous Davy Crockett was 
killed, and the battle of San Jacinto, in which Santa Anna was 
routed by General Sam Houston, former governor of Tennessee. 
Texas desired, however, not to lead a separate existence, but to join 
the Union as a state. Of the sixty men wh > signed the declaration 
of independence, fifty-three had been born in the United States, and 
this fact explains why Texas soon afterward knocked at the door of 
the Union for admission. But Texas lay in the slave belt and, if ad- 
mitted, would become a slave state ; and on this ground its admission 
was sure to awaken strong opposition at the North. President 
Jackson, with all his courage, hesitated to risk a party rupture by 
coming out openly for annexation, though he greatly favored it. 
The matter then rested till the time of Tyler, who, having now 
alienated his party, had nothing to lose, and he boldly decided on 
annexation as the great measure of his administration. His hope 
was to win the South for the coming presidential election. 

But he must get rid of Webster, and this he did by simply freez- 
ing him out of the Cabinet. Webster was made to see. that his 
counsels were not wanted, and that he was in uncongenial company, 
and in May, 1843, he resigned from the Cabinet. Mr. Upshur of Vir- 
ginia became secretary of state. Upshur was a man of much ability 
and was fully in sympathy with the interests of the slave power. 
He would no doubt further the President's project with the utmost 
vigor; but suddenly the whole project was thrown out of balance 
for a time by a calamity such as no human eyes can foresee. 

One bright day in February, 1844, a gay company of about a 
hundred persons made an excursion down the Potomac River in 
a war vessel. This distinguished company included the Explosion of 
President, his Cabinet, and many members of Congress the great 
with their families, and also the former queen of the &^"^* 
White House, the aged Mrs. Madison. One object of the excur- 
sion was to witness the working of the great gun, the Peace- 
maker, which threw a 225-pound ball. Several times the gun was 
fired without incident, but on the return, as they neared the city, a 
heavy charge was put into it for a final salute, and it exploded with 
a terrific noise. When the smoke cleared away a dozen persons lay 



518 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

dead or dying on the deck. Among the dead were Mr. Upshur, 
secretary of state ; Mr. Gilmer, secretary of the navy ; and Mr. 
Gardner, whose daughter was soon to become the wife of President 
Tyler. Senator Benton and others were knocked senseless, while 
the President had a narrow escap3, he having been playfully called 
below by Miss Gardner a moment before the explosion took place. 

The President now chose John C. Calhoun secretary of state. 
The great South Carolinian was not desirous of the honor, but, see- 
ing that he could do a real service for the South, he accepted. With 
remarkable energy he took hold of the business, and a secret treaty 
of annexation was arranged with the Texan government. This 
treaty, sent to the Senate by President Tyler on April 22, 1844, met 
with fatal opposition. Instead of receiving the two-thirds vote 
necessary to ratify, the treaty was rejected by a two-thirds vote.* 
This was a shock to the administration. The Texan question was 
thus left over, and it became the most vital issue in the 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1844 

The Whigs were united in 1844. Clay was the all in all to 
the Whig conscience in this campaign. The vagaries of Tyler had 
cemented the party and it suffered with remorse that the noble 
'<■ Harry of the West," the " Mill Boy of the Slashes," had not been 
chosen four years before. The Whig convention now nominated 
him by acclamation and without a dissenting voice, while Theodore 
Frelinghuysen was placed second on the ticket. 

The Democratic convention met a few weeks later in the same 
cjity, Baltimore, and attracted far greater interest because of the 
uncertainty of the outcome. Van Buren was supposed to be the 
coming man. More than half the delegates had been instructed for 
him ; but there were forces working against him. The chief of these 
was his attitude on the Texan question. His enemies, by a decoy 
letter, had obtained from Van Buren a statement that he was opposed 
to immediate annexation, and this greatly injured him in the South. 
Other candidates were, James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, who, how- 
ever, withdrew his name; Calhoun, who followed the example of 
Buchanan ; Lewis Cass of Michigan ; and Eichard M. Johnson of 
Kentucky. 

1 Some voted against the treaty because they did not approve of the method ol 
annexing Texas. They thought it should be done by a vote of both houses. 



POLK NOMINATED 619 



The two-thirds rule was adopted, and the balloting began. Van 
Buren led with a good majority over all others, but fell a little below 
the required two thirds. Again on the second and third poik nomi- 
ballots, and so on till seven ballots had been taken, Van nated by the 
Buren kept the lead ; but he lost a little each time, and Democrats, 
it became evident that his nomination was impossible. There was a 
man from Tennessee who had been timidly mentioned for the second 
place, — James K. Polk, — but on the eighth ballot he received a few 
votes for first place. And then, by one of those strange stam- 
pedes that sometimes take possession of such a body, the convention 
nominated Polk on the ninth ballot by a unanimous vote. The news 
was flashed to Washington by telegraph. This was the first practi- 
cal use of that marvelous invention by which time and space are 
reduced to nothing in the transmission of news, by which a man can 
converse with his brother man with a thousand leagues of rolling sea 
between them. 

Polk was the first " dark horse " candidate, that is, an unexpected 
candidate, one not put forward by any party before his nomination.^ 
Polk had been governor of Tennessee, and had served fourteen years 
in Congress, being four years Speaker of the House; but he was 
not a well-known statesman nor a national party leader, and the 
question arose on all sides, " Polk, — who is Polk ? " The convention, 
after nomintiting George M. Dallas of Pennsylvania for the vice 
presidency, adopted a strong platform, pronouncing for the immedi- 
ate occupation of Oregon and the annexation of Texas. 

A third convention was held in the same city during this same 
week. President Tyler had attempted to win the Whig party from 
Clay, but had failed. He then made efforts to divide 
the party and failed again. After this he cast every convention 
Whig from his Cabinet and courted the Democrats, 
equally without success. But even now he did not despair. He set 
out to create a Tyler party, and to build it up he used the government 
patronage for all it was worth; yet with all this immense power 
his converts were few. Nevertheless he sent a band of his office- 
holders to hold a so-called national convention at Baltimore. They 
nominated him without division, and " Tyler and Texas " became 
their party slogan. The Tyler party presented a sorry spectacle 
indeed, but the oversanguine Tyler still had hopes. He seemed to 
think that the misguided people would yet see their folly and flock 

1 Other " dark horse " candidates were Pierce, Hayes, Garfield, and Bryan. 



530 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

to his standard — but they failed to do so. At last the President 
awakened to the fact, which everybody else knew long before, that 
he had no following, and he withdrew from the field in August. 

There was one man in America who was alarmed at the work 
of the Democratic convention at Baltimore, and that was Henry 
Clay, Clay had counted on Van Buren as his antagonist, and 
as he and Van Buren stood together in opposing the immediate 
annexation of Texas, that all-absorbing question would have been 
thrown out of the canvass. But Polk with his vigorous Texas- 
Oregon platform was stunning to Clay, who well knew that the 
prospect of acquiring Texas would please the South and that the 
Oregon plank would please the North, while his own platform dealt 
with such tame subjects as a protective tariff and the distribution of 
the land sales. The campaign, as it progressed, waxed hot. The 
Whigs at first felt confident ; but as the summer passed they realized 
that the fight would be a close one. Clay and Polk were as unlike 
as two men could be. Clay was the brilliant leader who for many 
years had been the idol of a great party ; Polk was plodding, sturdy, 
and straightforward. The Whigs ridiculed the idea that their fine 
thoroughbred could be beaten in the race by the unknown pack 
horse. But in the fact that Polk was an unkno%vn quantity lay his 
greatest strength. 

In the South the Democrats laid great stress on the acquisi- 
tion of Texas ; in the North it was Oregon, and the boundary 
must be 54° 40' north latitude ; and " Pifty-four Forty or fight " 
became a campaign cry. But the Democrats needed Pennsyl- 
vania, and Pennsylvania cared less for Texas or Oregon than 
for a protective tariff. The Democrats therefore preached protection 
throughout the state. Mr. Polk wrote a letter to a Mr. Kane of 
Philadelphia in which he pronounced himself in favor of moderate 
protection. This was taken up by the Democratic orators and they 
brazenly pronounced Polk "a better tariff man than Clay"; they 
even circulated the statement that Clay had become a free trader and 
that the only salvation for the iron industry lay in the election of 
Polk — and by this means they secured the vote of Pennsylvania. 
Clay felt himself on the defensive. He wrote letters and letters, 
defining his position. These did little good or harm until his 
" Alabama letter," written to a friend in that state, came out in July. 
In this letter Clay dealt with the Texan question, stating that he 
had no personal objection to annexation, that if it could be accom- 



CLAY'S FATAL LETTER 621 



plished without dishonor, without war, on just and fair terras, he 
would be glad to see it. This sentiment was directly opposite to that 
expressed in his well-known " Raleigh letter," and to 
the equally well-known position of the Whig party on Pf!7'' ^^**^ 
this great subject. It was intended to do good at the 
South, but in this it failed, and it did immeasurable harm at the North. 
Clay's friends were thunderstruck ; they were chilled to the bone 
when this letter was published over the land. The Democrats rung 
every change on the phrase, " He would be glad to see it," repeating 
it over and over from every platform to show that Mr. Clay stood on 
no real principle, but would hedge on any issue to win the election. 
In vain did the Whig orators and editors attempt to explain ; in vain 
did Clay write additional letters declaring that he still stood by his 
Kaleigh letter. It was too late; the mischief was done; Clay had 
signed his political death warrant in writing his Alabama letter, and 
from this moment the cause of the Whigs slowly declined. 

The little party of abolitionists, known as the Liberty party, 
might have supported Clay but for this fatal letter. The party 
had no hope of success, and many of its members were inclined 
to vote for Clay, as the less of the two evils. But when his 
Alabama letter came out they turned fiercely against Clay and 
supported their own candidate, James G. Birney, who drew enough 
votes from the Whigs to throw New York and Michigan to Polk 
and to give him the election. The election was held on different 
days in the various states, and the excitement became intense as 
the long-drawn-out returns came in. At length New York cast her 
vote for Polk, owing to the fact that many former Whigs voted for 
Birney, and decided the contest; but Massachusetts, faithful old 
Whig state that she was, cast her vote for Clay after it was known 
that he was defeated.^ 

This was the third time that the great Kentucky chieftain made 
a fruitless race to win the glittering prize of his life's ambition ; 
and it was the last. He had passed the meridian of life, the 
youthful luster of his eye was fading, and never again could he 
hope to make so strong a race as he had now made, for the time 
was near when the destinies of the nation must pass into younger 
hands. 

1 When Congress met a few weeks later it passed a law fixing a uniform day for 
the presidential election in all the states, and it has continued in force from that time. 



522 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



NOTES 

Morse and the Telegraph. — Samuel F. B. Morse had labored for years on 
the telegrapli, and had almost reduced himself to penury. In 1842 he was 
granted the privilege of setting up his telegraph in the lower rooms of the Capi- 
tol. The experiment was successful, and the members of Congress could hardly 
believe their senses as Morse enabled them to converse with one another from 
the different rooms. And yet when he asked an appropriation of $30,000 to 
establish an experimental line from Washington to Baltimore, there was much 
opposition. Many were the shafts of ridicule thrust at the new invention. One 
member moved that half the appropriation be used to experiment in mesmerism ; 
another, that an appropriation be made to construct a railroad to the moon. 
One prominent member pronounced all " magnetic telegraphs miserable chimeras, 
fit for nothing." Another lost his seat in the House at the next election because 
he voted for the appropriation. While the debate was in progress, Morse stood 
leaning against the railing in the House in great agitation. A friend went to 
console him, and Morse, placing his hand to his head said, " I have an awful 
headache. ... I have spent seven years in perfecting this invention, and all 
that I had. ... If the bill fails, I am ruined. ... I have not money enough 
to pay my board bill." He was greatly relieved soon after by the passing of 
the bill. His fortune was made, and the name of Morse must forever be insep- 
arable from the telegraph. See Sargent's "Public Men and Events," Vol. II, 
p. 193. 

The Creole Affair. — The Creole was a slave ship. While on a voyage from 
Norfolk to New Orleans in November, 1841, with 135 slaves, a portion of them 
rose in mutiny, killed the masters of the vessel, and steered to a British port in 
the West Indies. Here, according to the laws of England, they were free. 
The slaveholders in Congress determined that a demand be made on England 
that the slaves be given up, and many from the North agreed with them. At 
this point a young representative from Ohio, Joshua R. Giddings, rose and made 
a strong speech in favor of the slaves, claiming that they had a right to use any 
means in their power to gain their freedom, and that, being on the high seas, 
their masters had no longer the right to hold them in bondage. Giddings was 
at once censured by a vote of the House, whereupon he resigned his seat, bade 
his friends adieu, and repaired to his home in Ohio. His constituents held an 
election and reelected him by three thousand majority. He returned to Con- 
gress, and from that time to the Civil War he was a leading opponent of the 
slave power. 

The Dorr Rebellion. — Rhode Island, after the Declaration of Independence, 
retained its charter government, and many of the people were dissatisfied at the 
limited suffrage. In 1842 a portion of the citizens rose in an effort to secure 
a new constitution, and they were led by Thomas W. Dorr, a young lawyer. 
A new government was set up, but the insurgents were dispersed by national 
aid, and Dorr was taken captive. He was tried for treason, and sentenced to 
prison for life, but was afterward pardoned. Dorr's principles prevailed in the 
end, and were embodied in the new constitution. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE MEXICAN TVAR AND THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 

The lonely administration of Tyler came to an end unwept and 
unsung. The few friends who had fawned upon him because favor 
followed fawning, now melted away rapidly since his power to be- 
stow offices on them was drawing to an end, and the last weeks of 
his term were spent in solitude. Tyler was a man of sanguine 
spirit and of abounding faith in hiinself, and not until near the close 
of his official life did he see that he had failed to impress himself 
upon the country and that the Tyler party could be expressed by 
zero. He returned to his home in Virginia and soon disappeared 
from public notice ; but sixteen years later, at the out- 
break of the Civil War, he reappeared at Washington 
as president of the " Peace Congress." This came to nothing, and 
Tyler cast his lot with the South and became a.member of the Con- 
federate Congress; but he died the next year.^ Of the fact that it 
is perilous for an American public man to betray the party that gives 
him his power, John Tyler is a conspicuous example — and no one 
envies him his memory. • 

James K. Polk, born in North Carolina, was the son of a sturdy 
farmer and the eldest of ten children. Polk was a serious man, 
able, industrious, and religious. / His defects lay in his narrow par- 
tisanship and his tendency for political intrigue. He could see no 
good in the creed of the Whig party and nothing but good in the 
creed of his own, jior was he scrupulous as to his methods in win- 
ning an election./ His Cabinet was a strong one and included at 
least four men well known to fame. James Buchanan, the bachelor 
statesman of Pennsylvania, became secretary of state ; William L. 
Marcy of the " Hunker " ^ faction in New York and author of the 

1 The Democrats of New York were at this time divided into two factions, the 
*' Hunker," or conservatives, or old-time Democrats, and the " Barnburners," the 
progressive, antislavery Democrats. The latter, it was said, were ready to destroy 
the Union in order to get rid of the evils such as slavery, and they were compared to 
the Dutchman who burned his barn to get rid of the rats — hence the name. The 
origin of the word "Hunker " is unknown. 

623 



524 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

well-known phrase in our political parlance, " To the victors belong 
the spoils," secretary of war ; Robert J. Walker of Mississippi, who 
was to find his political grave in " bleeding" Kansas in the following 
decade, secretary of the treasury ; and George Bancroft, America's 
leading historian, secretary of the navy.^ 

The chief issue of the campaign of the preceding summer had 
already been settled. Arrangements had been made in the last days 
of Tyler's administration by which Texas in the following months 
became a member of the Union. The new state was annexed by a 
joint resolution of Congress. This raised a cry of "unconstitu- 
tional " among northern Whigs, and from the Massachusetts legis- 
lature. Little heed was paid to this protest, and a half century 
later, when Hawaii was annexed by a similar joint resolution, little 
opposition to the method was awakened. A vast and fertile domain 
is Texas, an empire in extent, with unbounded resources for agricul- 
ture and grazing. / Eveiy American rejoices that this broad, fair 
land is part of our glorious Union, but no one takes pride in the 
political intrigues by which it was secured.7 

But there was an abundance of business left for the Polk admin- 
istration. /' There are four great measures," said the new President 
with great decision, " which are to be the measures of my adminis- 
tration ; " and these were a reduction of the tariff, the reestablish- 
ment of the independent treasury, the settlement of the Oregon 
boundary, and the acquisition of California. ^ The first of these, the 
reenactment of the independent treasury bill, was accomplished in 
1846, as stated on a preceding page. The second, the reduction of 
the tariff, dates from the same year. In spite of the plaintive pro- 
tests from Pennsylvania, the state that had given its 
Tar' H 184" ^°^® *° Polk because he was "a better tariff man than 
^' Clay," the " Walker Tariff of 1846 " was enacted. By 
it many of the higher duties of the " Whig Tariff of 1842 " were 
lowered. This tariff was in force for eleven years, and it became 
popular with all classes. Again the tariff question ceased to be a 
party measure, and, owing to a surplus in the treasury, the duties 
of the Walker Tariff were reduced still further in 1857, with the 

1 After a short service Bancroft resigned and became minister to England. 
Another literary appointment of Polk was Nathaniel Hawthorne as collector of the 
port at Salem, Massachusetts. 

' The term " reannexatiou " was constantly used, because, it was claimed, Texas 
had been a part of the Louisiana Purchase, but had been ceded back to Spain in part 
payment for Florida. 



OREGON AND CALIFORNIA 62« 

consent of all parties; and there was no further tariff legislation 
till the opening of the Civil War. 

OREGON AND CALIFORNIA 

The remote, unpeopled region in the Northwest known as Oregon 
lay between 42° and 54° 40' north latitude, and extended from the 
crest of the Rocky Mountains to the waves of the Pacific. The 
ten-year joint occupation between the United States and England 
had been extended indefinitely, either country to give a year's notice 
to have it discontinued. This notice was given by the United States 
in 1846. For some years before this it was seen that Oregon was 
about to become the home of civilized man. In 1835 Marcus Whit- 
man, with a few companions, crossed the mountains and entered the 
Columbia Valley as a missionary to the Indians. A few settlers 
arrived in the following years. In 1842 Whitman came east on 
business connected with his mission work, and on returning he was 
accompanied by a train of moving wagons leaving Missouri for the 
Columbia Valley. It was a long and weary journey, but others soon 
followed, and within three years some ten thousand Americans had 
settled in the Oregon country. 

The whole of Oregon was claimed by each country. The Ameri- 
can claim was based on the discovery of the Columbia River by Cap- 
tain Grey in 1792, on the explorations of Lewis and Clarke, and on 
the actual settlements.' President Polk had said in his inaugural 
address that our right to all of Oregon was indisputable, and this he 
reiterated in his first message to Congress. But England had no 
thought of giving up all her seacoast on the Pacific. Yet neither 
country wished to go to war, and it was decided to compromise, to 
split the Oregon country in the middle, each to take half. 
A few Democratic hotspurs in Congress still shouted for on™reg^^^* 
64° 40', but while this was a good campaign cry, it 
could not now be adhered to. England at length offered to extend 
the boundary line of 49° to the Pacific, retaining for herself the 
whole of Vancouver Island. President Polk could not accept this 
without abandoning his former position, and that of the platform on 
which he was elected. But he could not do otherwise without risk- 
ing a war far greater than that now brewing on the South, and to 

1 The English claim was based on the discoveries of Mackenzie and on the occu- 
pation of the country by the Hudson Bay (Company. 



526 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Jet himself down as gracefully as possible, he shifted the responsi- 
bility to the Senate by asking the advice of that body. The Senate 
advised that the British offer be accepted, and 49° was made the 
boundary between the United States and British Columbia. Our 
portion of Oregon, some three hundred thousand square miles, 
includes the entire Columbia Valley, and is of far greater value than 
that retained by the British. The people of the North were espe- 
cially pleased with this new acquisition, for it balanced the recent 
extension of slave territory through the admission of Texas. 

This brings us to the last of the four great measures — the acqui- 
sition of California. Why should the American President put this 
in his programme ? California belonged to another nation, a sister 
republic. It was the boundless region in the Southwest out of which 
four or five states and territories have since been carved. Mexico 
had refused to sell it. By what means, then, could the acquisition be 
made? By simply conjuring up a quarrel with Mexico, "conquer- 
ing " the uninhabited territory, and then holding it by " right " of 
conquest. And a good casus belli was at hand. Texas claimed all 
the territory between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, which 
was also claimed by Mexico. But Congress had ignored the claim 
of Mexico, and had passed an act extending the revenue laws to the 
disputed territory. Mexico could not give this up without fighting. 
Here, then, was cause enough for war. 

And yet Polk did not want war. His honest desire was to avoid 
it. He professed to believe that Mexico would not fight on account 
of Texas, though all diplomatic relations had ceased at the time of 
annexation ; or even on account.of the disputed boundary line, and 
he congratulated Congress and the country on having acquired the 
new territory without bloodshed. He apparently expected to acquire 
California by negotiation or purchase, and he sent John Slidell to 
the Mexican capital with full power to settle all differences and to 
offer a good round sum for California ; but Slidell was not received 
by the Mexicans. In his anxiety to avoid war the President made 
a serious blunder at the beginning. He restored Santa 
Santa Anna, j^j^j^g^^ -^j^q ^^g living in exile at Havana, to his Mexi- 
can home. Santa Anna was one of the noted characters of his 
time, imperious, deceitful, revengeful, yet not without bravery and 
military skill. He was a typical revolutionist of the Latin American 
states. As early as 1833 he became President of Mexico, and at 
various times thereafter ; but usually after a brief service the people 



ZACHARY TAYLOR IN MEXICO 527 



rose against him ar.d sent him for a time into exile. His most recent 
banishment took place in 1845. President Polk now sent a war 
vessel to convey Santa Anna back to Mexico, in the hope, first, 
that he wonld overthrow the new President, Paredes, which he did; 
and second, that he would treat with the United Stetes for peace 
out of gratitude for the favor — which he did not.^/ Polk mistook 
his man. Santa Anna was not a man of gratitude. On reaching 
Mexico, he discovered that he could best restore his popularity by 
making war against the United States, and he instantly set about 

doing so. y 

ZACHARY TAYLOR IN MEXICO 

President Polk, with all his avowals that there would be no war, 
had taken the precaution to send General Zachary Taylor to the 
disputed territory with an " Army of Occupation " and a fleet to 
the Gulf of Mexico. The ownership of this territory should have 
been settled by treaty, if possible, and its occupation in this high- 
handed way pointed clearly to the fact that, if California could not 
be had for gold, the feeble sister republic must be goaded into war. 
But Mexico had also invited hostilities by placing an army at Mata- 
moras. The Army of Occupation moved on to the mouth of the Rio 
Grande, and the Mexican general, Arista, crossed the river to meet 
it. The two armies came together on two successive days, and the 
so-called battles of Palo Alto and Eesaca de la Palm a ^ ^^^ ^ 

were fought. The Mexicans were worsted, but a ^^^q *^ ' 
few Americans were killed, and this was enough. 
President Polk at once sent a message to Congress declaring that 
"American blood had been spilt on American soil," that Mexico 
had struck the first blow,^ and that a state of war existed, " notwith- 
standing all our efforts to avoid it ! " 

But war, righteous or unrighteous, will always stir the people 
to action. Congress voted supplies and called for fifty thousand 
volunteers. Many of the northern Whigs opposed the war, but few 
of them were willing to go on record as voting against its prosecu- 
tion.^ The people quickly responded, and the war was vigorously 

1 It is believed that Santa Anna promised that if, on being restored, he again 
got control of Mexico, he would cede California to the United States for a sum of 
money, but his word was worthless. 

2 This referred to the capture of a few American scouts before the battles above 
mentioned had taken place. 

8 "The Biglow Papers," written by James Russell Lowell, humorously set forth 
the opposition of the Whigs. 



628 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

prosecuted. Taylor's little army was augmented, and he crossed 
the Rio Grande, occupied Matamoras and relieved Fort Brown 
During the summer he advanced up the river, taking one point after 
another, and in September captured Monterey after a bloody siege. 
Polk had assured his friends that the war would not continue longer 
than three months, but even with the capture of Monterey, the chief 
stronghold in northern Mexico, the Mexicans refused to give up, 
and Taylor was instructed to press the war to a finish. 

There was one man in Washington all this time who was very 
impatient and restless. General Winfield Scott was the commander 
in chief of the armies, next to the President, and he felt that he 
ought to be sent to the front to take general command of the war. 
But the administration held him back for no given reason. The 
true reason, however, is not far to seek. The President, as above 
stated, was a narrow partisan. 'Scott was a leading Whig and had 
been an aspirant to the presidency. If now he were sent to the 
front, he might win such laurels as would make him a dangerous 
candidate for President. Hence he was kept at home./ But another 
horn to the dilemma appeared. Taylor was also a Whig, or was 
supposed to be, though he had never voted, and his victories in 
Mexico were now giving him a name among the greatest heroes of 
the age. He even began to be mentioned as the coming Whig candi- 
date. Something must be done to head off Taylor, and at length 

the authorities decided to send Scott to share the laurels 
Mexico*'^ ° — not that they loved him more, but Taylor less. Scott 

was now ordered to proceed to Vera Cruz by sea, to cap- 
ture that port, and to march overland to the Mexican capital. /Taylor 
was not only to have a rival in the field ; he was ordered to send a large 
portion of his army to Scott. This he did like a true soldier, though 
it was a bitter medicine to take. Taylor was thus left in the midst 
of a hostile people with but a fraction of his former army ; but 
strange to say, his greatest victory was yet before him./ 

Santa Anna had landed at Vera Cruz from Cuba but a short time 
before the siege and fall of Monterey. Hearing, late in the autumn, 

of Taylor's weakened condition, he gathered an army 
Buena Vista ^^ twenty thousand men and marched against him. 

Taylor was joined by General Wool, who had recently 
led an army into Mexico, and his force was thereby raised to five 
thousand men. He took a position in a mountain defile near the 
fine estate of Buena Vista, and awaited 'his foe. On the 22d of 



THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 529 

February, 1847, the enemy had almost surrounded the Americans, 
and the Mexican general sent word to Taylor that if he wished to 
save his little army from being cut to pieces and captured, he could 
do so by surrendering at discretion. " General Taylor never sur- 
renders," was the laconic answer, and the battle of Buena Vista was 
fought. It began on the morning of the 23d and raged all day. 
Toward evening Taylor saw the Mexicans waver, and his order, 
"Give 'em a little more grape, Captain Bragg," was vigorously 
obeyed, and by nightfall the Mexicans were fleeing in confusion. 
The Mexican loss, including prisoners, reached nearly two thousand, 
while the American loss was about seven hundred and fifty. Among 
the slain was a sou of Henry Clay. This battle closed the career of 
Zachary Taylor in the Mexican War ; but his fame was now secure. 
He returned to his native land some months later to receive the 
highest honors that can be awarded an American citizen. General 
Scott was now to take the helm and to win even greater achieve- 
ments than Taylor had done, though not an equal reward. But 
before recounting the deeds of Scott, let us take a brief note of 

THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 

The Mexican War was waged by the United States, not on 
account of a boundary dispute, as the world was made to believe, 
but because Ahab coveted Naboth's vineyard, because the slave- 
holder cast his eyes over the vast, fertile Southwest aud desired it 
for his own. /More tempting by far than Oregon was this beautiful 
land of perpetual summer, where " the flowers ever blossom, and the 
beams ever shine.'/ It was this garden of the West that must now 
be secured as the chief prize of a victorious war. General Stephen 
W. Kearny was sent with a competent force at the opening of hos- 
tilities to secure this golden fleece. He entered New Mexico, and, 
capturing the ancient town of Santa Fe without firing a gun, raised 
the American flag and took possession of the province in the name of 
the United States. Kearny was then ordered to proceed to Califor- 
nia and to take possession of the country, as he had done in the case 
of New Mexico. Arriving at Los Angeles late in December, he met 
the explorer, John C. Fremont, who, with Commodore Stockton,^ 
had already taken possession of California. Fremont, for whom 

1 Stockton had succeeded Commodore Sloat, who had captured the Mexican 
towns on the California coast. 
2m 



530 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

there was much notoriety yet in store, had attracted attention by 
his daring exploits in this far western country, and by his romantic 
marriage with Jessie Benton, daughter of the famous Missouri 
senator. The Mexican general, De Castro, had moved against the 

settlers of the Sacramento Valley, who then rallied to 
John C. ^Y-iQ camp of Fremont. In several skirmishes Fremont 

beat De Castro, at length capturing Sanoma Pass and 
nine cannon. The Mexicans were driven out of the country and 
the American settlers chose Fremont governor of the province — 
all this before it was known that war existed between the United 
States and Mexico.^ 

^Thus the immense region from the Cordilleras to the sea, on 
which the President had looked with covetous eyes, fell into his 
hands like mellow fruit, and almost without bloodshed^ 

THE GREAT MARCH UPON MEXICO 

From this moment to the end of the war the chief military glory 
centers about one man — General Winfield Scott. It had been con- 
fidently believed at Washington that Mexico would yield after our 
first hostile demonstrations, but the Mexicans were defending their 
country with desperate valor ; and now it was seen that nothing 
short of striking the heart of their republic and humbling them to 
the dust could subdue them. Accordingly General Scott was borne 
by sea with twelve thousand men to Vera Cruz, where he entered 
upon one of the most successful military campaigns of 
1847 ^^^' modern history. Arriving on March 9 at the entrance 
of the harbor, the Americans beheld the old town nestled 
quietly between the mountains and the sea, and presenting anything 
but the aspect of war. On a little island at the entrance of the har- 
bor stood the ancient castle of Ulloa, while in the background rose 
in lonely majesty the lofty peak of Orizaba, its snow-covered summit 
buried in the skies. 

Scott landed his army without incident or opposition. The town 

and castle were garrisoned by some five thousand Mexicans under 

Juan Morales. The demand of Scott that the town surrender was 

declined, and he opened a tremendous cannonade on the city and its 

defenses. Hundreds of shells fell and exploded in the streets and 

1 H. H. Bancroft, Vol. XVII, p. 208. Fremont and Kearny had a quarrel over 
the governorship, and Fremont was court-martialed and dismissed from the service, 
was hut pardoned hy the President. 



THE MEXICAN CAMPAIGN 



531 



MEXICAN 



on the housetops, causing great destruction of life and property 
For five days and nights the continuous roar of artillery resounded 
from the besieging army, from the fleet of Commodore Conner in 
the harbor, and from the answering guns of the besieged city. Scott 
is said to have thrown half a million pounds of metal. Many Mexi- 
cans and a few Americans were killed. On the 29th of March the 
Mexicans surrendered the city and the 
garrison marched out with the honors 
of war. 

Scott now prepared for his great over- 
land march to the interior of Mexico. 
Sending his advance column under Gen- 
erals Twiggs and Patterson by way of 
the road that winds among the moun- 
tains to Jalapa, Scott joined them by 
the middle of April, and here amid the 
rugged steeps that frowned from every 
side, he was obliged to fight a desperate 
battle. Santa Anna, after his disastrous 
encounter with Taylor at Buena Vista, 
had collected an army of about ten thou- 
sand men, and he met the advancing 
Americans in a mountain pass near 

the village of Plan del Rio and under the shadow of a lofty hill 
called Cerro Gordo. The Mexican commander had chosen his 
position with admirable skill. The tops of the surrounding hills, 
save one, were planted with cannon, while the main army occupied a 
level place between a dashing mountain stream and a rocky wall a 
thousand feet high. But Santa Anna left one lofty eminence unoc- 
cupied, believing, as he said, a goat could not approach 
him from that point. Scott detected the omission, and cerroVordo 
while he engaged the enemy in front he sent a detachment 
to scale the unoccupied height and to command the Jalapa road above 
the Mexican army. This was done by Twiggs with no less energy 
and success than the Heights of Abraham at Quebec had been scaled 
by Wolfe nearly a hundred years before. Santa Anna saw his mis- 
take when too late to correct it ; yet the Mexicans fought bravely, 
and yielded only when all hope of success had vanished. A thou- 
sand of them were killed or wounded and three thousand were taken 
prisoners. Santa Anna started to flee in his carriage, but it was 




532 HISTOKY OF THE UNITED STATES 

overturned, and he escaped astride a mule, leaving with his carriage 
a large quantity of gold, his private papers, and his wooden leg.' 
The American loss slightly exceeded four hundred. 

/ The American army swept on like a tidal wave, capturing every- 
thing before it./ Jalapa, Perota with its -impressive castle, and 
Puebla fell successively into the hands of the Americans, /in mid- 
summer they reached the summit of the Cordilleras, eight thousand 
feet above the sea, and here they opened their eyes upon one of the 
sublimest scenes in the world — the panorama of the Mexican Valley, 
hemmed in by mountain walls with here and there a snow-capped 
peak gleaming in the sun; the long slopes covered with the luxuriance 
of a tropical summer; the sleeping valley with its glittering, sunlife 
lakes, and the ancient city of the Montezumas nestled in the midst. | 
The 20th of August, 1847, was a great day in the Mexican War. 
Scott had advanced slowly from Puebla toward the capital city. 
His four divisions were commanded respectively by Generals Worth, 
Twiggs, Pillow, and Quitman, and Franklin Pierce, who was soon to 
outdo his military chief in a presidential race, airived early in 
August with twenty -five hundred fresh troops. 'The army now 
numbered eleven thousand, and Scott pressed on toward the doomed 
city as relentlessly determined on its fall as was the inexorable 
Cortez who had marched over the same route for the same purpose 
more than three hundred years before. I The ever sanguine, irre- 
pressible Santa Anna had gathered another army, much larger than 
before.^ On this fateful 20th of August Generals Twiggs and Pillow 
with forty -five hundred men made a wild, tumultuous 
dash at daybreak upon the strong Mexican camp at 
Contreras, held by General Valencia with seven thousand men. In 
less than half an hour the place was carried and three thousand 
Mexicans with most of their artillery were captured. A few hours 
later the strongly garrisoned village of San Antonio 
was taken. The Mexicans now rallied in great num- 
bers at the village of Cherubusco with its great stone citadel, a forti- 
fied convent. This was within four miles of the city gates. After 
a fierce bombardment of some hours the outer field works were 
carried. But the convent — from its loopholes bristled many can- 
non, and numberless sharpshooters plied their deadly work from its 
walls. War knows no religion, and the American guns were trained 

1 He had lost a leg in battle in 1837. 

3 Scott estimated the number at 27,000. See " Memoirs," H, p. 487. 



THE MEXICAN WAR 



on the sacred edifice. After a short, terrific bombardment, the white 
flag was seen waving above the somber walls of the convent. The 
Americans had lost a thousand men on this day, and 
the Mexicans four times that number in addition to the ^^^ ^^^°' 
prisoners taken in the morning. The way was now open for the 
invading army to march upon the city of Mexico. 

President Polk had sent the chief clerk of the state department, 
Nicholas B. Trist, to arrange for peace, and two weeks were spent 
in negotiation. This came to naught, and hostilities were resumed. 
On September 8 General Worth made an assault on the near-by vil- 
lage of Molino del Rey to destroy a cannon foundry; but from a 
stone castle on the hill of Chapultepec near the town Worth was 
assaulted with great vigor, and the proportion of Amer- 
ican loss was greater than in any other engagement jjKq^qq^' 
during the war. Some days later the castle of Cha- 
pultepec was taken by storm, and on the 14th of September General 
Scott marched at the head of his victorious army into the city of 
Mexico.^ A few hours later the stars and stripes were waving from 
the walls of the. ancient palace of the Montezumas. /The war was 
over; and it is notable from the fact that the Americans won every 
battle. '^The Mexicans had fought nobly, but they were wanting in 
scientific training, and moreover many of them were half-breeds — a 
cross between the Spaniards and the ancient Aztecs — and were no 
match for the more virile Anglo-Saxon ; and now at the close of a 
brief war of a year and a half, not only their proud city, but their 
whole land lay prostrate at the feet of the conquerors from the 
North. 

EESULTS OF THE WAR 

A view of Congress during the progress of the war reveals a 
state of agitation unequal ed since the debates on the Missouri Com- 
promise in 1820. The chief result of the war, as every one foresaw, 
would be the addition to our national domain of the immense region 
in the Southwest ; and the question rose spontaneously in every mind. 
Will it be free soil, or slave soil ? Aside from the moral aspects of 
the question, the South had the right of priority of claim, for it was 
the South that had brought about the war, and its chief object was 

1 Santa Anna had fled in the preceding night with a large part of his army, after 
setting free and arming about two thousand criminals from the prisons. These men 
attacked the invading army from the housetops, but were soon put to rout. 



634 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

to extend slave territory. In another sense the North had the first 
right, for this land had already been dedicated to freedom by 
Mexico. The Louisiana Purchase was wedge-shaped, the larger end 
lying north of 36° 30'. The South had used up its smaller end be 
ginning with the admission of Louisiana in 1812, and ending with 
the admission of Arkansas in 1836. There remained to the South 
Florida and the Indian Territory, and now came Texas ; but these 
were no match for the vast territory in the Northwest to be carved 
into free states. Almost from the beginning of the government the 
states had been admitted in pairs, one in the North and one in the 
South, so as to preserve equal power in the Senate between the free 
and the slave states. The South now began to view with alarm the 
exhaustion of its territory, while that of the North seemed inex- 
haustible. Hence came the Meirican War. 

But the South had not clear sailing; there were breakers ahead. 
A great majority of the people of the North opposed the further 
extension of slave territory, and this feeling found expression in 
the national legislature. The storm broke forth when, in August, 
1846, a young Democrat in the House, from Pennsylvania, having 
been chosen for the purpose, made the motion that 
wT t slavery be forever excluded from the territory about to 

be acquired from Mexico. His motion, known as the 
Wilmot Proviso, was an amendment to a bill for the appropriation 
of $2,000,000 for settling the difficulties with Mexico. The whole 
South flared up in a moment in fierce opposition./ The proviso did 
not become a law, but the principle it involved became the apple of 
discord between the two sections for years, and even threatened the 
foundations of the Union. / 

The treaty of peace, signed at Guadalupe Hidalgo, conveyed to 
the United States the territory which has since become the states of 
Treaty of California, Nevada, and Utah, part of Colorado, and 

peace, Febru- the largest parts of the territories of. New Mexico and 
ary 2, 1848. Arizona.^ Mexico gave up the territory with reluctance, 
but she was prostrate and powerless. She feebly requested, how- 
ever, that slavery be not established in the ceded territory ; but Mr. 
Trist, who acted for the United States, refused even to mention the 
subject to his government. 

1 Five years later the United States purchased from Mexico the Messilla Valley, 
about forty-five thousand square miles of southern Arizona, for $10,000,000. The 
purchase was arranged by Captain 'Gadsden, and is known as the Gadsden Purchase< 
See map following p. 896 



DISCOVERY OF GOLD 535 

/No true American is proud of the Mexican War./ The ceded 
territory is vastly better off, it is true, in industrial development 
and in civil and religious liberty, than it could have been had it 
remained a part of Mexico ; but the means by which it was acquired 
were out of harmony with the general policy of the United States 
in its dealings with foreign nations, and we rejoice that this innova- 
vation did not intrench itself in the national mind and become the 
settled policy of our country. One honorable thing, however, we 
did in the matter. We paid Mexico $15,000,000 for the land ceded, 
and this of our own free will, for Mexico was powerless and could 
not have resisted had our government chosen to pay nothing. This 
great acquisition of territory, if Texas be included, aggregated about 
850,000 square miles, — more than the whole United States at the 
close of the Kevolution, 

Little did Mexico dream of the hidden wealth that lay beneath 
the surface of the lands she ceded to her great rival. Nine days 
before the treaty was signed the discovery of gold was made in 
California. Some years before this the enterprising Swiss, John A. 
Sutter, had settled in the beautiful valley of the Sacra- Discovery of 
mento, had possessed himself of several thousand acres gold in 
of land, and had built a fort, which he called after his California, 
own name. He owned many thousand head of sheep and cattle, had 
several hundred men in his employ, and was truly a prince in the 
western wilds. In the employ of Svxtter was a carpenter from New 
Jersey named James Marshall, and it was he who first made the 
discovery. Marshall was superintending the building of a mill on a 
branch of the American River near the base of the Sierra Nevada 
Mountains, when he observed little shining particles in the mill race 
thR,t proved to be gold. The news soon spread to the surrounding 
settlements, but the people were slow to believe. 

At length, however, with the opening of spring, the conversion 
of the coast was complete. The village of San Francisco went wild 
over the great discovery. Many sold all their possessions and has- 
tened to the gold fields. All other business came to a standstill. 
The judge abandoned the bench, and the physician his patients ; the 
town council was broken up for want of a quorum ; farms were left 
tenantless, and waving fields of grain were allowed to run to waste.^ 

The news that gold had been discovered in California spread 
slowly at first, as the railroad and the telegraph had not reached the 
1 H. H. Bancroft, Vol. XXIII, p. 62. 



636 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

remote regions west of the Rocky Mountains ; but at length it 
reached the East, spread across the Atlantic to Europe, and was 
published in all the leading newspapers of the world. Great was 
the excitement in every land, and ships from every 
EuBhtotne c\[jjiq were diverted from the channels of trade and 

gold ll6iClS. 

headed for the Pacific Coast. Many came by way of 
Cape Horn ; others braved the deadly climate of Panama, while thou- 
sands from every part of the Union crossed the western plains in 
moving wagons, .X^ong trains of wagons wound their way across 
the plains and over the mountains toward the setting sunyl Many 
were the perils of this long and weary journey — the wild animal 
and the wild Indian, exposure to the mountain snows, and, above all, 
the cholera. The cholera attacked these west-bound trains, and many 
a weary traveler never reached his El Dorado, but found a nameless 
grave, far from home and kindred, in the vast and trackless regions 
of the West. It was in the summer of 1849 that this tide of hu- 
manity from afar began to pour into the Sacramento Valley — a few 
to realize the dream of wealth, more to gain a modest competence, 
but the majority to meet disappointment, to return broken in health 
and spirits, or to fill an unknown grave in the wilderness. 

California was peopled as no other colony or territory in the 
Western World had been, and in less than two years after the golden 
discovery, the number of inhabitants exceeded a hundred thousand ; 
and it was this discovery that came to the rescue of Congress in 
deciding the great question involved in the Wilmot Proviso. But 
before disposing of the subject we must stop and note the election 
of a new President. 

Strange as it may seem, the Democrats slowly lost in power dur- 
ing the Polk administration. A great movement usually wins friends 
as it j)roves its ability to succeed, but not so with the Mexican War. 
The reason of this change of heart was that many of the people 
lost interest in the war and in the party that had waged it, when 
they saw that the chief object was to humble a weak sister republic 
for the purpose of robbing her of her territory. Moreover, the 
slavery question played its part. The North feared that the newly 
acquired lands would, and the South feared that they would not, 
become slave territory ; and for these opposite reasons the interest 
waned on both sides of Mason and Dixon's line. Much would 
depend on the next President. Who would he be ? This was the 
absorbing question of the moment. 



TAYLOR AND SCOTT 537 

The Whigs were hopeful; their star was rising. From three 
prominent candidates they were to make their nomination — Henry- 
Clay, " the same old coon," as the Democrats put it, and the two 
successful generals of the war. Bvit Clay was rapidly growing old, 
the great questions with which he had been identified were now 
settled, and more than once he had led the party to defeat. /His 
star was visibly waning, and no longer could the magic name of Clay 
awaken the enthusiasm of bygone years," Of the two military 
commanders, Taylor had a clear advantage over Scott. His achieve- 
ments in Mexico were no greater than those of Scott ; but he won 
his laurels while the war was still popular and the eyes of the coun- 
try were riveted upon it. Scott's victories came later, when the 
people had begun to compare the war with a fight between a big 
bully and a child. Scott therefore never received the honor accorded 
Taylor. But the respective personalities of the two men had some- 
thing to do with deciding the contest. Taylor was wanting in 
education and social polish; he refused to wear the 
uniform, and cared little for his personal appearance. e^I*?^^'''^ 
He received the sobriquet of "Kough and Ready." 
These qualities appealed to the masses. Scott, on the other hand, 
was highly cultured, urbane, self-conscious, and dignified. He was 
exceedingly exact in his dress, speech, and actions. He was nick- 
named " Fuss and Feathers." Taylor had the further advantage of 
being new to fame, while Scott had been in the public eye for nearly 
forty years, and he was almost as much a politician as a soldier. 

When Taylor was first informed that he was spoken of for the 
presidency he was astonished ; then he laughed at the ridiculous 
idea. But as the months passed and the newspapers were full of 
the subject, he began to take it seriously. Clay wrote him suggest- 
ing that he withdraw his name, but this the old hero refused to do, 
and he entered the lists, determined to win if he could. 

Taylor received the nomination at the Whig convention in Phila- 
delphia. Clay was disappointed and refused to support him. Web- 
ster pronounced the nomination one '' not fit to be made." Horace 
Greeley and Thurlow Weed held aloof till late in the fall, when they 
came into line. But Taylor had won the great popular heart. As 
Taylor was a resident of the South and a slaveholder, it was neces- 
sary to give the second place to a northern man, and Millard Fillmore 
of New York was nominated. 

The Democrats met in Baltimore and nominated General Lewis 



{$38 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Cass of Michigan for President, and William 0. Butler of Kentucky 
for Vice President. Cass was a man with an interesting record. 
We first meet him in the War of 1812. He was a young officer 
under Hull at the surrender of Michigan, and rather than surrender 
his sword to the British officer, he broke it across a stone. After 

the war he became governor of Michigan Territory and 
Lewis Cass. ^^^^ ^^iq post for eighteen years. Seeing that Detroit 
would grow into a city, he purchased a large farm just outside the 
village, and as the town expanded the farm grew in value until its 
owner became a millionaire.^ Next we find Cass in the Cabinet of 
Jackson, then minister to France, and finally in the United States 
Senate. But Cass lacked one of the most essential qualities of the 
modern politician — he was, like General Scott, self-conscious, urbane, 
and he held himself aloof from the vulgar crowd. Nevertheless 
Cass would probably have been elected but for the defection of his 
old enemy and rival, Martin Van Buren. The Democrats of New 

York were divided into two factions, the Hunkers and 
van uren. ^^^ Barnburners. The latter -were not in sympathy 
with the slave propagandists ; they refused to support Cass, joined 
the Free-soilers, and nominated a third ticket with Van Buren at its 
head. Van Buren did not love Cass, nor had he forgiven the party 
for choosing Polk instead of himself four years before. But at that 
time his great benefactor of Tennessee was still living, and this 
fact probably held the New Yorker in line with his party. But 
now Jackson was dead, and Van Buren took the opportunity to take 
vengeance on the party. He was quite successful. His personal 
following in his own state was sufficient to split the party almost in 
the middle and to give the electors to Taylor ; and New York was 
again the pivotal state and decided the election. 



ZACHARY TAYLOK 

Zachary Taylor was a soldier and only a soldier. Of the wiles 
of the politician, of the wonderful machinery of party organization, 
he was as ignorant as a child.^ Of the vast responsibility of the 
presidency he knew almost nothing. But withal he was a rugged, 
powerful, honest personality. He loved his country above all things, 

^Had Cass been elected, he would be, thus far, our only millionaire President 
It is a significant fact, in this age of colossal fortunes, that we have never had a very 
rich President. 



SLAVERY AGITATION 539 



and his motives were without a flaw. The son of a patriot who had 
fought in the Revohition, he was born in Virginia the year after 
General Clinton had evacuated New York. At an early age he 
entered the army and saw service through the War of 1812, and the 
Black Hawk and Seminole wars. Humbly he served his country for 
forty years, wholly unknown to fame until his sudden bound into 
prominence in the war with Mexico. 

Scarcely was Taylor installed in the great office when the whole 
country turned to him for a solution of the momentous issue on 
which neither party had dared give expression in the campaign of 
the preceding year — that involved in the Wilmot Proviso. Cali- 
fornia was now knocking for admission into the Union — as a free 
state. As stated above, the discovery of gold had aided in settling 
the slavery question for the Southwest. The men who went to the 
mines were not slaveholders, though many were from the South. 
The slave owner must remain with his plantation and his family. 
The men who flocked to the coast were, for the most part, laborers, 
nor could they endure the thought of inviting the black bondsmen 
into their midst to become their comrades in the field of toil. When, 
therefore, tlie Californians, in the autumn of 1849, framed a state 
constitution, they excluded slavery from the soil by a unanimous 
vote. At this the South Avas deeply stirred. The war had been 
pressed to a finish by a southern President and by a Congress domi- 
nated by the South ; the chief object had been to extend slave terri- 
tory; and now to have the fairest portion of the newly acquired 
land snatched forever from their grasp was more than the slave- 
holders could bear. They turned with hopeful eyes to the new 
President. What would he do ? He was a southern man, and he 
owned a large plantation and several hundred slaves in Louisiana. 
On this the hopes of the South were based, though Taylor had said 
that he would not be a sectional nor a partisan President. At length 
all doubts were set at rest when the President proved that his pa- 
triotism towered above his sectional or partisan feeling by recom- 
mending that California be admitted as a free state. 

The slave power now became enraged ; it demanded that California 
be divided in the middle and that the southern half be 
made a slave state, or that the Missouri Compromise ^q^^-^i 
line be extended beyond its original limits, the Loui- 
siana Purchase, to the Pacific Ocean. Threats of destroying the 
Union began to spread through the South. Alexander H. Stephens 



640 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

wrote in December, 1849, that the feeling among the southern mem- 
bers for a dissolution of the Union was becoming far more general. 
Robert Toombs declared in the House that he did not hesitate " to 
avow before this House and the country, and in the presence of the 
living God, that if by your legislation you seek to drive us from 
the territories of California and New Mexico ... I am for dis- 
union*'" Calhoun, the greatest of southern leaders, had made artful 
efforts to unite all slaveholders in Congress to demand concessions 
from the North and to foster the spirit of disunion, if their demand 
was refused. Such was the condition of the country — California 
knocking for admission as a free state, the South demanding that it 
be divided in the middle, the North in equal turmoil, many of the 
people ready to yield to southern demands for the sake of peace, 
but a greater number declaring frantically that slavery should en- 
croach no farther on free soil — such was the condition at the open- 
ing of that memorable year in American history, 

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY 

From the time of the launching of the government under the 
new Constitution to the Civil War the darkest year of all was 1850. 
There could be no doubt that the threat of wholesale secession was 
serious. A convention of leading southern statesmen met at Nash- 
ville in June, 1850, and solemnly declared that a state had the ab- 
stract right to secede from the Union. Not one lone state, as in 
1832, but most of the slave states seemed to contemplate taking the 
fatal step.^ Had secession now been accomplished, our glorious 
Union would probably have perished. Jackson was in his grave 
and Lincoln was unknown; nor was there any great political party, 
as ten years later, pledged to the maintenance of its integrity. 

While the country was in this state of nnrest the Thirty-first 
Congress met. The House chose Howell Cobb of Georgia speaker, 
after a wrangle of three weeks. The Senate was 
the ablest that ever sat in Washington. Here for 
the last time was the great triumvirate, — Clay, Webster, and 
Calhoun, — all of whom had figured in every great governmental 
movement for forty years. Here, too, were Benton, serving his thir- 
tieth year in the Senate, the stentorian Hale of New Hampshire, 

1 Benton took the ground, however, and with some show of reason, that tha 
bluster would subside, and that there was no serious danger to the Union. 



GREAT DEBATES IN THE SENATE 64i 

Stephen A. Douglas from Illinois, and Jefferson Davis of Missis* 

sippi; Seward of the Empire State, and the powerful pair from 

Ohio, Salmon P. Chase and Thomas Corwin. Early in the session 

Clay assumed the leadership, as always, and he brought forward a 

series of compromise measures which he hoped would 

restore harmony between the warring sections. These ^^^^'^ 

1 ,i/-c • iKT <.^o,-/x ■, compromise, 

are known as the Compromise Measures of 1850, or the 

Omnibus Bill. In this famous bill were eight items, the most im- 
portant being the first, which called for the admission of California 
as a free state; the sixth, which prohibited the slave trade in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia ; and the seventh, which called for a new fugitive- 
slave law. These measures absorbed the attention of Congress for 
more than eight months. The bill was eventually torn to pieces 
and passed in sections. Clay was the champion and leader through- 
out. He had passed his seventy-second year, and his health was 
broken ; but the fire of his eloquence still glowed with the luster of 
former days. Clay was the most national, the broadest in his sym- 
pathies, of all men in Congress at this time. A resident of a border 
state and the owner of slaves, he was as truly a northern as a south- 
ern man. When Jefferson Davis declared in the Senate that the 
Missouri line must be extended to the Pacific, Clay's instant retort 
was that he could never agree to it, that the Southwest was free ter- 
ritory and must remain so, that we justly reproached our British 
ancestors for introducing slavery on this continent, and he was un- 
willing that the future inhabitants of California and New Mexico 
should reproach us for the same offense. Clay announced that on a 
certain day in February he would speak on his bill, and thousands 
of people, many from distant cities, came to hear this last great 
speech of this most magnetic of American orators. 

In March three speeches of much historic importance were 
delivered in the Senate, by Calhoun, Webster, and Seward. Cal- 
houn was slowly dying; but his unconquerable will fought down 
disease until he had prepared an elaborate speech on the compro- 
mise measures. Supported by two friends, he tottered into the 
senate chamber ; but he was unable to read his speech, and this 
was done by another. The utmost attention was paid to this final 
word from the greatest of the living sons of the South. In front 
of the reader sat, with half-closed eyes, in rigid silence, the ghost- 
like form of the author. / Calhoun was an honest man, and in this 
speech he gave expression to the honest convictions of his soul. He 



542 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



showed liow the North, in his belief, had encroached on the rights 
of the South until the Union was in danger, — how the great Protes- 
tant churches had separated into northern and southern 
Calhoun s branches, — how one cord after another that bound 
the two sections of the country together had snapped, 
and soon there would be none remaining. He appealed to the 
North to consent to amend the Constitution so as to give the South 
the power to protect herself.^ Thus ended the public career of the 
great South Carolinian. He died on the last day of March. 

It is not true that Calhoun sought a dissolution of the Union. 
He probably loved his state and section more than the Union ; and, 
believing that slavery was 'necessary to the welfare of his section, 
he espoused the cause of slavery. But as well say that Chatham, 
in defending the rights of the colonies, ceased to be a loyal English- 
man, as that Calhoun no longer loved his country. /And nothing in 
his life showed more conclusively that he still loved the flag than 
did this last great speech of his life, in which he pleads from the 
depths of his honest soul for the removal of the evils that in his 
judgment menaced the perpetuity of the Union, y 

Many and able were the other champions of the slave power 
during the generation preceding the Civil War ; but Calhoun towers 
above them all. His prophetic vision exceeded that of any of his 
contemporaries. He saw the gathering storm, the implacable strife 
between the slave states and the free, long before it assumed threat- 
ening proportions. He saw, too, that the little, despised Abolition 
societies of the North would, by their unceasing cry against 
slavery, eventually mold the conscience of millions, and he called 
for their suppression by legislation. Calhoun was right in believ- 
ing that if the moral consciousness of the nation opposed slavery, 
slavery must fall. But he made mistakes. He was wrong in believ- 
ing that human legislation can govern the conscience of the people ; 
wrong in predicting that the Union could not survive a bloody war ; 
and strangest of all, he and all his brethren were wrong in their 
claim that social conditions in the South would be unendurable, if 
the black man were given his freedom. 

The next great speech of the month was made by Daniel Webster, 

1 It was not then known to what Calhoun referred in this suggestion ; but his 
posthumous papers explained that he would have the Constitution amended so as to 
elect two Presidents, one from the slave states, and one from the free states, each tc 
have a veto on all national legislation. 



SEVENTH OF MARCH SPEECH 54S 

but three clays after that of Calhoun, and it is known as his " Seventh 
of March Speech." A voice from this great son of New England 
had been eagerly awaited. Since his reply to llayne in 1830 Web- 
ster had easily held the palm as the greatest orator in America./ As 
an intellectual giant Webster surpassed all men of his generation. 
As he stood before an audience the sweep of his eloquence, like a 
rushing river, bore everything before it.* His mind grasped under- 
lying principles, and these he made so clear that the unlearned man 
could readily comprehend them. Webster has often 
been compared to Edmund Burke ; and the speeches 
of both have the rare distinction of holding a permanent place in 
the literature of their common language. 

Twenty years had now passed since the mighty voice of Webster 
had spoken for nationality in tones that stirred the world. Old age 
was now creeping upon his frame and his powers were beginning to 
wane ; but he roused himself like a Hercules for this one powerful final 
effort. The country was in deep agitation. The North had shown 
even greater inclination to rebel against the proposed Fugitive Slave 
Law than the South had done against free California. But all waited 
eagerly to hear from Webster, the greatest representative of the North. 
There was a feeling of uncertainty among his friends, and not with- 
out reason. At various times Webster had shown his independence 
of party or sectional adherence. He had acted with the Democratic 
President in 1833 ; he had sided with the South in the Creole affair 
of 1841 ; and above all he had abandoned his party while a member 
of the Tyler Cabinet. But these episodes had only temporarily 
broken the magic spell in which he held the northern heart. It 
was left for this Seventh of March Speech to shatter the idol that 
the people had worshiped so long. The speech he made on this 
day was one of the greatest of his life. His constitu- 
tional discussion of the slavery question was learned ^^l^^^ 
and profoimd, and for the most part pleasing to his 
constituents. But his views on the Wilmot Proviso and the Fugi- 
tive Slave Law caused great offense. It was needless, he claimed, it 
was a " taunt and reproach " to the slaveholders to exclude slavery 
by law from California and New Mexico, as the laws of nature had 
already done this. " I would not take pains, uselessly to reaffirm 
an ordinance of nature, nor to reenact the will of God." He also 
declared that the North had lacked in its duty to the South in the 
matter of runaway slaves, that the South had just grounds of com* 



544 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

plaint ; and he went out of his way to denounce the Abolition 
societies of his own section. 

This oration of Webster created consternation throughout the 
North and brought the severest denunciations upon the head of its 
author. He was condemned on every side as a traitor to the cause 
of liberty. Giddings declared that the speech had struck a blow at 
freedom such as no southern arm could have given./ Horace Mann 
said that Webster had played false to the North, that he was a 
fallen star, a Lucifer descending from heaven. Whittier, in the 
little poem " Ichabod," mourned the fall of one in whom honor and 
faith were dead. At a great meeting in Faueuil Hall Theodore 
Parker compared the action of Webster to that of Benedict Arnold, 
and declared that Webster was only seeking southern support for 
the presidency. In the course of a few months, this wave of indig- 
nation spent itself to some extent; but never again did Webster 
regain the popularity that he lost on this fatal day. It is difficult 
for us to understand at this day how Webster's apparently moderate 
statements could have raised such a storm, but it must be remem- 
bered that the country was greatly excited over this all-absorbing 
slavery question. 

On the 11th of March Seward delivered in the Senate the 
third of the great speeches of the month. Seward had been twice 
governor of New York : his fame was national, and he 
was looked on as one of the leaders in political thought. 
His effort on this day fell far below that of Webster in rhetorical 
finish, but it made a profound impression upon the country ; and 
from that moment Seward became the leader of northern thought on 
the great subject that disturbed the harmony between the two sec- 
tions. This leadership continued to the opening of the Civil War, 
when a greater than Seward laid his hand upon the helm. 

In this discourse of March 11 Seward took strong ground 
against the pending Fugitive Slave Law, declaring that public senti- 
ment at the North would not support it, and that no government 
could change the moral convictions of the people by force. He also 
stated that there was a " higher law than the Constitution," and 
this maxim became the ground on which the people of the North 
resisted the law, afterward enacted, for the capture of fugitive 
slaves. / He further advanced the opinion that the fall of slavery in 
the United States was inevitable, evidently by peaceful means, as 
he disclaimed all belief in secession or disunion. •' By this speech 



DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT 545 

Seward assumed the leadership that would have remained with 
Webster had the latter not taken a position at variance with the 
prevailing sentiment at the North. 

The debates on these great measures continued for many months, 
sometimes reaching a state of extreme acrimony. In April Senator 
Benton almost came to blows with Senator Foote of Mississippi. 
Benton came from a slave state, but his views for the most part 
coincided with those of the North, and the southern 
members considered him a renegade and lost no oppor- p®^^*'^ ^^^ 
tunity to taunt him. Foote was making some caustic 
and insulting remarks about Benton, when the latter rose from his 
seat and advanced toward the speaker in a hostile attitude ; where- 
upon Foote drew a loaded revolver. At this Benton became greatly 
excited and cried to his friends, who were attempting to restrain 
him : " I am not armed ; I disdain to carry arms. Stand aside and 
let the assassin lire." A committee of investigation afterward 
reported that no similar scene had ever before been witnessed in the 
Senate. But the matter was dropped and nothing further was done. 

The measures under discussion were at length referred to a grand 
Senate committee of thirteen, with Clay as its chairman. This com- 
mittee soon made its report, which differed little from Clay's com- 
promise measures offered in January. President Taylor openly 
opposed the measures as a whole, and especially the Fugitive Slave 
Law and the offer to pay Texas a large sum of money for her claims 
on New Mexico. His sympathies were evidently with the northern 
Whigs. But his course was run. The hero of many battles at last 
met a foe that he could not conquer. 

On the 4th of July the President attended a mass meeting at 
the laying of the corner stone of the Washington Monument, and he 
sat for several hours in the broiling sun. Partially over- j)eath of 
come by heat, he returned to the White House, drank President 
large draughts of iced milk and ate iced fruits. That Taylor, 
evening he was taken ill with cholera morbus. In a few days it 
merged into typhoid fever, and on the 9th of July Zachary Taylor 
was dead. Sadly the funeral procession moved through the streets 
of the capital city, and not the least impressive feature was " Old 
Whitey," the faithful steed that General Taylor had ridden through 
the Mexican War, now led behind the casket, bearing an empty sad- 
dle. ^Thus for a second time the unfortunate Whig party had lost 
its President by death. The ultra-southerners received the news of 
2n 



546 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

the President's death with complacency ; in the North the mourning 
was sincere and widespread. Strange too, for the dead President was 
a southern man and the incoming President a northern man. But 
the former was broad and national in his views ; the latter was " a 
northern man with southern principles." 

Millard Fillmore, born in the wilderness of northern New York 

in 1800, was a self-made man in the fullest sense of the term. He 

picked up a meager education as best he could, became 

^ °'^®' a leading lawyer of Buffalo and a member of his state 
legislature, and served for several years in the Lower House of Con- 
gress. As a member of the House he was noted for his conservatism 
and for painstaking industry. For several years he labored shoulder 
to shoulder with John Quincy Adams for the right of petition, and 
it was not until the higher honors of the presidency came to him 
that he became known as "a northern man with southern princi- 
ples." Even then he was not a radical, and his favoring the com- 
promise measures, contrary to the Whig sentiment of his own section, 
was doubtless based on an honest desire to do the best in his power 
for his country. The President tendered the position of secretary 
of state to Webster, who accepted it; and this fact, since it was 
known that Webster favored the compromise, and the further fact 
that four of the six other members of the Cabinet were from the 
South, revealed to the country that the new President held different 
views on the great questions of the day from those held by his prede- 
cessor. The advice of Seward, who had been the chief counsellor 
of President Taylor, was now no longer sought. Seward men were 
removed from office and their places were filled with conservative 
Whigs, and it was plain that the administration intended to use the 
patronage wherever possible to unify the party on the compromise. 

The great debates went on, and soon the fruit of the long toil 
began to appear. Before the end of August the Senate had passed 
Passage of ^^^® ^^^^ settling the boundary of Texas and giving 
the com- that state $ 10,000,000 for the relinquishment of her 

promise. claims on New Mexico,^ also the bill admitting Cali- 

fornia, another organizing New Mexico as a territory without the 
Wilmot Proviso,^ and, most important of all, the Fiigitive Slave Law. 

1 This act brought forth grave accusatious of jobbery. Texas scrip, which had 
fallen to one sixth of its face value, now rose to par, and it was believed that manj 
speculators in this serin marie fortunes by this act of Congress. 

2 A similar act concerning Utah had passed on the last day of July. 



THE COMPROMISE ADOPTED 547 

The bill abolishing the slave trade in the District of Columbia passed 
the Senate in September. All these measures passed the House in 
SepJ^nber with little debate, and all were signed by the President, 
^-^rom the foundation of the government there had seldom been a 
measure enacted into law of more far-reaching consequence than 
were some of the enactments of this Compromise of 1850. ; The 
measures were non-partisan ; they were sectional. The Democrats 
and Whigs of the North joined in opposing the Fugitive Slave Act, 
while both parties at tlie South joined in opposing free California 
and the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia. 
For some years the two great parties had grown nearer together, and 
bnow their chief cause of rivalry was based on a desire for supremacy.* 
The great questions of the times w^ere sectional and not partisan, 
and the fact that the two great parties now stood on common ground 
and no longer represented opposing schools of thought explains in 
great part the dissolution of the one in the near future, for in the , 
world of politics the coexistence of two of a kind is impossible.] 
But this must be noticed later. 

The compromise measures were on the whole favorable to the 
North rather than to the South.^ Two items in this famous mid- 
century legislation were of momentous interest to the nation. One, 
the admission of California as a free state, was deeply offensive to 
the South, but there it stood on the statutes, a permanent fact that 
could never be undone. The other, the Fugitive Slave Law, was 
equally offensive to the North ; but it was not an abiding fact ; it 
was a temporary measure, and its enforcement depended largely upon 
its individual reception by the people of the North. Moreover, it 
Avorked irretrievable injury to the slave power by awakening an 
antislavery sentiment in the North as nothing else could have done. 
The vicious law for the rendition of runaway slaves had been forced 
upon the North for other reasons than the desire to recover lost 
property." It was not the border states, but the cotton states of the 
far South, from which few of their bondsmen escaped, that were 
most instrumental in placing this law upon the statutes. Their 
motive was to humble the North for having forced upon them the 

1 Von Hoist, Vol. HI, p. 102. 

2 If we include the admission of California as part of the compromise ; but more 
Btrictly speaking it was not, as this item had previously been decided by the peopl« 
of California. 

8 See Rhodes, "History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850," Vol. 
I, p. 187. 



648 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

bitter medicine of free California. Neither section was pleased with 
the compromise. The great mass of conservatives was desirous 
that the agitation be stopped, but the radicals of both sections were 
again ready to throw down the gage of battle.^ In Mississippi and 
South Carolina many of the leaders threatened secession. The 
Southern Rights Association held a convention at Charleston in 
May, 1851, and declared that South Carolina could no longer submit 
to the wrongs and aggressions of the federal government. But in an 
election to a secession Congress the following autumn the secession 
party was defeated. In Mississippi a similar result was reached 
when Foote, who represented the Union sentiment, was elected gov- 
ernor over Jefferson Davis, who represented the radical party. In 
the North we find great discontent in the ultra-antislavery districts.^ 
Massachusetts rebuked Webster by placing Charles Sumner in his 
seat in the Senate, elected by Democrats and Free-soilers wholly on 
account of his antislavery position. On the same ground Ohio sent 
the rugged, heroic Benjamin Wade to the Senate. In Congress the 
southern radicals gave notice that all was not settled, that they must 
have Cuba and more territory from Mexico when needed, while the 
northern radicals, led by Seward, Sumner, and Gid^ings, declared 
that the Fugitive Slave Act could not be enforced. / Meantime the 
great body of conservatives fondly hoped that the cortipromise would 
be accepted as a finality and that the hated slavery question would 
trouble them no more for many years to come. At length the 
southern leaders, with rare exceptions, came to this view : they 
agreed to accept the compromise as a finality, on the one condition 
that the North would honestly enforce the Fugitive Slave Law. The 
northern politicians would doubtless have agreed to this ; but the 
enforcement of that law rested with the conscience of the people, 
not with the politicians, and it remains for us to notice 

THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW IN OPERATION 

It has been said, and truly said, that Millard Fillmore, when he 
signed the Fugitive Slave Law on September 18, 1850, signed his 
own death warrant as a national statesman. By this little act he 
covered his name with dishonor, and no subsequent show of patriot- 
ism could redeem it ; by this he ofEended the great section of the 
country to which he belonged, and for this he is remembered in 

1 " Seward's Works," Vol. Ill, p. 446. 2 jyTgro York Tribune, May 13, 1851. 



OPPOSITION TO FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW 549 

American history. Yet it is difficult to see how Fillmore could have 
done otherwise than he did, as the South had been so deeply offended 
over free California that a rejection of the Fugitive Slave Law would 
probably have brought immediate secession. 

The Fugitive Slave Law was a vicious and inhuman measure,- to 
say the least. When captured by the pretended owner or his agent, 
the alleged runaway was carried before a magistrate or commissioner 
who should hear and determine the case. The law was so framed 
as to work against the prisoner at every point. The oath of the 
owner or agent (and the agents were often coarse, brutal men whose 
better instincts were smothered by years of slave driving) was usu- 
ally sufficient to decide the matter. The black man could not testify 
in his own behalf. The benefit of a jury was denied him. Even the 
commissioner was bribed by the law, for if he awarded the captive 
to his captor, he received ten dollars as his fee ; if he set him free, 
he received but five. The worst feature of the law was that it com- 
pelled any bystander to assist in making a capture, if summoned to 
do so by the slave catcher. This was revolting to the average citi- 
zen of the free states, for the impulse was to aid the fleeing man in 
making his escape rather than to aid his pursuer. 

Could such a law be enforced ? Thousands of people throughout 
the North believed that a man held in bondage for no crime — ^ simply 
on account of the accident of his birth and the color of his skin — 
had a right to escape if he could. Conscience demanded that they 
aid him in his flight ; the law demanded that they aid his pursuer ; 
and many decided to obey the " higher law " of conscience rather 
than this law of their land. It is easy to see with what difficulty a 
law could be enforced when opposed by the moral consciousness of 
the people in the midst of whom it is expected to oper- Qj-gat oppo- 
ate. From thousands of pulpits, from a large portion sition to the 
of the northern press, and from mass meetings held for ^^^• 
the purpose, the Fugitive Slave Act was denounced as an unjust and 
wicked measure.^ This feeling of the people was reflected in the 
state legislatures. Michigan, Wisconsin, and all the New England 
states passed personal liberty laws, for the protection of free blacks ; 
and most of them made laws to regulate the business of the slave 
catcher, such as denying him the use of the jails and other public 

1 Wilson's " Rise and Fall of the Slave Power," Vol. II, p. 305. The conserva- 
tives also held meetings in the large cities of the North, and demanded that the com- 
promise he accepted in good faith and that the Fugitive Slave Law be enforced. 



550 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

buildings, while a few states demanded a jury trial for the alleged 
fugitive.^ These items show the general reception of the Fugitive 
Slave Law at the North, but this may be shown still more vividly by 
citing a few examples of its practical operation. 

There were probably twenty thousand negroes in the free states 
who had at some past time escaped from slavery. Many of these 
were quiet, industrious people, earning an honest living for their 
families ; all were liable to be dragged back to slavery by this law.^ 
Scarcely had the law gone into effect, when many parts of the North 
were overrun by man hunters. Many of the fugitives residing in 
the free states now hurried off to Canada, where the laws of England 
made them free ; others remained in the hope of escaping detection. 
Sometimes the fugitive was caught and taken back to his former 
master ; sometimes he was killed in the chase ; but usually he made 
good his escape, owing to the aid and sympathy he received from the 
people of the Korth. 

One of the first instances to attract attention was that of William 
Smith of Columbia, Pennsylvania. Many years before this law was 
passed Smith had escaped from slavery, had settled in this quiet 
town on the Susquehanna, and was now an industrious laborer, sup- 
porting a wife and family. He knew that he might be taken back 
to slavery at any moment under this law of 1850, but he hoped to 
remain undiscovered. One day while working on the streets he saw 
some slave hunters approaching him. He threw down his tools and 
started to run, but he was shot dead by his pursuers. Another 
instance in this same county (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) attracted far 
wider attention, and turned out very differently. Near the village 
of Christiana lived a colored man named William Parker, himself a 
fugitive, and his house became a place of refuge for other fleeing 
negroes. It was learned that he was harboring two men of his race 
who had escaped from their master, a Baltimore physician named 
Examples of Grorsuch. In September, 1851, Gorsuch, with a party 
slave of armed men, including his son, entered the town and 

catching. demanded his property. The party surrounded the 

Parker house; the colored people of the neighborhood were sum- 
moned by the sound of a horn, and in the fusillade that ensued Gor- 

^ Vermont, Michigan, and Massachusetts demanded a jury trial. This was a 
practical nullification of the national law. Most of these laws were enacted after 
the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Law in 1854. 

^ The law was retroactive, and it was denounced as unconstitutional by its 
enemies, who claimed that it was ex post facto . 



EXAMPLES OP SLAVE CATCHING 551 

such was killed, and his son severely wounded. This affair attracted 
the attention of the country. President Fillmore sent a body of ma- 
rines from Philadelphia to the scene of the riot. Thirty-five per- 
sons were arrested/ but no jury could be found to convict them, and 
all were released. The two fugitives were never captured. 

Another incident, known as the '* Jerry rescue," that took place 
at Syracuse, Kew York, attracted much attention. Jerry McHenry, 
an industrious mechanic, who had worked at his trade for some years 
at Syracuse, was claimed, under the Fugitive Slave Law, by a man 
from Missouri. Jerry was found and captured by the slave hunters. 
He was imprisoned to await trial the next day. Before morning a 
large party of men, led by Gerrit Smith, a wealthy member of Con- 
gress, and the Rev. Samuel May, went to the prison, battered down 
the door, rescued the prisoner, and, after concealing him for a few 
days, sent him off to Canada. The leaders of this rescue openly pro- 
claimed their part in it, but none of them was punished. 

Many of the runaway negroes did not go to Canada, but settled 
in the Northern states, as far as convenient from Mason and Dixon's 
line. At Young's Prairie, in Cass County, Michigan, a considerable 
colony had located, and here they lived in contentment in the little 
houses they had built. But their location was discovered by their 
various masters, and a party of thirty armed men rode 
from Kentucky to capture the fugitives at Young's pj^-r^^ 
Prairie. The party separated, and made several simul- 
taneous attacks on the negro village at dead of night. Awakened 
suddenly from sleep, the blacks fought bravely for their liberty, but 
in a short time most of them were overpowered, fettered, and thrown 
into large wagons brought for the purpose. But one woman, while 
her husband was fighting in the only door of their cabin, escaped 
through a back window and gave the alarm to some white neighbors. 
In a few minutes a white man was galloping about the country on a 
fleet horse, giving a general alarm. By daylight the whole neigh- 
borhood was aroused, and a band of two hundred men, led by Bill 
Jones, a brawny-armed blacksmith, were dashing to the rescue of 
the blacks. They fell upon the Kentuckians, arrested them for kid- 
naping, and lodged them in the county jail to await trial. At the 
trial they were acquitted ; but they returned to their homes empty- 
handed, after all their trouble and expense, for while the trial was 
pending, the colored colony was transferred to Canadian soil.^ 
1 Siebert's " Underground Railroad," p. 280. 2 Cofl&u's " Reminiscences," p. 366- 



652 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Usually the slave hunter failed to secure his runaway ; and, even 
when he succeeded, the expense was often so great as to render the 
undertaking unprofitable. The most famous case that 
Anthony came under this law was that of Anthony Burns, a 

colored waiter in a Boston hotel. He had escaped from 
his Virginia master, and he was now arrested as a fugitive. When the 
people of the city heard of the arrest, they were soon wrought up to 
a wild state of excitement. A great meeting held at Faneuil Hall 
was addressed by Wendell Phillips and Theodore Parker, and late 
at night it practically resolved itself into a mob and proceeded to 
the courthouse where Burns was confined, to attempt his rescue. 
Here was found another band of infuriated men, led by Thomas 
Wentworth Higginson, battering at the doors. The mob was driven 
back by troops called out by the mayor, one man was killed, several 
were arrested, and Burns was not rescued. A few days later he was 
remanded to slavery. The people made no further attempt to effect 
his rescue ; but fifty thousand of them lined the streets hissing and 
jeering as the negro was led to the revenue cutter in the harbor, 
guarded by the police force of the city and several thousand soldiers 
armed with muskets and artillery. The South had won its victory, 
but it was an expensive one, for public feeling against the Fugitive 
Slave Law was roused throughout the North as never before, and 
the Richmond Enquirer was led to say, "A few more such victories 
and the South is undone." ^ 

Scarcely less than the excitement over Burns was that over the 
" Glover rescue " in Wisconsin in the spring of the same year. 
Joshua Glover was a black man who lived near Racine, W^isconsin. 
He was claimed by a man from St. Louis, and was captured, knocked 
down, bound, carried in a wagon to Milwaukee, and lodged in jail. 
The people of Racine soon heard of the proceedings, and held a 
mass meeting which declared the Fugitive Slave Law "disgraceful 
and repealed." AJjout a hundred men then proceeded to Milwaukee 
and on arriving found the city in a wild tumult. The excitement 
gained in volume, and the authorities called on the militia to quell 
the riot, but the militia refused to respond. At length the crowd 
became dangerous, and when it surged upon the jail and demanded 

1 Siebert's "Underground Railroad," p. 331; Wilson's "Rise and Fall of the 
Slave Power," Vol. II, pp. 43.5-441. Burns was afterward purchased by friends at 
the North and sent to Oberlin College, in Ohio, hut he died a few years later. The 
judge who awarded him to his captors was removed from the Ijench through a 
petition of the people. 



THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 653 

the prisoner, there was nothing to do but to give him up. Glover 
was soon landed in Canada, and the people returned quietly to their 
homes. Nearly every newspaper in the state applauded the Glover 
rescue, and the leaders of the riot, afterward arrested, were acquitted 
by a decision of the supreme court of the state on the ground that 
the Fugitive Slave Law was unconstitutional. The examples above 
mentioned are but a few of the most conspicuous out of hundreds. 
A half-witted person could have seen that the Fugitive Slave Law 
could not be enforced in most sections of the North ; and any slave- 
holder could have seen, and most of them did see, that the law was 
doing irreparable harm to the institution of slavery by unifying the 
North against it. 

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

" For more than half a century before the Civil War there was an 
ever increasing stream of slaves fleeing from their masters into the 
free states. In the years immediately preceding the war the num- 
ber was estimated at about a thousand a year. It is true that many 
of the slaves were so well treated by their owners, or so grossly 
ignorant, that they had little or no desire to escape. But there were 
others, and their name was legion, in whose bosom burned a longing 
for liberty, so natural to the human heart. Especially was this true 
of those who had picked up the rudiments of an education. Many 
in the far South knew only that freedom lay in the direction of the 
North Star, that the distance was great, and that the way was fraught 
with unknown perils. The fugitives usually traveled by night and 
secreted themselves in the mountains or thickets during the day. 
Most of them came from the border states, and they comj^rised the 
most intelligent of their race. Some fled because of cruel treatment, 
but with the great majority it was the fear of the dreaded auction 
block that drove them to seek the land of liberty. However kind 
the master might be, however reluctant to part with his servants, his 
death or business reverses might at any time send them to the great 
cotton plantations or to the rice swamps of the far South, the most 
dreadful calamity that could come to a border-state slave. When 
once a slave Avas carried by a trader to the southern market, it was 
seldom that he was again seen or heard of by his friends and kindred. 
The fleeing black man was often recaptured before reaching the 
free states, after which his condition was made worse than before. 



554 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

But thousands succeeded in crossing the border line and in breathing 
the air of freedom. But even then, after the Compromise of 1850, 
their chances of evading capture would have been very meager but 
for the aid rendered them by persons living along their route. 
There were hundreds of people in the free states, some colored, but 
most of them white, who were systematically engaged in giving aid, 
comfort, and advice to the fleeing slave. These lawbreakers were 
for the most part respectable and, in other respects, law-abiding 
citizens. They acted on principle : they believed in a higher law 
than any framed by human legislators ; they believed that a man 
held in bondage by no fault of his own had a right to his freedom, 
if he desired it, and they felt it a duty to aid him in gaining it, if in 
their power. But, in addition to the pleasure of relieving the suffer- 
ings of the fleeing slave, there was in the business of aiding the run- 
away " the excitement of piracy, the secrecy of burglary, the daring 
of insurrection." ^ The work was carried on with the utmost secrecy 
and in the most systematic manner. The system was known as the 
Underground Eailroad. 

It consisted of many different routes across the free states. The 
" stations," twenty miles or more apart, were usually private homes 
in the garrets or cellars of which, or in nearby caves or 
sacr'fices haymows, the fugitives were kept and fed during the 

day, and from which they were sent on their way at 
nightfall. Many of those who engaged in the work did so at their 
own peril and often at great self-sacrifice, for the law was persist- 
ently against them. Mr. Rush Sloane of Sandusky, Ohio, paid -f 3000 
in fines for assisting runaways to Canada ; Thomas Garrett of Wil- 
mington, Delaware, assisted twenty-seven hundred fugitives and 
paid $8000 in fines for violating the slave laws. Calvin Fairbank 
spent seventeen years in the penitentiary for similar offenses. - 

One of the most active workers in connection with the Under- 
ground Railroad, and the reputed president of the system was Levi 
Coffin, a prosperous merchant who managed the station at Newport, 
Indiana, for twenty years. During this period he and his faithful 
wife, who were Quakers, harbored at least one hundred fugitives 
each year. The story in " Uncle Tom's Cabin " of the slave woman 
crossing the Ohio River on the floating ice with her child was a 
true story, and after this woman reached the home of the Coffins, 

1 Hart's Introduction to Siebert's " Underground Railroad." 

2 Siebert's " Underground Railroad," pp. 110, 15!), 254, 277. 



ESCAPES FROM SLAVERY 555 

Mrs. CoflEin gave her the name " Eliza Harris," and Mrs. Stowe 
used this name in her novel.^ The largest number ever harbored by 
Levi Cofhu in one night was seventeen. For this he was arraigned 
before the grand jury. He was known to be a man of great probity, 
and nothing could lead him to speak falsely. When arraigned and 
asked under oath if he had harbored fugitive slaves, he answered 
that he had no legal knowledge that he had done so ; he admitted 
having received and ministered unto certain persons Avho had come 
to his house destitute and homeless. He had done this in obedience 
to the injunctions of the Bible. These persons, it is true, had said 
they were fugitive slaves ; but he had nothing but their word for it, 
and as the testimony of a slave could not be received in court there 
was no proof of his guilt.^ Mr. Coffin was released. 

One of the most active of the underground workers was William 
Still, a free colored man of Philadelphia, who served for many years as 
chairman of the Vigilance Committee of that city, and who after the 
war published a large volume giving the experiences of the fugitives 
as related by themselves. No career in the underground work was 
more picturesque and romantic than that of Harriet Tubman, her- 
self a fugitive from Maryland. She was almost white, was very 
religious and intelligent, and she earned the name of " The Moses of 
her People." With Philadelphia as her headquarters she would 
collect money from sympathizers and make a journey to slave land. 
After collecting a company of her people, she piloted them across the 
border and sometimes accompanied them to Canada. She would 
quiet babies with drugs and have them carried in baskets. She is 
said to have made nineteen excursions into the slave states and to 
have abducted three hundred slaves without detection.^ Josiah 
Henson, also a fugitive, founded a colony and a school in Canada, and 
made various journeys to the South, abducting in all 118 slaves.* 

One of the most powerful agencies in shaping the political con' 
science at the North during the decade preceding the war was 
" Uncle Tom's Cabin," by Harriet Beecher Stowe. This novel cannot 

1 Coffin's "Reminiscences," p. 113. 

2 Coffin, p. 192. 

8 This woman was employed as a scout and spy in the Civil War. She is still 
living (1903) near Auburn, New York. 

* It has been estimated that as many as sixty thousand or even seventy thousand 
colored people, a large majority of whom were fugitives, resided in Canada in 1860. 
Many of them purchased small farms and built houses; others hired out as farm 
laborers, lumbermen, etc. Family life soon became far more regular than in slavery 
and the moral condition was greatly improved. 



566 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

be named among the greatest works of genius. The narrative 
shows much bias iu tlie writer, and she is often unfair to the South; 

but as a series of pictures of slave life, colored with 
■' Uncle Toms ^ profound human sympathy, the book attracted and 

held the attention of readers of every class. It sprung 
into immediate popularity ; three hundred thousand copies were sold 
within the first year after publication ; the sales soon exceeded a 
million ; the book spread over England and her colonies, and was trans- 
lated into twenty languages. The political effect of this novel did not 
appear at first, but it eventually became an important agent in the 
world of politics.^ The story appealed particularly to the young, and 
thousands of the boys who in the fifties laughed at Topsy, loved little 
Eva, wept over the fate of Uncle Tom, and became enraged at the brutal 
Lagree, were voters in 18G0; and their votes, as determined by that 
book, which led them to believe that slavery was wrong, became a 
powerful element in effecting the political revolution of that year. 

SLAVE LIFE IN THE SOUTH 

A hundred years ago the nniversal verdict of the American peo- 
ple was that slavery was an evil. Such leaders as Washington and 
Jefferson, themselves slaveholders, deplored the existence of the 
institution as long as they lived. In later years, when slavery be- 
came the chief political issue, almost the entire South, follow- 
ing the lead of Calhoun, pronounced slavery in the United States a 
positive good. This change was partially due to conviction ; but un- 
doubtedly it arose in part from the fact that the slaveholder 
grew weary of defending what he confessed to be an evil, and, in 
answer to the cry of the Abolitionist, he veered around, took the 
offensive, and pronounced slavery a good thing. The question was 
also, as we have seen, an economic one. If slavery was an economic 
good, as the people of the South believed, it must also be a moral 
good ; and if both, it ought to be defended and extended. In these 
latter days, since the institution is a thing of the past, the univer- 
sal verdict is that which antedated the career of Calhoun — that 
slavery was an evil, an unmitigated evil.^ 

1 Rhodes, Vol. I, p. 284, 

3 That slavery was a great drawback to the South, from an economic standpoint, 
is shown very forcibly, with many statistics, iu the first chapter of Helper's " Im- 
pending Crisis." This book, written by a southerner and published in 1857, was an 
unanswerable arraignment of slavery. 



HOME LIFE OF THE SLAVE 667 

Nevertheless there were pleasant features in connection with 
slavery, especially in the border states, where it existed in a mild 
form. Many a slave was better kept by a humane master than he 
could have kept himself had he been free. In many a home the 
attachment between the owner and his slave was a sincere one ; the 
slave was educated and taught religion, and was practically a mem- 
ber of the family. Many of this class had little desire for freedom. 
But the great majority of slaves were not of this class. Except 
the house servants, coachmen, and the like, the slaves of the cotton 
states were toilers in the field. They spent their lives in unrequited 
toil ; and to one who had a spark of the consciousness of manhood 
or womanhood, Avhat a dreary, cheerless, hopeless life it must have 
been! 

On the great plantations the negroes lived in filth and wretched- 
ness in villages of huts. Their clothing was made of " negro cloth," 
the cheapest and coarsest material that could be had; their food was 
almost exclusively corn meal, which they prepared in addition to the 
day's toil, often exceeding fifteen hours, in the field. Meat was 
occasionally allowed to those engaged in the most exhausting labor. 
And yet, where the conditions were at all favorable, the slave was a 
happy creature. This was due to the inherent quality of the race, 
and to the fact that he had no care of his own, no anxiety for the 
morrow. The chief punishment of the negro was flogging, and this 
was often administered with great severity, not only for insubordi- 
nation, but for failure to perform the allotted task of labor. If a 
slave turned against his master, or attempted to escape, he was shot, 
or he received other punishment that often resulted in his death. 
There was no law against killing a slave for such provocation ; but 
the willful murder of a negro was a crime in all the Southern states. 
If, however, a negro was killed by a white man, it often happened 
that there were no witnesses, or none but slaves, whose testimony 
was not good in law, and for this reason punishment seldom 
followed. 

The slave lived in gross ignorance. Nearly all the cotton states 
forbade the teaching of slaves to read or write. In Virginia the 
owner alone was permitted to do this ; in North Carolina the slaves 
might be taught arithmetic.^ The Episcopal bishop of Louisiana, 
Leonidas Polk, who afterward became prominent in the Civil War, 
owned four hundred slaves, and he had them carefully trained in 
1 Rhodes, Vol. I, p. 327. 



558 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

religion. But he was an exception to the rule. On many of the 
great plantations the slaves were managed by hired overseers, the 
owner often living in a distant city. The overseers had little inter- 
est in the moral training of the blacks, and the average slave was 
wholly wanting in morals ; the men were almost universally dis- 
honest and the women were without a vestige of womanly chastity. 
This may have been partially due to the natural tendencies of the 
race ; but it was doubtless in part due to the system. A woman who 
felt herself owned absolutely by a master could hardly be expected 
to take an interest in herself or to cherish a feeling of womanhood. 
A man who did not and could not own property, not even himself or 
his children, could not have much idea of the rights of property. 

A great many of the slaves, however, especially in the border 
states, were not of the grossly ignorant and immoral class. On the 
smaller plantations the owner and his sons worked side by side with 
his slaves, and the relations between them were most cordial. Many 
a planter abhorred the thought of selling any of his servants and 
looked with contempt on the professional trader; but, as before 
stated, the death of the master or business reverses might at any 
time send the blacks to the auction block. 

Many of the best men of the South were, like Washington and 
Jefferson, opposed to the whole system of slavery, and it was not 
unusual for an owner to make provision, in his will or otherwise, for 
the emancipation of his slaves. Some planters made arrangements 
with their slaves by which the latter were enabled to purchase their 
own freedom. There were various ways of doing this. Mrs. Jeffer- 
son Davis, in her memoir of her husband, relates how a slave in one 
of the Davis families was permitted to keep a variety store. He sold 
goods, even to his master, from whom also he often borrow ed money 
and had regular business dealings. One Mississippi planter devised 
a plan by which his slaves were enabled to purchase their freedom 
by installments. After a slave had saved up a certain amount by 
working extra time, he was permitted to purchase his freedom for 
one day each week, and later for two days, and so on. A humane 
Kentucky planter gave two of his slaves, man and wife, an opportu- 
nity to earn money for themselves. This they did until they had 
saved $300, when they made their escape and used their money in 
reaching Canada and setting up a home. Here and there a freed 
negro accumulated considerable wealth and in some instances him- 
self became a slaveholder. 



INTERSTATE SLAVE TRADE 559 

At the opening of the Civil War there were above 260,000 free 
negroes in the slave states, the numbers being greatest in Maryland, 
Virginia, and North Carolina. But with all this, the status of free 
negroes in the South was rather precarious. Many of them were re- 
enslaved after gaining their freedom. Not infrequently they were 
sold to pay taxes or fines. But far greater was the danger of being 
enslaved by kidnapping. In every Southern state there were severe 
laws against kidnapping ; but in spite of this fact the practice was 
carried on to a large extent. One writer has estimated that the 
number of kidnapped negroes was probably as great as the number 
that escaped from their masters. 

But with all the good features of slavery, we have the testimony 
of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and of many leading men and 
women of the South that the system as a whole was demoralizing to 
both races. One feature of the institution that brought it general 
condemnation was the miscegenation of the two races. The northern 
Abolitionists doubtless had an exaggerated notion of the prevalence 
of this evil, nor did they take account of the fact that it was not 
wholly due to slavery. It is a racial evil not confined to America 
nor to modern times. By the better class of slaveholders it was 
never considered respectable. 

Another feature of slavery that disturbed the northern conscience 
was the interstate slave trade, with the evils that grew out of it. 
This did not exist in colonial days, when the African trade was 
open-; it belonged wholly to a later period. The great cotton belt of 
the South and the rice swamps were always in want of more slaves, 
while the border states had more than they needed ; and hence was 
established the interstate slave trade. This brought on two evils that 
must be condemned by every unbiased observer : the separation of 
families and the raising of slaves for the market. It is no doubt 
true that the negro, especially while in bondage, did not experience 
in the same degree those intense family ties which are characteris- 
tic of our own race. But that the black race was not devoid of 
these finer feelings was shown by many heartrending scenes at 
the auction block.^ To sell a man and his wife and children to 
different masters, living hundreds of miles apart, when there was 

1 John Randolph, once asked to name the most eloquent speech he ever heard, 
answered that it was made by a slave-woman, and her rostrum was the auction 
block. She was pleading for her children. 



560 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

no hope of their meeting again, was legalized cruelty that finda 
few parallels in history. 

From this brief glance at slave life as it existed before the war 
any one can see why the national conscience was disturbed, why 
the voice of the Abolitionist arose from the North and increased 
more and more, and why that voice could not be stifled until the 
system itself was swept away. But, withal, it was the misfortune 
rather than the crime of the South that this baneful system had 
taken such a relentless hold upon its life. While the conditions at 
the North were unfavorable to slavery and the institution in that 
section slowly loosened its hold and disappeared, it was otherwise 
with the South. Here its roots had struck deeply into the soil ; its 
branches had spread like the arms of an octopus until they embraced 
everything southern in their fatal grasp. From far back in colonial 
times the monster had been tightening its coils from year to year 
and from generation to generation. And now at last this blighting 
institution had become so interwoven with the political and social 
fabric of the South that the South no longer had power to deliver 
itself from the cruel bonds. While the leaders of the slave power 
cannot be held guiltless at the bar of history, it is certain that the 
South as a whole Avas the victim of this curse of slavery, bequeathed 
to it by former generations. 

NOTES AND ANECDOTES 

The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. — This subject has been relegated to a note, 
not because it is of minor importance, but because it did not exactly fit in our 
slavery discussion. John M. Clayton was secretary of state under President 
Taylor. He arranged with Henry Lytton Bulwer, the British minister at Wash- 
ington, the famous treaty that bears the name of both. The object of this 
treaty was to facilitate and protect the construction of a canal at Nicaragua 
between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. By this treaty both countries pledged 
themselves never to obtain exclusive control over said proposed canal, nor to 
erect fortifications commanding it, nor to colonize or exercise dominion over 
any portion of Central America. They further agreed to protect any company 
that should undertake the work, and to facilitate its construction, and they 
guaranteed the neutrality of such canal when completed. But few years passed 
after the consummation of the treaty before it became the object of serious dis- 
cussion, the provisions being differently construed in the two countries. At 
length the canal question subsided, and for many years it attracted little atten- 
tion. Meantime the Pacific Coast of the United States became filled with people, 
the relative interests of the two coiuitries were greatly changed, and it was 
evident that the terms of the treaty were disadvantageous to the United States. 



NOTES 561 

After many years' negotiation, the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty was abrogated by a 
new treaty (1902), known as the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, by which the United 
States secures full power to construct and to operate the proposed canal. 

Louis Kossuth. — In that great year for revolutions in Europe, 1848, Hun- 
gary made a brave effort to cast off the Austrian yoke, and might have succeeded 
but for the interfei'ence of Russia. Louis Kossuth, the governor of Hungary, 
and one of the most remarkable men of his time, took refuge in Turkey, on the 
failure of the Hungarians to win their freedom. From Turkey he was conveyed 
in a United States war vessel to New York in 1851, and was received with 
demonstrations accorded to no other foreigner that ever visited America, except 
Lafayette. His reception by the administration and by both houses of Congress 
was extremely cordial. He traveled through the country and spoke in many 
cities, having an excellent command of the English language, and being pos- 
sessed of extraordinary powers of eloquence. But on the whole his visit was a 
failure. His object was to secure the intervention of the United States in behalf 
of his downtrodden country. But the government could not see its way clear 
to suspend its traditional attitude of neutrality in European affairs. Kossuth 
then sought private contributions for the cause of his people, but even in this he 
was not very successful. He returned to Europe in July, 1852. 

Anecdotes of Clay. — No man ever in public life in America had greater 
power in winning personal friends than Henry Clay. When John Randolph, 
who had been Clay's political enemy for many years, and with whom he had 
fought a duel, visited Washington in the last year of his life, he called on Clay. 
Clay received him very kindly, and asked about his health. Randolph replied, 
"I'm dying. Clay, I'm dying." — "Why, then," asked Clay, " do you venture 
so far from home? Why did you come here?" — "To see you," answered 
Randolph ; " to see you and have one more talk with you." 

When Clay made his famous farewell address to the Senate in 1846, he 
brought tears to every eye. At the close of the speech, as he was pa.ssing out of 
the chamber, he came face to face with Calhoun. They had been enemies, and 
had not spoken for five years, but at heart each really loved the other. Now, 
at this meeting, all animosity was forgotten, and" without a word they fell into 
each other's arms and wept silently. On one occasion when Clay was making 
a tour through the South, there was on the same train a farmer, an old-school 
Democrat, who was invited to step into the next car and meet Clay. "No," 
he answered, "I would not be seen shaking hands with Henry Clay, the old 
Whig." He was informed that his idol. Van Buren, had often done so. The 
farmer declared that he did not believe it, that Van Buren would never do such 
a mean thing. He offered to make a bet that he was right and agreed to let 
Clay himself decide the bet. They came to Clay's seat and stated the case. 
" Yes," answered Clay, " Van Buren is a good friend of mine, and he made me 
a visit at my home in Lexington. Setting aside his bad politics, he is an agree- 
able gentleman and a right clever little fellow." The man paid his bet, and 
went away muttering that if that is the way the great men acted they might 
fight their own battles hereafter, he didn't believe they were in earnest anyhow, 
only pretended to be so as to set others by the ears. See Sargent's "Public 
Men and Events," Vol. II, p. 221. 
2o 



562 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Clay was a man of ready wit, and he often astonished his friends by his 
quick answers. The following is a sample : One day while at a Philadelphia 
hotel, he was called on by John W. Forney, editor of the Press, in company 
with Forrest, the actor. It was just after the great debates in the Senate on the 
Omnibus Bill, and these debates soon became the topic of conversation, espe- 
cially the opposition Clay had encountered from Senator Soul6 of Louisiana. 
Whereupon Clay exclaimed, " Soul^ is no orator, he is nothing but an actor, a 
mere actor." No sooner had he said this than he realized the presence of 
Forrest, the actor, and turning to him, added, " I mean, my dear sir, a French 
actor, a mere French actor." Forney's " Anecdotes of Public Men." 

Anecdote of Cass. — General Lewis Cass was, as stated in the text, a digni- 
fied, urbane man, wlio could brook no familiarity from his inferiors. The follow- 
ing incident, given by Forney, will illustrate the point : One of the leading hotels 
in Washington at this period was Guy's Hotel, and here many of the leading 
government officials, including General Cass, stayed while at the Capital. It 
happened that General Cass and Mr. Guy, the hotel keeper, both large, corpu- 
lent men, looked very much alike, and each was often mistaken for the other. 
One day a western man came to the hotel and met General Cass on the porch 
and, taking him for Guy, slapped him on the shoulder and began, " Here I am 
again, old fellow ; last time I hung up my hat in your shanty, they put me up on 
the fourth floor. Want a better room this time. How about it, old man ? " 
Cass braced himself up with great dignity and answered : " Sir, you've com- 
mitted a blunder, I'm General Cass of Michigan," turned about, and walked off. 
The man stood and looked after him, dazed at his mistake. Presently Cass 
walked around that way again and the man again took him for Guy and ex- 
claimed : " Here you are at last ; I've just made a divil of a blunder. I met old 
Cass and took him for you, and I'm afraid the old Michigander has gone off 
mad." Just then Guy appeared on the scene. 

Items of Interest. — The coming of Jenny Lind, the " Swedish Nightingale," 
in 1851, served, like the visit of Kossuth, to divert public attention from the all- 
absorbing slavery question. Her tour of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, 
managed by Mr. P. T. Barnum, was a brilliant success, the receipts exceeding 
$600,000. 

The reduction of postal rates in 1851 was an event of historic interest. 
There had been two reductions before this, and at this time the rate for a letter 
weighing a half ounce or less was five cents for three hundred miles or less ; over 
three hundred miles, ten cents, and to the Pacific Coast by way of Panama, 
forty cents. The rate was now made three cents for three thousand miles or 
less, and six cents for more than that distance. This act continued in force 
until 1883, when two cents was made the letter rate. 

In 1849, and again in 1851, Narcisco Lopez led a filibustering expedition to 
Cuba for the purpose of rescuing the island from Spanish control. The expedi- 
tion was supposed to be in the interests of the slave states with the annexation 
of Cuba to the United States for its ultimate object. But the Cubans did not 
join Lopez as the latter expected. His company was routed by the Spanish 
soldiers in 1851, and he himself was taken captive and was garroted in the 
public square in Havana. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE GREAT POLITICAL DUEL BET^VEEN THE NORTH AND 
THE SOUTH PRECEDING THE CIVIL "WAR 

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1852 

The excitement over the compromise measures had scarcely 
subsided when the quadrennial election of a President claimed the 
country's attention. Seldom had the political sky been less clear. 
The advantage seemed to lie with the Democrats, not that their 
party had been wiser than the opposite party, nor that it had done 
anything to deserve the support of the country, but because it had 
been out of power and was less responsible than its rival for the 
fierce agitation over the Omnibus Bill. 

The Democratic convention met in Baltimore on the 1st of June. 
Four notable aspirants for the honor were prominently spoken of : 
General Cass, the stalwart and dignified leader; James Buchanan 
of Pennsylvania, Stephen A. Douglas, " The Little Giant," and ex- 
Governor Marcy of New York. But each had his element of weak- 
ness, and after many ballots it was seen that none of 
these four could command the necessary two thirds, as^rants^° 
and the convention cast its eyes about for a dark horse. 
The mantle fell on the shoulders of Franklin Pierce of New Hamp- 
shire. Pierce was the son of a soldier of the Eevolution, and he 
learned his first lessons of patriotism while sitting at his father's 
hearthstone listening to the stories of that long and dreary war, told 
over and over again by his father and the comrades who 
often gathered at his fireside to talk of the olden days, o/^pierce^*'^ 
The son grew to manhood, became a leading member 
of the bar, and served in both houses of Congress. He declined an 
invitation to enter the Cabinet of President Polk, but he volunteered 
his services to the Mexican War, and, though he knew little of mili- 
tary affairs, the favor of the President soon made him a brigadier 
general. In no sense was Franklin Pierce a great man. He had 

563 



564 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

not won great distinction as a lawyer, nor as a statesman, and still 
less as a soldier. 

But Pierce possessed some of the needful qualities of a success- 
ful candidate. He was hale and jovial, and he won friends on every 
side. Being a secondary man in public life, he had awakened few 
antagonisms. Moreover, he accepted unreservedly the Democratic 
platform, the chief plank of which was that indorsing the compro- 
mise measures, including the Fugitive Slave Law. A wave of dis 
appointment spread over the party at the nomination of Pierce. 
Why should the great party leaders, who had spent their lives in 
the forefront of battle, be set aside for this mediocre man ? But 
this feeling subsided and the party was soon united as one man for 
its candidate. 

The Whig convention met ten days after the adjournment of the 
Democrats, in the same hall of the same city. The party was hope- 
lessly divided ; it was little more than a disorganized mass, and the 
herculean efforts of the leaders to bring harmony proved fruitless. 
The chief candidates for the nomination were three : Winfield Scott, 
Millard Fillmore, and Daniel Webster. But the rock that threatened 
to wreck the party was the platform, rather than the choice of can- 
didates. The southern wing of the party demanded that the con- 
vention indorse the compromise measures as a finality. Such an 
act would be equivalent to a promise to agitate the sub- 

^^ .. iect no more, and to aid in the enforcement of the Fugi- 

convention. •' ' ° 

five Slave Law. How could the Seward Whigs do this ? 
How could the men who had fought that measure in Congress, or 
those who had been enraged at the seizure of Anthony Burns, had 
exulted at the rescue of Joshua Glover — how could they now pro- 
nounce that hated law a final settlement of the great question ? 

Yet the southern Whigs were inflexible in their demand that 
the convention indorse this measure, as the Democratic convention 
had done. Many Democrats had also opposed the passage of this 
law ; but most of these had reentered the party fold ; a few had 
swung away into the ranks of the Free-soilers. The defection in 
that party was not serious. It was like a tiny satellite cast off from 
the major planet. But it was different with the Whigs. Under the 
powerful leadership of Seward nearly half the party was ready to 
resist the demands of the South. At length, however, the Seward 
people, after coming to a tacit vmderstanding with some of the 
southern delegates that the northern wing should name the candi- 



CAMPAIGN OF 1852 565 



date, yielded, the point, and the Fugitive Slave Act was indorsed 
as a finality by the convention. Yet it was with exceeding diffi- 
culty that Scott was nominated. The South objected 
to Scott because he stood too near to Seward, the origi- g^.^^^ 
nator of the higher-law doctrine, because he refused to 
express himself on the compromise, and because he had written a 
letter some years before which seemed to indicate that he desired 
the ultimate extinction of slavery.^ The South wanted Fillmore, 
a northern man, it is true, but he had signed the Fugitive Slave Law 
and had shown great vigor in enforcing it.^ 

Then there was Webster, who fondly hoped that the prize would 
fall to him. But Webster was the idol of no great section. He had 
a few faithful friends, but he had forfeited the allegiance of the 
North by his Seventh of March Speech. Whatever may have been 
his motives in making that speech, whatever may be the judgment of 
history in regard to it, it is certain that his contemporaries could not 
shake off the belief that he was bidding for southern support in the 
presidential race, and that thenceforth he was classed with the north- 
ern men of southern principles.^ But the South would not support 
Webster. He was too new a convert to win their confidence. They 
remembered him as the author of the mighty speech against Hayne, as 
the reviver of the doctrine of nationality ; and if now he would bar- 
ter the convictions of a lifetime to win the favor of the South, what 
might he do, if he became President, to regain the favor of his own 
section ? No, the South could not trust the great New Englander 
with the interests of that section, and in all the fifty-three ballots 
of the convention he received not one vote from that section.* 

Scott was nominated on the fifty -third ballot; but this did not 
bring harmony to the party. His name awakened little enthusiasm 



1 Von Hoist, Vol. IV, p. 160. 

2 The Fillmore followers were called " Silver Grays." 

3 Horace Mann declared that if President Jackson, to win a third term, had 
defended the United States Bank and made Nicholas Biddle his bosom friend ; if 
Clay had abandoned his protective principles and become a free trader ; if Calhoun 
had raised the standard of immediate emancipation — none of these changes would 
have furnished such material of contradiction and amazement as that of Webster. 
" Mr. Webster espouses doctrines more southern than South Carolina, and becomes 
Calhouner than Mr. Calhoun." — Congressional Globe, 1st Session 32d Cong., App., 
p. 1079. 

* It is said, however, that the southern delegates promised Webster their votes 
if he could come down to Mason and Dixon's line with forty. But this, as they 
■ probably knew, he could not do. 



566 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

in the North and still less in the South. Alexander H. Stephens, 
Robert Toombs, and other leading southern Whigs put forth a mani- 
festo declaring that they would not support Scott. Such was the 
condition of the Whig party when it went before the people asking 
their suffrages in 1852. Twice had the Whigs won by choosing a 
soldier to head their ticket, and now they had chosen a third, greater 
than either ; but the times had changed. Scott lost ground through- 
out the campaign, and carried only four states in the election.^ The 
victory of Pierce was more sweeping than any since the second elec- 
tion of Monroe, though the campaign was notable for the extreme 
apathy of the people. William R. King of Alabama, who had served 
many years in the Senate, was elected Vice President. 

The cause of the great Democratic victory was the fact that the 
party was unanimous and doubtless sincere in its promise to leave 
the slavery question undisturbed, a matter on which the Whigs, not- 
withstanding their forced platform, were yet divided. The people, 
especially the business men of the country, were utterly weary of the 
agitation, and they gave their suffrages to the party that promised 
them rest.^ 

DEATH OF CLAY AND WEBSTER 

While the Whig convention sat in Baltimore, the founder of the 
party lay on his deathbed in Washington. But once since the open- 
ing of Congress had Clay been able to go to the Senate. He was 
dying, and the summons came ere the close of the month that had 
witnessed this last national convention of the party in which he had 
so long been the leading figure. His end was peaceful and calm ; 
he passed away with sincere confidence in the Christian religion. 
Few men have been so deeply mourned by the whole nation as 
was Henry Clay. The solemn funeral procession passed through 
various cities of the North before crossing the Alleghanies ; and, as 
it moved to the mournful music, the evidence of sorrow, shown by 
the vast crowds that gathered, betokened the love in which the 
deceased was held. 

Henry Clay possessed some great qualities. As a parliamentary 
leader he has no equal in American history. As a party leader, as 

1 Vermont, Massachusetts, Kentucky, and Tennessee. See Stanwood's " Presi- 
dential Elections," p. 191. 

2 The Free Soil party had also its ticket in the field, headed by Senator John P. 
Hale of New Hampshire; but it carried no state, and its popular vote was much 
lighter than in 1848, when Van Buren headed the ticket. 



CLAY AND WEBSTER 567 

an idol of the people, he stood in the highest rank ; and indeed, but 
three men in our history — Jefferson, Jackson, and Blaine — can be 
classed with him in this respect. Clay was a man of definite party 
principles and aims, but at a time of imminent peril he would waver 
and stoop a little below his ordinary level to carry his ends. This 
is shown by his Alabama letter, and by his hedging on 
the tariff in the campaign of 1844. As a statesman ^'^^<^®^o* 
Clay cannot be placed in the very first rank. He lacked 
the broad, analytic mind of Jefferson, the deep foresight of Hamil- 
ton, and the prophetic intuition of Jackson. His judgment was too 
often at fault. Some of the greatest achievements of his life proved 
to be political blunders, notably his forcing the bank charter through 
Congress in 1832. 

Clay has been called the great compromiser, though he was the 
author of but two compromises in his long career : first, that of 1833 
on the tariff, and second, the Compromise of 1850.^ But the wisdom 
of both of these is open to question. The compromise measures of 
1850 may have been necessary to avert greater dangers ; but its 
author did not foresee that he was sacrificing his own beloved party 
upon the altar, and that the evils he sought to avert were only post- 
poned for a very few years. But Nature kindly spared him from see- 
ing those evils, and Henry Clay, after a long public career, strangely 
mingled with light and shadow, laid aside his staff '' like one that is 
weary," and his ashes were laid to rest in his own beloved Kentucky. 

Daniel Webster, a few years younger than Clay, was associated 
with him in public life for nearly forty years, and their names are 
frequently linked together in history. They were leaders in the 
same great party; usually, but not always, they were personal as 
well as political friends. But the two men were so unlike that it is 
difficult to find a point of resemblance. As a party leader Clay stood 
far above Webster ; as a giant in intellect Webster overshadowed 
Clay. Clay won the love of the people ; Webster won their admira- 
tion and praise. Clay made many warm friends, and gj^^y g^^^ 
had bitter enemies ; Webster had fewer friends, and Webster 
almost no personal enemies. Both were intensely compared. 
American, and the passionate desire of each was to become Presi- 
dent of the United States. With Clay this longing covered most of 

1 Clay Bas often been called the author of the Missouri Compromise ; but aside 
from the second compromise concerning the admission of free blacks into Missouri, 
he had no more to do with it than some of his colleagues. 



568 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

his political life ; with Webster, only a few of his latter years. Both 
failed, but each made a permanent name in American history far 
above that of the average President. 

As an orator Webster holds the first place in our history ; as a 
constitutional lawyer he stands without a peer, and he was singularly 
powerful in developing a constitutional principle. But he was not 
painstaking ; he disliked the routine work of Congress, and one of 
his lifelong drawbacks was indolence. Webster was not without 
faults, the most notable of which was a want of thrift. His income 
from his profession was large, but he had no power to keep out of 
debt, and his life work would have been thereby weakened but for 
the aid of some of his rich friends, who now and then came to the 
rescue. The last years of Webster's life were weakened by his 
inordinate desire to be President; but he always fell far short of 
receiving the nomination of his party. He was more popular with 
the masses than with the politicians, but not even among the people 
was there any great desire for his candidacy. He had never been 
a party leader, nor had he proved himself a safe party man ; and, as 
above stated, he appealed to the intellect rather than to the heart. 
The last great effort of his friends to secure his nomination at Balti- 
more in 1852 proved a disastrous failure. 

Webster's grief and disappointment at this crushing defeat fur- 
nish the saddest incident in his great life. The account of his inter- 
view with his friend, Rufus Choate, the great Boston lawyer, after 
the convention had adjourned, is inexpressibly sad, and Choate 
afterward referred to it as the most mournful experience of his life.^ 
A few months later the great New England statesman sank down 
into the grave, denouncing the pursuit of politics as vanity of vani- 
ties, and advising his friends to vote for the Democratic candidates. 
Thus the most brilliant star in the political firmament, after waning 
from the passing of its zenith, was obscured at its setting by a dark 
cloud.^ 

But Webster's final days were days of peace. As he lay at his 
Marshfield home waiting for the final call, he seemed to have for- 
gotten all about the turmoils of political strife, and his mind soared 
through the realms of the unknown. He spoke of the wondrous 
works of God ; he requested that on his tombstone be inscribed 
a statement of his profound belief that the Gospel of Jesus Christ 

1 Harvey, quoted by Rhodes, Vol. I, p. 260. 
3 See Von Hoist, Vol. IV, p. 204. 



DEATH OF WEBSTER 569 

must be a divine reality ; he discussed the gradual steps of dissolu- 
tion with his physician, and said that no man who is not a brute can 
say that he is not afraid of death. " I shall die to-night," ^ said he to 
his physician, as the sun rose on the last day of his life. It was on 
one of those dreamy October days, known as Indian summer, when 
Nature invites everything that hath breath to love her and to praise 
the Lord, that the great man cast his eyes for the last time on her 
changing forms, that he heard for the last time the murmuring 
waves of the Atlantic through his open window, that he called his 
family one by one and bade them farewell. At nightfall he sank 
into a gentle slumber. Waking after midnight, he said, "I still 
live," his last intelligible words. In the early morning his life went 
out with the ebbing of the tide.' 

The mourning for Webster was widespread and sincere. The 
attitude of the South at the Whig convention had caused a re- 
action throughout the North. Boston had given him a grand recep- 
tion in July, and now Massachusetts was heartbroken at the death 
of her great son. 

All human talents and virtues have their limitations. Nature 
is not uniform in distributing her gifts. When she makes a man 
great in this or in that line, she often leaves him in other respects, 
like Samson with the shorn locks, as weak as other men. Webster's 
life was a great life ; but he was weak in some points. Strange 
that such a man should pine for an office that so many smaller men 
had filled. Strange, too, that he could not see, as we now see, that 
the presidency, had he attained it, would not probably have added a 
jot to his illustrious name in American history. But we must re- 
member Webster, not by the weaknesses of his later years, but for 
his whole life, especially for the principle of nationality of which he 
was our greatest exponent, a principle epitomized in his own undying 
words : " Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable." 

FALL OF THE WHIG PARTY 

We have taken leave of the two great leaders of the Whig party; 
we must now give a parting word to the party itself. But a few 
weeks after the death of the great New England statesman at 
Marshfield the party to which he belonged received a blow at the 
polls from which it could not recover. This was the last national 

1 Curtis's " Life of Webster," Vol. U, p. 696. 2 JUd., 697-701. 



670 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

campaign of tlie Whig party. The structure was tottering to ita 
fall, and ere the return of the next quadrennial election the story of 
its existence was history. Of the many political organizations in 
our history the Whig party was one of only four that became so 
powerful as to secure control of the government ; and it differs from 
the other three in that it has left us no legislation of permanent 
value, by which to enrich our national life and to distinguish its name 
in history.^ During the twenty years of its existence it had but one 
rival, the Democratic party, and by that party it was beaten in all 
its great measures. It will be remembered that the compromise 
measures of 1850 were sectional and not partisan in their nature, 
and while most of the country seemed disposed to accept them as a 
finality, they awakened the lasting opposition of many, and the 
odium had to be borne by the Whig party. Many Democrats had 
supported the measures, but they were fathered by the great Whig 
leader and signed by a Whig President, and the resentment they 
awakened north and south was visited upon that party. On this 
rock the party became hopelessly divided, and these measures are 
usually regarded as the cause of its downfall. But there were other 
causes. 

The old Federal party had been overthrown because it was too 
aristocratic and centralizing in its tendencies, because it differed too 
widely from its Democratic rival. The Whig party's downfall was 
due in part to the opposite reason — it had become too Democratic. 
It had yielded to the Democrats on all the great issues between 
them : the bank, the independent treasury, the tariff, and at length 
the issues of the Mexican War. Not one of these did the Whigs 
attempt to disturb when they regained power in 1848 ; and the only 
other great question before the country, slavery, was sectional and 
not partisan. After 1850, therefore, the two great parties stood on 
common ground. No longer were there principles to fight for — 
only spoils. And since, as before stated, in the world of politics 
two of a kind cannot exist together, one of these two parties must 
disappear. 

But the Democratic party was no better than the Whig. Why 
then did it survive while its rival perished ? Because, first, its 
traditions and history, almost coexistent with the government, ap- 
pealed to the sentiment of its adherents ; second, it had held a 
steady course while the Whigs had yielded every important issue 
1 See Schouler, Vol. IV, p. 261. 



A FAR-REACHING MEASURE 57£ 

between them ; and third, it escaped the odium of the compromise. 
Tlius, from various causes, the Whig party passed into history, and 
by so doing it made way for anotlier that was soon to be born, one 
destined to do a mighty work for the nation wliich the old party 
could not have done. 

Millard Fillmore, the last of the Whig Presidents, was a man of 
sincere and honest motives. The odium of signing the Fugitive 
Slave Law he could not outlive ; but, as before stated, there is little 
doubt that he meant it for the best, and it is difficult to see how he 
could have done otherwise without bringing disaster on the country. 
He was the victim of conditions that he could not control. 

THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL 

Franklin Pierce was the youngest man ever made President up 
to that time.^ His inaugural address was generally well received ; 
but the statement that new territory should be acquired (and this 
meant Cuba) confirmed the belief that in the great controversy that 
had convulsed the country the sympathies of the new President were 
with the South. And so it proved ; whenever it became the duty of 
this northern President to show his hand on the slavery question, 
he invariably decided with the slaveholder. 

In his cabinet we find three men of national fame. Marcy of ■' 
N"ew York, who had served in Polk's cabinet, became secretary of ■ 
state ; Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, secretary of war ;„,„,. 
and Caleb Cushing of Massachusetts, attorney-general. 
Marcy had for many years been a leader in New York, had been gov- 
ernor of the state and senator in Congress. His famous phrase 
"To the victors belong the spoils," has been quoted by unnum- 
bered millions — at first as a happy statement of a policy accepted 
by all ; now, only to be condemned. Davis had risen rapidly 
in public life after the jMexican War, in which he had proved 
himself a ':»rave and skillful officer. But his strange career Avas only 
begun, and we leave a further account of him to a later page. Cush- 
ing w^as one of the most learned men ever in public life in America. 
He had been a Whig in ante-Tyler days, had performed a most 
useful service as commissioner to China, and on his return had 

1 TNIr. King, who had gone to Cuba for his health, was there sworn into office as 
Vit-e President. He returned to his Alabama home a few weeks later, and died on 
April 18. 



672 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

joined the little Tyler party ; but on its collapse he refused to return 
to the Whig fold, and joined the Democrats. It was said that Cush- 
ing's linguistic knowledge was so extensive that he could converse 
with every foreign minister at Washington in the latter's own lan- 
guage. The other members of the Cabinet were inconspicuous, and 
even their names would not interest the reader. This Cabinet is the 
only one, even to this day, that remained unbroken during an entire 
presidential term. 

Not long had Pierce been President when his popularity began 
to wane, and so it continued steadily to the end of his term. It was 
evident that he lacked executive ability and firmness. He received 
every office seeker with suavity of manner, and led him to believe 
that he would receive the desired appointment. But many had to 
be disappointed, and this failing gave the President much trouble 
and made him many enemies. But with all his vacillating he was 
constant in one thing — his desire to please the South and to crush 
the Abolitionists.-' To annex Cuba was the first great aim of the 
administration.^ To further this end Buchanan was selected as 
minister to England, Mason to France, and Soule to Spain ; all of 
whom were determined advocates of the project. These 

t^ *^ lat^^' three ministers, directed by the President to meet at a 
lesto, 1854. . ' -^ 

convenient place to consider the subject, met at Ostend, 
a little town in Belgium, and issued an address, known as the Ostend 
Manifesto. In this they urged the transfer of Cuba to the United 
States, by purchase if possible, by force if necessary. This was 
not acted on by the administration. 

In his inaugural address President Pierce had promised the coun- 
try a rest from the distracting slavery question, and this promise 
he renewed in more emphatic words in his first annual message to 
Congress. And the people were pleased ; the compromise as a final 
settlement was taking a firmer hold upon the public mind. The North 
had even become quiescent on the Fugitive Slave Law.^ The country 

1 Gushing, who was, in an extreme sense, a northern man with southern princi- 
ples, stated in a letter that the administration was determined to crush out aboli- 
tionism in every form. Gushing, as well as Pierce, came to sympathize with secession 
in the sixties. 

2 Our filibusters had awakened apprehension in Europe, and in 1852 England and 
Franci had proposed a tripartite agreement with the United States to disclaim all 
intention to get possession of Cuba; but the United States declined to enter the 
agreement. 

3 Sumner had made a powerful speech in the Senate, calling for the repeal of the 
law (July, 1852) ; but the effect of this had largely subsided. 



THE KANSAS-NEBKASKA BILL 573 

was prosperous ; railroad systems were extending in every direction; 
manufacturing and commerce were at liigh tide ; the national treas- 
ury was full to overflowing. Moreover, the Democratic party had a 
powerful hold upon the country. Not only the President and both 
houses of Congress, but also the governor and legislature of nearly 
every state, were Democratic. Surely the party had every promise of 
another long lease of power. Such was the condition of the country 
and the party at the opening of the year 1854, when suddenly there 
broke for': a from the political sky a storm more terrific than any 
that had preceded it in the history of the government. It came in 
the form of a legislative act, and its author was Stephen A. Douglas. 

Douglas was one of the most brilliant and ambitious men in pub- 
lic life. Though less than forty years old, he had vied with the old 
leaders of the party for the presidential nomination in 
1852, and had received nearly a hundred votes. His °"^ ^^' 
support, however, had come from the North, and it was necessary in 
those days for a candidate to win southern support in order to gain 
the presidency, or even the nomination of either of the great parties. 
Cass, Marcy, Cushing, Buchanan, Fillmore, Pierce, and even Webster 
had shown themselves ready to aid the slave power in its contest 
with the rising abolitionism of the North; but Douglas had done 
nothing to wjn the favor essential to the realization of his ambition. 
He was now chairman of the Senate committee on territories, and 
here was his opportunity. 

The northern part of the Louisiana Purchase, a vast uninhabited 
region of nearly half a million square miles, lay northwestward from 
Missouri and extended to the boundary of British Amer'ca. The 
territory was known as Nebraska. Douglas now brought; a report 
before the Senate to give this region territorial organization. In this 
report were two statements of far-reaching importance: first, that 
the provision in the Compromise of 1850 — that Utah and New 
Mexico be organized with no decision for or against slavery — was 
designed to establish certain great principles, namely, that all other 
territories be organized in the same way — that is, the subject of 
slavery in each must be decided by its future inhabi- The first bill 
tants; second, that in the opinion of eminent states- January 4, 
men Congress had no authority to legislate on the subject 1854. 
of slavery in the territories, and, therefore, the eighth section of the 
Missouri Bill of 1820 is null and void. Now the eighth section of the 
Missouri Bill is that which established the compromise line of 36° 30'. 



574 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

In few words the above meant this : first, that Congress in deciding 
in 1850 to keep its hands off the slavery subject in Utah and New 
Mexico, meant tliat this decision should apply to all future territories — 
which every intelligent man in and ont of Congress knew to be false ; 
and second, that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. 

Douglas professed to believe that he had found a way by which 
to secure eternal rest for the country on the subject of slavery in the 
territories, by relegating the matter to the territories themselves. 
But Douglas knew better. He must have known that his bill, if it 
became a law, setting aside the Missouri Compromise, though not 
actually repealing it, would be sternly resisted at the North. The 
Congress of 1820 had no power to bind its successors ; but that 
solemn agreement between the North and the South that slavery be 
forever prohibited north of 36° 30' in the Louisiana Purchase, made 
when Douglas was a toddling child of seven years, had received the 
sanction of the greatest statesmen of the time, and had stood like a 
wall for thirty-four years. It was more than an act of Congress. 
It was an agreement, almost as binding as a treaty, between two 
great sections of the country. What Mason and Dixon's line was to 
the East, the line of 36° 30' was to the West. Could Douglas now 
suppose that he could set aside this compact, and enable the slave- 
holders to fill the heart of the continent, even to the Canadian 
border, with their human property, without raising a storm of indig- 
nation ? But the end had not yet come. Douglas knew that his 
report would please the South, though he had consulted with no 
Dixon's southern men in its framing. Scarcely, however, had 

amendment, the country caught its breath when Dixon, a Kentucky 
January 16. Whig who was filling the unexpired term of the la- 
mented Clay, arose and offered to the Nebraska Bill an amendment 
actually repealing the Missouri Compromise. This was startling to 
the Senate and especially so to Douglas. He had not intended to go 
to such lengths ; but seeing that, if he rejected the amendment, he 
would displease the South and lose all credit for what he had done, 
he embodied the amendment in his report. 

The rising storm of indignation at the North was now swelling 
in volume, and it threatened to become a resistless hurricane. Doug- 
las saw that to escape being overwhelmed he must secure the support 
of the administration. President Pierce was known to disfavor the 
Dixon amendment,^ nor was Douglas in intimate relations with the 

1 This was shown by the Washington Union, the organ of the administration. 



DOUGLAS ON THE DEFENSIVE 571- 

President. But he knew that the secretary of war, Jefferson Davis, 
belonged to the inner circle of the President's counselors, and he 
believed that Davis could not oppose a measure so favorable to the 
South. Douglas therefore sought Davis, and Davis sought the 
President. The three men had a long conference on Sunday, Janu- 
ary 22. The vacillating Pierce soon yielded, and the three agreed 
that the Missouri Compromise ought to be repealed. Only a few 
months before Pierce had renewed his promise that the repose of the 
people should suffer no shock during his official term, if it were in 
his power to prevent it. Here was the opportunity of a lifetime, 
not only to keep a solemn pledge, but to show himself capable of 
making a stand on principle, and thus to do his country a great ser- 
vice and to make for himself a name in history. The opportunity 
was lost. Pierce desired the support of the South in the next presi- 
dential race ; this fact would explain his action ; so with Douglas. 
Of the three men Davis alone acted on principle and conviction.^ 

On the day following this conference Douglas offered a second 
bill in the Senate, embodying the substance of the first, with the 
addition that it provided for the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise ^ by declaring it inoperative, and divided ^.^^ ^^^°^ 
the territory into two parts to be known as Kansas and 
Nebraska. The Illinois senator defended his bill with great power ; 
but he had not smooth sailing. There were strong men in his own 
party whom he could not control. Before the close of January a 
protest known as an " Appeal of the Independent Democrats in Con- 
gress to the People of the United States," written by Chase and 
signed by the Free-soil Democrats, was published and sent broad- 
cast through the North. This was a powerful arraignment of the 
proposed law, pronouncing it a " gross violation of a sacred pledge, 
a criminal betrayal of precious rights, ... an atrocious plot to 
exclude from a vast unoccupied region immigrants from the Old 
World and free laborers from our own states." The Appeal was 

1 The view of Professor Burgess, that Douglas may have been actuated by his 
exaggerated notion, as a radical Democrat, of the virtues of the western people and 
of the importance of local autonomy, should not be wholly rejected. But this view 
cannot alone account for Douglas's extraordinary action. 

2 In actual practice the Missouri Compromise had been violated. By act of 
Congress in June, 1836, a large tract of land lying north of the Missouri River and 
belonging to the territory of Nebraska was incorporated into the state of Missouri, 
This was soon occupied by slaveholders with their slaves ; but the matter attracted 
little attention at the time. 



676 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



published in all parts of the free states, and the response of the 
people was astonishing for its suddenness and its vehemence. 

Chase led the oppostion, and his speech, on February 3, revealed 
his powers and stamped him as one of the strongest men of his 
,time. Chase was followed by Seward, Wade, Sumner, and Edward 
Everett, all of whom took strong ground against the proposed legis- 
lation. Douglas's management of his bill in the Senate showed him 
a master parliamentarian. At length the time came that the final 
vote was to be taken. It was near midnight on the 3d of March 
when the Little Giant rose to close the debate. Small of stature, 




•J^Q'^Barmat i Co.,N. T. 



Douglas was nevertheless impressive in appearance, and as he rose 
on this occasion his face shone with animation and conscious power. 
Never before had he spoken with such force as he did that night. 
The Senate chamber and the galleries were crowded, and, though 
Douglas spoke all night, the audience remained to hear the last 

word. Douglas knew that the bill would easily pass 
rr^^^t- *.,^L«T, the Senate, but he also knew that the North had con- 

demned him, and this was his great opportunity to vin- 
dicate himself before the people. The burden of his speech was an 
endeavor to show that the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, of 
which his critics had made so much, was only an incident of the bill 
before the Senate ; that the main object was to establish the " funda* 



GREAT OPPOSITION TO THE BILL 67: 

mental principle of popular sovereignty," to relieve Congress and 
the country in future of all trouble about slavery in the territories, 
and to remove the vexed question from politics by leaving the 
whole matter to the inhabitants of the respective territories. 

The sleeping city was roused that morning by the boom of 
cannon that announced the passage of the measure. As Chase 
walked down the Capitol steps, he exclaimed to Sumner, " They 
celebrate a present victory, but the echoes they awake will never 
rest until slavery itself shall die." 

The bill then went to the House. Here the opposition was for- 
midable, and the bill passed only after a fierce debate, amid some of 
the wildest scenes ever known in the House of Representatives. 
Among the negative votes was that of the sturdy old Missourian, 
Thomas H. Benton, who, having lost his seat in the Senate because 
of his independence on the slavery question, had become a member 
of the House. 

The reception of the Kansas-Nebraska Act at the North was such 
as to make the politicians stand aghast. The voice of 
the people began to be heard while the measure was t^J'jj^Jrtii^ 
yet pending. It came through the press and the pulpit, 
and through great mass meetings in the large cities. A majority of 
the northern state legislatures recorded their disapproval.^ Douglas 
was denounced on every hand as tlie betrayer of his country, the 
Judas Iscariot, and a society of women in Ohio sent him thirty pieces 
of silver. His middle name, " Arnold," was emphasized to connect 
him with the archtraitor of the Eevolution. Attempting to speak 
in his own city of Chicago, he was hooted off the stage. By his 
own statement he " could travel from Boston to Chicago by the light 
of his own effigies." 

Douglas had made a frightful blunder. He and his followers had 
enacted into law a measure of vast moment, without having made 
it an issue in any campaign, without consulting their masters, the 
people. However popular, however powerful a political leader may 
be, if he presume too far on the rights and the patience of the multi- 
tude, he will find himself crushed by the ponderous weight of public 
opinion. Douglas was no doubt an honest man at heart. But in 
this daring play in the presidential game he had failed to count the 

1 A few of them took no action, niinois alone of all the Northern states approved 
the measure by a small majority of the legislature. The bill was received with great 
applause at the South. 
2p 



578 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



cost. Brilliant, popular young leader that he was, he had won the 
American heart as few had ever done ; but now he overstepped the 
bounds of public forbearance, and he soon found himself dashed to 
the ground like a broken toy, and his presidential prospects forever 
blasted.^ 

The promoters and friends of the Kansas-Nebraska Act could 
hardly have been sincere in their claim that it would take the slavery 
question out of national politics. Any one might have foreseen that 
if the people of a territory had this matter to decide, and the friends 
of slavery and of freedom would meet on the ground, each aiming to 
gain the master}^, there would be a clash. And yet by this law Con- 
gress had bound itself not to interfere. The one and only instance 
in which this law was put into operation was in Kansas, and a sorry 
exhibition it was, as will be shown hereafter. Again, the seeds of 
endless strife were sown with the very inception of this bill. The 
South chose to understand it to mean that a territory has no right to 
prohibit slavery from its bounds, that it can do this only on becom- 
ing a state. On the other hand, the people of the North, including 
Douglas, took the ground that the people of a territory had the power 
to vote on the subject of slavery among them at any time during the 
territorial state. This point of contention alone proved that the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill had settled nothing. 

This act had never been equaled in results by any legislation 
since the foundation of the government. It gave the finishing 
blow to the dying Whig party by a final alienation of its northern 
and southern wings. It brought disruption to the Democratic party, 
alienated the German vote, hitherto almost solidly Democratic, sacri- 
ficed the prestige of the party in New England, in Pennsylvania, and 
in the Northwest, and it marked the beginning of the end of the 
long lease of Democratic rule, which had begun with the century 
under Jefferson. It opened the way for the founding of another 
great political party with antislavery extension as its corner stone.^ 

FOUNDING OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 

The powerful revulsion in Democratic ranks, occasioned by the Kan- 
sas-Nebraska bill, would not subside. Thousands of men who had 
adhered to the party of Jefferson for a lifetime, men who had stood 

1 Douglas now enjoyed popularity at the South ; but this, as will appear later, 
he had to sacrifice in order to win back the North, 
a Rhodes, Vol. I, p. 490, 



THE KNOW-NOTHINGS 579 

by Jackson on the bank issue, by Van Buren on the subtreasury, 
who had adhered to the policy of Polk on the tariff and the results 
of the Mexican War, men who frowned on abolitionism and made 
no quarrel with the Fugitive Slave Law — thousands of such men 
found the Kansas-Kebraska Law unendurable, and they broke away 
from the party of their fathers and wandered homeless, seeking a 
political fold. Then there were the northern Whigs. Their party 
was shattered to fragments, and its future was hopeless. Some of 
them joined the Democrats, but the great majority were deterred by 
prejudice, by conviction, or by the Kansas-Nebraska Law. The old 
Free-soilers were also ready for some new movement. 

A third element of homeless wanderers came a little later from 
the American or Know-nothing party, to which it is now time to 
give a moment's notice. 

From far back in the thirties a strong feeling of nativism, aimed 
against foreigners, and especially against Eoman Catholic foreigners, 
showed itself in different parts of the country, and it origin of 
often resulted in riots. In 1841 a state convention in Kuow- 
Louisiana founded the American Republican party, nothings, 
afterward called the Native- American party. This movement, whose 
chief principles were to put only native born Americans into office 
and to extend the naturalization period to twenty-one years, soon 
spread to the North. It elected a mayor in New York City in 1844, 
and had half a dozen members of Congress the following year. But 
as the Mexican War and slavery came to absorb public attention, the 
movement subsided, and not a member did the party send to the Con- 
gress that met in 1849. But the upheavals in Europe in 1848 and 
the discovery of gold in California caused a rush of emigrants from 
Europe greater than ever before to the shores of America.^ This 
reawakened the old anti-foreigner feeling, and in 1852 the Know- 
nothing party, based on the principles of the old Native-American 
party, was founded. At first it was a secret, oath-bound organization, 
and when its members were asked on what the order was based and 
what it stood for, they answered, as their oath required, "I don't 
know ; " hence the name Know-nothing. The movement spread 
like a conflagration. Many joined it, not because they were in sym- 
pathy with it, but because, as Von Hoist says, they were ready to 
grasp, "with impatient and uncritical zeal, the first new thing" 
that pleased their fancy.* After the Compromise of 1850, and the 

1 McMaster's " With the Fathers," p. 97. « Vol. V, p. 82. 



580 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

crushing defeat of Scott in 1852, a great number of Whigs, no longer 
interested in their own party, joined the Know-nothings. The 
secret vote of the party determined many local elections and upset 
all calculations of the politicians. 

As the Know-nothings grew to national dimensions, they threw 
aside their secrecy, and nominated their own candidates for office. 
In 1854 they carried the elections in Massachusetts and Delaware. 
The following year, when the revulsion against the Kansas-Nebraska 
Democrats was at its height, the Know-nothings carried a majority 
of the Northern states and a few in the South. But the party could 
not endure as a permanent political factor. It lacked the moral 
background, the broad, fundamental principles necessary to the gov- 
Decline of the ^rning of the nation. Moreover, it refused to express 
Know- an opinioa on the greatest issue of the times, the exten- 

nothings. gion of slavery into the territories. Most men had posi- 

tive convictions on this question, and they would remain with a 
party that refused to take one side or the other only so long as 
there was no better one to join. The party began crumbling before 
the close of the year 1855, and in consequence a vast number of 
voters was free to join the new political party that was about to be 
formed. 

With all this material at hand — the anti-Nebraska Democrats, 
the old line Whigs, the Free-soilers, and the fragments of the dis- 
solving Know-nothing party — the time was ripe for the formation 
of a new political party. In the early spring of 1854 the rumor was 
rife at Washington that a new national party would be formed on 
the basis of non-extension of slavery; but some of the northern 
leaders, including Seward, were not favorable to the new movement. 
Seward took the ground that the Whig party should be reorganized 
on the slavery subject, and continued under the old name. There 
were several objections to this, the chief of which was that the 
Democrats who wished to join the movement were loath to unite with 
their old political rival. Meantime, while the politicians were unde- 
cided, there was a movement of the people. As early as March 20, 
1854, in the little town of Ripon, Wisconsin, several hundred citi- 
Beginnings of ^®^^^ ™®^ i^ ^^® townhall, and passed resolutions declar- 
the Eepubli- ing that a new national party should be formed, and 
can party. jJt^qj suggested the name Eepublican. A similar move- 
ment in Vermont followed a few days later. On the 6th of July a 
great mass meeting was held at Jackson, Michigan, and in the 



COMPONENTS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 581 

resolutions adopted amid the greatest enthusiasm it demanded the 
repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska and the Fugitive Slave laws, pro- 
nounced slavery a "moral, social, and political evil," and agreed, 
under the name Eepublican, to oppose the extension of slavery. On 
the 13th of July anti-Nebraska state conventions were held in Wis- 
consin, Indiana, Ohio, and Vermont. Nothing was easier to see 
than that the North was on the eve of an unusual uprising of the 
people. 

The temperance question also received much attention at this 
period. In 1851 Maine passed her anti-liquor law, which is still in 
force. The movement spread through the North, and resulted in 
the enactment of prohibitory laws in Michigan and in most of the 
New England states. The temperance movement was therefore a 
powerful political factor at the moment when the new party was 
coming into existence, and the leading temperance men were, for the 
most part, among the leaders against the extension of slavery. 

Soon came the autumn elections, and the anti-Nebraska people 
were successful in almost every northern state. They won their vic- 
tories under different names, such as Fusion, Whig, anti-Nebraska, and 
the like, the name Eepublican not having come into general use, but 
the slavery question Avas the chief issue in every case. The House 
of Eepresentatives that passed Douglas's famous bill was Democratic 
by a majority of eighty -four ; in the next House the Democrats were 
in the minority by seventy -five. The party had lost in the North 
above three hundred and forty thousand in the popular vote. This 
was the preliminary answer of the North to the repeal of the Mis- 
souri Compromise ; but this was only a beginning. 

The Thirty-fourth Congress met in December, 1855. In the 
House the Democratic majority had been swept away, but the oppo- 
sition was a motley crowd. There were Whigs, anti-Nebraskas, 
Know-nothings, and Eepublicans, all commingled, and while they 
were easily able to prevent the election of a Democratic speaker, 
they found it very difficult to concentrate on a choice of their own. 
At length their attention was turned toward Nathaniel P. Banks of 
Massachusetts. Banks was a man of commanding presence and of 
fluent rhetoric. He had been elected to the preceding 
Congress as a Democrat, but, having now joined the Ee- gp^^gr ^^ ^ 
publican movement, he stood for the restoration of the 
Missouri Compromise. After a most exciting contest of two months, 
the House having decided that a plurality should elect, the prize 



582 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

fell to Banks. This election was pronounced by Greeley the 
first victory of freedom over slavery in the memory of living 
men. 

We return to our subject, the formation of the Eepublican 
party. During the speakership contest, the opposition was often 
spoken of as " Republican." This the Democrats did not like, as 
it was the old name used by Jefferson to designate their own party 
in its youth. They suggested, therefore, that the new organization 
be termed " Black Republican," as it persistently favored the black 
man. The Republican party, however, had as yet no ofl&cial exist- 
ence. The movement had been spontaneous, and had spread over 
the entire North, and it was left for Pittsburg to become the official 
birthplace of the new party. But three weeks after the election of 
Banks, a national convention met in that city, and all the free states 
except California were represented. Francis P. Blair, the former 
friend and confidant of President Jackson, was made chairman, and 
the address was drawn up by Henry J. Raymond, editor of the New 
York Times. Here the Republican party was officially founded, with 
the non-extension of slavery as its chief corner stone. Meeting on 
Washington's birthday, the convention called for another national 
convention of the newly founded party, to be held in Philadelphia 
on the anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill, for the purpose of 
nominating candidates for President and Vice President. This 
brings us to the 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1856 

On the same day of the meeting of the Pittsburg convention the 
American or Know-nothing party held its national convention in 
Philadelphia. The keynote of its platform was that Americans 
must rule America. It nominated former President Fillmore for 
President, and Andrew Jackson Donelson of Tennessee for Vice 
President. Before adjourning, however, this convention suffered a 
serious disruption. The northern delegates demanded an expres- 
sion on the slavery question, and, on being refused, they, to the num- 
ber of seventy-one, seceded from the convention. They afterward 
met and nominated Speaker Banks ; but he declined, and they joined 
the Republicans. The scattered remaining fragments of the Whig 
party ratified the nominations of the Know-nothings, in a conven- 
tion held in Baltimore in September. 



NATIONAL CONVENTIONS 583 

The Democratic convention, which met at Cincinnati on the 
2d of June, directed all eyes to itself. Three prominent candi- 
dates had been freely talked of for several months — Douglas, 
Pierce, and James Buchanan. The support of Douglas and Pierce 
came chiefly from the South. But there were grave fears that 
neither could carry a single northern state. The call for Buchanan 
came from the North, and for two reasons he was a far stronger can- 
didate than either of the others : first, he had spent the preceding 
three years in England and was the only leading man in the party 
who was not tainted with Kansas-Nebraskaism ; second, he was prob- 
ably the only Democrat who could secure the vote of Pennsylvania, 
which was considered essential to success. Buchanan, though not 
the choice of the South, Avas not unacceptable to that section, for in 
his long congressional career he had never given a vote contrary to 
southern interests. He was expected, however, to give an expression 
on the repeal of the Missouri Compromise; and this he did by stat- 
ing that it met his approval.^ .For this the northern Democrats 
forgave him, as well as for the part he had taken in the Ostend 
Manifesto; and the convention nominated him on the seventeenth 
ballot. 

John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky was nominated for Vice 
President. The platform adopted declared the satisfaction of the 
party with the Kansas-Nebraska Law, and pronounced against all 
attempts to agitate the slavery question, " under whatever shape or 
color " the attempt should be made. 

The Republican convention met in Philadelphia at the appointed 
time. No party was ever founded on purer motives than was this 
new-born party. No convention was ever composed of 
more unselfish, true-hearted, patriotic men than was convention' 
this convention ; and yet, strange to say, no great con- 
vention ever made a greater blunder in the selection of a candidate 
than did this one.^ The serious defect in the party was. its want of 
a national leader. Seward was the leader of Republican thought, 
and was the logical candidate, but he had not identified himself with 
the party at its founding ; and although he had now done so, he re- 
fused to come forward, or to have his friends put him forward, as an 
aspirant for the nomination. Chase was second in importance. He 

1 BiTchanan had expressed this sentiment in a letter some months previously. 
This letter was now published. 

2 See Rhodes, Vol. II, p. 182. 



584 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

had been elected governor of Ohio the preceding year by a majority 
of more than 15,000. Bnt he had long been known as a Free- 
soil Democrat, and for this and other reasons he failed to secure a 
large following. Lincoln of Illinois had met the arguments of 
Douglas the year before with unanswerable logic on the great ques- 
tion before the country; but he was little known out of his own 
state, and his name was not proposed for the first place on the 
ticket. The aged Judge McLean, a man of spotless integrity, was 
seriously considered by many. He had served in the cabinets of 
Monroe and John Quincy Adams, and had been appointed to the 
supreme bench by Jackson. But all this was against him. The 
party was newly born. It was filled with young blood ; it stepped 
forth in the consciousness of the strength of youth. To bury 
the past, to grapple with the things of to-day and of the future, 
became its unwritten motto. And this feeling led to a desire 
for a candidate without a political past, one who would inspire 
the youth; and the party found its man in John C. Fremont of 
California. 

We have noticed on a preceding page how Fremont had won 
public attention by his romantic love affair and marriage with Jessie 
Benton, by his daring explorations in the wild regions of the Kocky 
Mountains, and by his driving the Mexicans out of California. These 
things had cast a glamour of romance about the name of Fremont — 
and that was all. If he were more than an adventurer, the world 
had not discovered the fact. Of a knowledge of statesmanship he 
had developed no symptoms. If he were a man of character, and 

. . were capable of assuming responsibility, the public had 

of Frfemont ^^^ ^^^ found it out. And yet this great convention, 
composed of wise, educated, experienced men, at a mo- 
ment when a great crisis in the government was seen to be approach- 
ing, nominated Fremont for President on the first ballot by an 
almost unanimous vote. Nor was he a dark horse ; his candidacy 
had been deliberately discussed for months. But perhaps this was 
all the work of a Providential Hand. Had Seward, or Chase, or 
McLean been nominated, he might have been elected, and the Civil 
War might have come too soon. The new party needed four years 
more to solidify, and it needed a mighty man at the helm, who was 
to develop within the four years. 

The convention chose William L. Dayton of New Jersey for 
second place on the ticket. It adopted a platform whose keynote 



ELECTION OF BUCHANAN 686 

was a demand that Congress prohibit in the territories those " twin 
relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery." 

The campaign was almost as remarkable as that of 1840. There 
was a deep and irreconcilable difference between the northern and the 
southern Democrats concerning their different interpretations of the 
Kansas-Nebraska Law. This it was tacitly decided to suppress, 
though four years hence, when this difference could be smothered 
no longer, it tore the party to pieces. 

The Democrats mercilessly probed the character of Fremont, ac- 
cusing him of corrupt dealings in California; nor were these charges 
ever successfully answered. Buchanan, on the other hand, was a 
man of unassailable character, and the conservative men of the coun- 
try felt that the nation would be safe in his hands. In many of the 
Republican meetings they shouted lustily for " free speech, free soil, 
and Fremont " ; but in the main the great issue of slavery was dis- 
cussed, rather than the candidate. 

Before the close of the campaign many thoughtful Republicans 
began to feel that their convention had made a mistake. The South 
was free in threats to secede, if Fremont were elected.^ These 
threats the Republicans refused to take seriously, but the events of 
four years later proved the depths of their foundation. But the 
calamity was averted. Buchanan was elected, and the dragon was 
left to slumber four years more. 

Buchanan secured the votes of all the Southern states, save one, 
of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Indiana, Illinois, and California, 
while Fremont carried all the rest of the North, and Fillmore the 
solitary state of Maryland.^ The charge against the Republican 
party, that it was sectional and not national, was shown by the re- 
turns to be true. In eleven Southern states not a vote was cast for 
Fremont, and in none of the remaining four did his vote reach four 
himdred.^ The subsequent career of Fremont showed the wisdom 
of the country in not electing him President in 1856. All parties 
now turned to the President elect. Would he lean toward the North 
or the South ? A neutral ground was hardly possible. He professed 
to believe, as was shown by his inaugural address, that slavery agita- 

1 Ex-President Tyler wrote that " the success of the Black Republicans would be 
the knell of the Union." Governor Wise of Virginia wrote that if Fremont were 
elected, the Union could not last a year. 

2 The electoral vote was Buchananj 174 ; Fremont, 114 ; and Fillmore, 8. 
» See Stanwood, p. 210. 



586 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

tion was approaching its end, whereas it was only approaching its 
worst stage. Four of the new Cabinet were from the slave states, 
the ablest of whom was Howell Cobb of Georgia, secretary of the 
treasury ; and three, with Cass as secretary of state, were from the 
free states. There was one subject, which we mvist now consider, 
the most exciting question of the times, to which the new adminis- 
tration must give immediate attention. 

THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS 

We must now go back a few years and take up the tragic story 
of Kansas. No other state in the Union, not even those bathed in 
the blood of the Indian wars of colonial days, can surpass this state 
in the fierce contests of its early years. While this book makes no 
pretense of giving state history, the early history of Kansas must be 
narrated, as the subject belongs to national history. The territory of 
Kansas comprised the vast undulating prairie, covered with Indian 
reservations, extending westward from Missouri to the base of the 
Rocky Mountains.^ Scarcely had the Kansas-Nebraska bill become 
a law, in 1854, when the people of Avestern Missouri began pouring 
into the territory and taking up claims with the avowed purpose of 
making it a slave state. Kansas was a prize of unmeasured value 
to the South. The balance in the Senate had been broken by the 
admission of California. If now the slave power could regain its 
equal representation by making Kansas a slave state, if the bal- 
ance could be thus restored, never again would a free state be suf- 
fered to enter the Union without its being offset by the admission 

of a slave state. So reasoned the slaveholders. They 
ofKans^^^ believed further that Kansas was the key to the whole 

Southwest. " If Kansas is abolitionized," wrote Senator 
Atchison, " Missouri ceases to be a slave state. New Mexico becomes 
a free state, California remains a free state ; but if we secure Kan- 
sas as a slave state, Missouri is secure ; New Mexico and southern 
California, if not all of it, becomes a slave state ; in a word, the pros- 
perity or ruin of the whole South depends on the Kansas struggle."* 
Hence we see the vital importance to the South of securing Kansas 
to slavery, whatever the cost. This explains the early rush of the 
Missourians into the territory. 

1 Since cut down to 81,700 square miles. It then comprised 126,000. 

2 Ifew York Tribune, November 7, 1855. 



VIOLENCE IN KANSAS 587 

Meantime the people of New England, hearing of this action of 
the Missouri people, determined to make a bold, extensive movement 
toward claiming Kansas for freedom. Eli Thayer of Massachusetts, 
a shrewd, practical Yankee, had in the early spring organized the 
Emigrant Aid Company for the purpose of planting free labor in 
Kansas. He soon enlisted the interest and aid of such public- 
spirited men as Charles Francis Adams, Amos A. Lawrence, 
Edward Everett Hale, and Horace Greeley, raised a large sum 
of money, and by July he had a company of emigrants moving 
toward Kansas. This company, led by Charles Robinson, who had 
become inured to frontier life in California, was aiigmented along 
the way, and by December, 1854, several tliousand settlers from the 
free states had pitched their tents on the rich bottom lands of the 
Kansas River. They founded Lawrence, Topeka, and other towns, 
and gave every indication that they had come to stay. The Mis- 
sourians, who had founded Atchison, Lecompton, and Leavenworth 
along the Missouri, determined to drive the free-soilers from the 
territory. 

President Pierce had appointed Andrew H. Reeder of Pennsyl- 
vania governor of Kansas. Reeder was a positive Democrat, in full 
sympathy with the Kansas-Nebraska Law, and a strong friend of the 
South. The interests of slavery were thought to be safe in his hands. 
But Reeder was honest, and when he reached Kansas and witnessed 
the violence of the Missouri people and their determination to make 
Kansas a slave state by fair means or foul, his soul revolted against 
such proceedings, and he resolved to see fair play. The election of 
a territorial legislature brought matters to a crisis. On election day 
five thousand Missourians, led by United States Senator Atchison, 
came across the border armed with muskets, pistols, and bowie- 
knives.^ This invading force drove out or intimidated the election 
judges who were not favorable to them, and carried the election in 
the most high-handed manner. A recent census had shown that 
there were but 2905 voters in the territory, but over six thousand 
votes were cast. 

^Vhen this legislature met it proceeded to enact a code of laws 
that may be classed among the curiosities of modern literature. A 
few specimens are as follows : " Any person . . . convicted of rais- 

1 Atchison had been chosen president of the Senate on the death of Vice President 
King, and for several years there was but one life between him and the presidency 
of the United States. 



688 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

ing a rebellion ... of slaves, free negroes, or mulattoes in this 
territory shall suffer death." " If any free person shall, by speaking, 
writing, or printing, advise, persuade, or induce, any slaves to rebel, 

etc., . . . such person shall suffer death." It also pro- 
ansas aws. y^^jg^j^ ^j^g death penalty, or ten years' imprisonment, for 
any one who should aid in the escape of a slave, and that no person 
opposed to slavery should sit on a jury in the prosecution for the viola- 
tions of the above-mentioned laws. An imprisonment of two years 
was imposed for any one who denied the legal existence of slavery 
in the territory ! All these acts were vetoed by Governor Reeder and 
passed over his veto. The laws, it will be noticed, took no account of 
the popular sovereignty, advocated by Douglas, but assumed that 
slavery already existed in the territory ; ^ and this without putting 
the subject to a vote of the people. At this moment there were less 
than fifty actual settlers in the territory who owned slaves ; more 
than nine tenths of the people were devoted to freedom. The bias 
of Governor Reeder was wholly with the proslavery party when he 
went to Kansas ; but he had an honest desire to be fair to the other 
side. This was wholly displeasing to the proslavery party, and they 
besought the President to recall him. Mr. Pierce, who was now 
notoriously subservient to the slave power, heeded their wishes, dis- 
missed Reeder and appointed Wilson Shannon, a former member of 
Congress from Ohio, to fill the place. But Reeder did not return to 
the East ; he became a resident of Kansas and joined the free-state 
party. His instincts of a lifetime on the slave question had been 
revolutionized by a few months among the border ruffians in Kansas. 
The ostensible reason for dismissing Reeder was for speculating 
in land ; the real reason was that he did not please the proslavery 
party. 

The free-state settlers were not disposed to sit idle in the face of 
the usurpation of the Missourians. Led by Robinson, they called a 
convention to meet at Big Springs; they repudiated the spurious 
legislature and its infamous laws, nominated Reeder for Congress, 
and fixed October 9, 1855, as election day. The proslavery party 

set October 1, as election day, and nominated Whit- 
ments^°^*'^^' ^^l^j one of their number, for Congress. Thus the 

two parties voted on different days ; each elected its 
man, to be sure ; both men went to Washington, aiid both were 
refused admission to the House. But the free-state settlers did not 

1 Von Hoist, Vol. V, p. 159. 



SENATOR SUMNER ASSAULTED 689 

stop at this. At the election of October 9 they chose delegates to a 
constitutional convention. This convention met at Topeka the same 
month, framed a constitution making Kansas a free state, and, after 
its ratification by the people at an election in December, at which 
the proslavery party refused to vote, applied for admission into 
the Union.^ Under this constitution Robinson was chosen gov- 
ernor. But in January President Pierce, in a special message, 
denounced the whole Topeka movement as rebellion, 
and declared his intention to put down all such pro- +vepres*-d 
ceedings with national troops. The Topeka legislature 
again met, and was dispersed by United States troops, and Robinson, 
Reeder, and others were indicted for high treason. 

Such was the condition in Kansas at the opening of the presi- 
dential year of 1856, and it became one of the leading issues of the 
campaign. The whole country was aroused over reports from Kan- 
sas, and it was impossible that such a question remain long out of 
the halls of Congress, notwithstanding the claim of Douglas that his 
famous bill would remove the slavery question from national politics. 
In May, 1856, Senator Sumner made a powerful speech on "The Crime 
against Kansas." The speech was a fearful arraignment 
of the slave power. But the speaker went out of his sSmner* 
way to abuse certain senators whom he did not like, 
especially Senator Butler of South Carolina, who was then absent 
from the city, and who had made no special personal attack on 
Sumner. 

Charles Sumner, with all his learning, was a narrow-minded man. 
He was opinionated, egotistical, and incapable of giving credit to 
another for an honest difference of opinion. But he was sincerely 
honest and courageous.^ His espousal of the cause of the slave when 
that cause was very unpopular rose from the innermost depths of his 
soul. His furious attack on Butler was occasioned by the indignation 
expressed by the latter at the audacity of the Topeka convention in 
applying for statehood. But Sumner suffered severely for his extrava- 
gance. Two days after making this speech, as he sat at his desk 

^ The impression that the free-state people were abolitionists was erroneous. 
This free-state constitution forbade free negroes, as well as slaves, from entering the 
state. The Abolitionists of the Garrison tjrpe would have nothing to do with the 
Kansas movement from the beginning. 

2 While he was uttering this speech, in which he attacked Senator Douglas also 
without mercy, the latter said to a friend : " Do you hear that man ? He may be a 
fool, but I tell you that he has pluck." Poore's " Reminiscences," Vol. I, p. 461. 



590 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

writing, after the Senate had adjourned, he was assaulted with a 
cane by Preston Brooks, a member of the House and a relative of 
Senator Butler. Brooks raine'^d blows on Sumner's head 
B ookB ^ ^^th great ferocity. Sumner sat so near his desk that 
he had no chance to defend himself; but at length he 
rose, wrenching the desk from its fastenings. Brooks then grappled 
with him and continued his blows until Sumner fell bleeding and 
unconscious to the floor. 

So great were the injuries of the Massachusetts senator that he did 
not fully recover for four years ; and indeed, never after this assault 
was he the powerful, robust athlete that he had been before. No 
incident in many years revealed more vividly the vast gulf between 
the North and the South than did the different manner of their receiv- 
ing the news of this assault on Sumner.^ Throughout the North the 
deed was denounced as a cowardly outrage, unworthy of any but 
a bully and a thug. At the South, where Sumner was hated above 
all men, the verdict was that he received only the punishment he 
deserved. Brooks was hailed as a champion and a hero, and was pre- 
sented with many canes. He resigned his seat in the House because 
of a majority vote — not the necessary two thirds — for his expulsion ; 
but he was immediately reelected by his district.^ 

Meantime matters were growing worse on the plains of Kansas. 
On the day that intervened between the closing of Sumner's speech 
and the assault by Brooks the town of Lawrence was sacked by a 
mob. The House of Representatives sent a committee of three to 
Kansas to investigate matters and report. This committee, com- 
posed of William A. Howard of Michigan, John Sherman of Ohio, 
and Mordecai Oliver of Missouri, after examining several hundred 
witnesses, reported in July. Howard and Sherman reported favor- 
ably to the free-state party, but agreed that the election of Reeder 
to Congress, as that of Whitfield, was illegal. Oliver made a 
minority report favoring the southern view 

With the attack on Lawrence the Civil War in Kansas may be 
said to have begun. Soon after this occurred the massacre of Potta- 
watomie, the leader of which was John Brown. Brown had come 
from the East to join his sons, who had been among the early settlers 
of Kansas. He was an ascetic and a fanatic. He had come to 
Kansas to make it a free state at any hazard. He regarded slavery 

1 Rhodes, Vol. II, p. 143. 

* Brooks died the following January, aud Butler iu May of the same year. 



JOHN BROWN IN KANSAS 591 

with a mortal hatred, and while his courage was unlimited and his 
intentions upright, his soul was too utterly narrow to see a thing in 
its true light. He believed that the only way to free the slaves was 
to kill the slaveholders. " Without the shedding of blood, there is 
no remission of sins," said John Brown. 

A few free-state men, one of whom was a neighbor of Brown, had 
been killed by the opposite party, and Brown determined that an 
equal number of them should suffer death to expiate the 
crime. He organized a night raid — his sons and a ^o^awatomie 
few others — and started on his bloody errand. They 
called at one farmhouse after another and slew the men in cold 
blood. He did not inquire if they were guilty or not guilty; 
enough if they belonged to the opposite party. One man was 
dragged from the presence of a sick wife. Her pleadings that he 
be spared were not heeded. He was murdered in cold blood in the 
road before hjs house. Before the end of that bloody night raid 
Brown's party had put six or seven men to death — for no crime 
except that they belonged to the opposite party and had made 
threats — an offense of which Brown's party were equally guilty. 
When the news of this ghastly work was flashed over the coun- 
try, the people in general refused to believe it ; and to the credit 
of the free-state people in Kansas, they repudiated it as wholly 
unwarranted. 

The war went on in Kansas. Armed guerrilla bands traversed 
the country, and fought when they met opponents. About two 
hundred people were killed in one year. But it is need- 
less to give further details. Governor Shannon, on ernor 1856 
coming to Kansas, was even more favorable to the South 
than Reeder had been ; but even he grew weary of the demands and 
the methods of the slavery party, and resigned the office. John W. 
Geary of Pennsylvania was appointed the next governor. Geary 
had been in the Mexican War, and was the first commander of the 
City of Mexico after its surrender. He was afterward the first' 
mayor of San Francisco, but had returned to the East. He accepted 
the governorship of Kansas, arrived in the territory in September, 
and soon had a semblance of order among the people. Geary was 
a strong executive, and, like Reeder, he honestly desired to do justice 
to both sides. The emigration from the North and the South still 
continued; but the North had a great advantage over the South. In 
the North there was a large floating population who found it easy to 



692 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

pack their goods and go to the West ; but the slaveholder was also 
a land owner. He found it unprofitable, almost impossible, to 
migrate to the new territory ; and if he induced the poor whites of his 
section to go, they were apt to espouse the cause of the free-soilers. 
It was now believed throughout the country that Kansas would 
become a free state. But the Missourians had not given up. 
They soon came to dislike Governor Geary. They threatened 
to assassinate him, and they made his duties so uncomfortable that 
he resigned the position on the 4th of March, the day on which 
James Buchanan became President of the United States. Behold, 
the third of the Kansas-Nebraska bill Democrats who had gone 
west to put that popular-sovereignty law into operation — and all 
had turned free state or had resigned because they could not endure 
the methods of the slavery party. 

James Buchanan, during the campaign of the preceding summer, 
had promised that Kansas should have justice if he were elected. 
Many supported him on this promise. We shall see if 
ffovernor ^® kept his word. He chose for governor Robert J.- 

Walker of Mississippi, his life-long friend, his fellow- 
member of the Polk Cabinet, and the author of the Walker Tariff. 
Walker accepted with much reluctance, only after the President had 
promised to sustain him in dealing justice to both sides. Arriving 
in Kansas late in May, 1857, he pronounced his inaugural, a docu- 
ment that the President and Douglas had read and approved. 
Walker was a slaveholder and a Democrat of the old school ; and he 
had hoped to see Kansas a slave state. But he was honest to the 
core; and when he looked over the field and saw that three fourths of 
the people were of the free-state party, and that Kansas could not be 
made a slave state by fair means, he determined not to undertake the 
task. Furthermore, he determined to resist the Missourians if they 
attempted to use fraud. An election was called for June 15, to choose 
delegates to a constitutional convention. The free-state people were 
suspicious, and they refused to vote ; the other side elected the dele- 
gates. The governor had promised that any constitution framed 
should be submitted to a vote of the people. The convention met 
at Lecompton in September, and it soon brought forth the notorious 
Lecompton constitution. 

When it became known to the southern leaders at Washington 
that this Lecompton convention was composed of proslavery men, 
a movement was set on foot to have the territory apply for immediate 



THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 693 

statehood under this proslavery constitution which they produced. 
But the people of Kansas were clamorous in demanding a vote on 
their constitution. Governor Walker had promised 
them this right. James Buchanan had written him, as ^®°<>™P*°'^ 
late as August 12, that he would sustain him. " I am 
willing to stand or fall, on this question of submitting the constitu- 
tion to the boyia fide settlers of the territory," wrote the President. 
This promise was doubtless honestly given; but in the following 
months the President experienced a change of heart. He fell under 
the spell of the southern leaders as completely as Pierce had done, 
and he determined to force the admission of Kansas under the slavery 
constitution framed at Lecompton. 

Meantime the proslavery leaders in Kansas, to make a show of 
fairness, decided to submit their constitution in part to a vote of 
the people, and by an ingenious method they would Buchanan 
save the constitution. The vote was to be for the and the 
Lecompton constitution ivitli slavery, or for the consti- Lecompton 
tution ivithout slavery. No opportunity was given to constitution, 
vote against the constitution. But the whole arrangement was a 
farce and a snare ; for if the constitution without slavery was 
adopted, it still contained the clause, "the right of property in 
slaves now in the territory shall in no measure be interfered with," 
and Kansas would practically become a slave state. The free-state 
settlers therefore refused to vote at all. This scheme did not origi- 
nate in Kansas ; it was hatched in Washington, in the brain of the 
southern politicians. But this fact is less strange than the fact that 
this President from Pennsylvania espoused the cause and sacrificed 
himself and his party in attempting to carry it out. Governor 
Walker stood aghast at these proceedings, which he could not pre- 
vent. A minion of the slave power approached him and declared 
that if he would espouse the cause of the Lecompton constitution, 
the presidency of the United States lay open to him.^ But Walker 
spurned the offer, pronounced the scheme a " vile fraud, a base coun- 
terfeit," and declared that he would break with the administration 
rather than take a hand in the dastardly business. So much for 
Robert J. Walker ; but James Buchanan — 

On the 2d of February, 1858, President Buchanan did the chief 
historic act of his long, public life. Fillmore had signed the Fugi- 
tive Slave Law because he could scarcely help doing so — the coun- 

» Kliode», VoL II, p. 279. 
So 



S94 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

try was in danger. Pierce had agreed to the Kansas-Nebraska bill 
because he hoped thereby to make his reelection sure. Both a^-e un- 
forgiven by the American people. But Buchanan did worse than 
either. There was no danger of secession at this moment. Buchanan 
had declared that he would not be a candidate for reelection. He 
had nothing to lose. Now was his opportunity to make a stand for 
the right, to cover his name with honor and to make himself a hero 
in the eyes of future America. But he lacked the requisite back, 
bone ; his subserviency to the hypnotic influence of his environment 
was complete, he threw away the opportunity of a lifetime. 

On the 2d of February he sent to Congress a copy of the 
Lecompton constitution, which he knew to have been conceived in 
iniquity and born in sin, and urged that Kansas be admitted under 
it, declaring that Kansas is " at this moment as much a slave state 
as Georgia or South Carolina." The most astonishing thing about 
this was the striking example it gave of the power of the South over 
its devotees from the North. Buchanan was not at heart an unjust 
man, and yet no living man to-day can believe that in this case he 
acted on principle. He was the victim of hypnotism. 

Now for a second time another great figure takes the center of the 
stage — Stephen A. Douglas. Four years ago Douglas, standing in 
the same place, had pleaded for a bad cause — the repeal of the Mis- 
souri Compromise. Now he stands for a principle, for justice ; and 
the millions that execrated him then now admire and applaud him to 
the echo. He had shown himself a giant then ; now he becomes a 
hero. There is no love stronger than the love for an old enemy who 
has become a friend. What were the feelings of Douglas when he 
saw the miserable failure of his boasted popular sovereignty, we 
know not. He owed the country much for his, possibly unintentional, 
deception ; and he partially paid the debt. Buchanan might truckle 
to the slave power without a visible reason. Not so with Douglas. 
Buchanan was a follower ; Douglas was a leader. He had sacrificed 
much to win the South in the hope of gaining the presidency. That 
hope gone, he was ready to be himself, to break with the South for 
the sake of justice. 

Douglas saw that the Lecompton constitution was the product 
of fraud, and determined to oppose it. Calling on the President 
some time before the sending of the message of February 2, he 
declared his intention to oppose the Lecompton constitution in the 
Senate, unless it were honestly submitted to the voters of Kansas. 



STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS 595 

The President became enraged ; he warned Douglas that no leading 
Democrat ever broke with the administration without being crushed. 
Douglas answered defiantly and went his way. Soon after this the 
subject came before the Senate, and Douglas took the floor against 
the Lecompton constitution. His speech was great. Never before 
had he displayed his powers to greater advantage. " The adminis- 
tration and the slave power are broken," wrote Seward to his wife, 
'■^ the triumph of freedom is not only assured, but near." Douglas 
won, and the Lecompton constitution was defeated, not in the Senate, 
but in the House. And Douglas won more; he re-won the laurels he 
had lost in the North, and became again the Democratic idol in that 
section, so to remain to the last moment of his life. But Doviglas 
had not espoused the cause of the slave, nor even that of free Kansas. 
He had no apparent convictions on slavery, and professed not to care 
if it was "voted down or voted up." He simply stood for justice in 
Kansas, and it was only justice that the North was now demanding. 
Our story of " Bleeding Kansas " is near its end. The people of 
the territory eventually did vote on the Lecompton constitution and 
defeated it by more than ten thousand majority. Congress had 
meantime passed the " English bill," introduced by W. H. English, 
a member of the House from Indiana, by which Kansas was offered 
a large grant of public land, if the people would adopt the Lecomp- 
ton constitution. But this bribe was rejected also; and the South now 
abandoned all hope of making Kansas a slave state. At length 
Kansas entered the Union on the opening of the great war as a free 
state. Buchanan's policy cost his party dear. It swept New York, 
New Jersey, and even Pennsylvania into the Kepublican column.^ 
And it cost Mm dear. This act concerning Kansas did more than 
all else to place the name of Buchanan among the least honored 
names of American Presidents. 

DRED SCOTT DECISION 

Two days after Mr. Buchanan became President the most famous 
Supreme Court decision in the annals of the United States was 
announced to the country. 

Dred Scott was a negro slave owned by Dr. Emerson, an army 
surgeon in the employ of the government. For some years the 
doctor was stationed in Illinois, then at Port Snelling in the 
1 Forney's " Anecdotes of Public Men," Vol. I, p. 120. 



596 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

territory that afterward became Minnesota. Here he held his 
slave for two years, when he returned to his home in Missouri. 
Meantime Dred Scott had married a woman of his own race, owned 
by the same master, and they had two children. After their return 
to Missouri, and after they had been sold to another master, Dred 
Scott brought suit for his freedom and that of his family, on the 
ground that they had been illegally held in bondage in a territory 
dedicated to freedom by the Missouri Compromise. He won in a 
St. Louis court, but the decision was reversed by the Supreme Covirt 
of Missouri, after which the case was carried to the United States 
Circuit Court, and then to the Supreme Court of the United States. 
The case in itself was of little ijuportance, but for the deep con- 
stitutional questions it involved. At first the Supreme Court 
intended to confine itself to the simple case in hand; but here 
was an opportunity to make a decision on the constitutionality of 
the Missouri restriction of 1820, and the opportunity was not thrown 
away. As five of the nine justices were from slave states, it was 
believed that the court would pronounce in favor of the doctrine 
of Calhoun, which had taken a powerful hold on the southern 
heart; namely, that Congress has no power to prohibit slavery 
in any United States territory. 

The opinion rendered by Chief Justice Taney was the one that 
attracted general attention, though six of his fellow-justices pro-, 
nounced similar decisions, while two. Justices Curtis and McLean, 
dissented. In this decision the chief justice not only remanded 
Dred Scott to slavery ; ^ he went out of his way to solemnly pro- 
nounce the Missouri Compromise line null and void (though this 
point had not been considered by the lower courts), and he denied 
the right of Congress or of a territorial legislature to make any restric- 
tions concerning slavery in any territory. He also afl&rmed that 
no slave or descendant of slaves had the right to sue in. the courts. 
He declared that no negroes born of slave parents were citizens of 
the United States at the time of forming the Constitution, nor had 
Congress or any state the right to make them or their descendants 
citizens. He quoted with apparent approval the prevalent feeling, 
as he claimed, of earlier times, that the negro had no rights that a 
white man was bound to respect, and asserted further that at the 
time of the adoption of the Constitution "the unhappy black race 
was never thought of or spoken of except as property." 

1 Dred Scott and his family were afterward set free by their owner. 



DRED SCOTT DECISION 691 

In this last statement the chief justice was woefully in error. 
Even before the Revolution Lord Mansfield had rendered his famous 
decision which forbade slavery on English soil and lifted the black 
man to the level of other men before the law ; in our own country 
most of the leading men of the early period — Washington, Jeffer- 
son, Franklin, and others — strongly favored the ultimate emancipa- 
tion of all slaves. Jefferson, when President, demanded the return 
of the three black men who had been seized on the deck of the 
Chesapeake; and even the Constitution itself speaks of persons bound 
to service, referring to the negroes, and provides that three fifths 
of them be counted in making up the census.^ How can Taney's 
statement that the black man was considered only as property stand 
before such facts as these ? The assertion that a slave or a descend- 
ant of slaves had no standing before the law must fall before the 
patent facts of history, for, as Justice Curtis pointed out, in five of 
the thirteen states at the formation of the Union colored men had 
the right to vote. The decision that the Missouri restriction was 
invalid rendered the repeal of that measure in the Kansas-Nebraska 
Law superfluous, and annihilated Douglas's theory of popular sover- 
eignty. The Republican party, which had carried eleven states in 
the recent election, had been founded on the principle of congres- 
sional prohibition of slavery in the territories, which the court now 
pronounced forever beyond the power of Congress. 

This extraordinary decision pleased the ultra-slaveholders of the 
South, and it stunned the North. But it had defenders at the North, 
led by Stephen A. Douglas, who took much pride in the fact that 
the Missouri Compromise, which his bill had repealed, had now 
been pronounced null and void by the highest tribunal of the land ; 
but he failed to comprehend that this same decision had rendered 
his boasted popular sovereignty a dead letter. The great body of 
the people of the North, however, condemned this unjust decision of 
the court. 

Roger B. Taney had succeeded the great jurist, John Marshall, hav- 
ing been appointed by President Jackson as a reward for faithfulness 
in removing the deposits from the United States Bank. Taney was 
a man of singularly pure and upright life ; he was also a great law- 
yer and jurist ; he served his country long and faithfully ; but the 
great public of to-day remembers him only for the odious Dred Scott 
iecision, and with this his name is and must ever ^ inseparably linked 
1 See the opinion rendered by Justice Curtis. 



598 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Yet he probably did what he believed to be right ; he simply voiced 
the sentiment of the slaveholding interests to which he belonged. 

Could the people continue to revere that august tribunal which 
had never before ceased to command their profound respect ? Must 
they accept this decision as the final word on this great question on 
which the country was divided ? If so, the Republican party must 
disband or at least abandon the fundamental principle on which it 
was founded, and millions of men and women must give up their 
political conscience of a lifetime. But no such result followed. The 
fact is that Taney had descended from giving a judicial decision to a 
discussion of a political question from a partisan standpoint. He 
had grappled, for partisan reasons, with constitutional questions on 
which he had not been called to make a decision. If, then, the 
esteem in which the court had hitherto been held was lessened by 
this decision, the fault lay wholly with the court. It must not be 
forgotten that, though the Supreme Court passes judgment on mat- 
ters of the people, the people as a whole sit in judgment on the court, 
and the latter exists for their good and is their servant. 

The Dred Scott decision brought forth severe criticisms from the 
North. Many were fierce with anger. The slave power was aggres- 
sive as never before. It had full control of the government. Would 
it become national and overspread the whole land ? The Kansas- 
I^ebraska Law was audacious ; it threw the country into a state of 
exceeding disquiet. Now came the Dred Scott decision, and this 
was followed by the attempt of the administration to force the 
Lecompton constitution on Kansas. These powerful blows were 
dealt, not by the people, but by the politicians. The great public 
writhed like a wounded giant, conscious of superior strength, but 
undecided what to do. But every blow dealt by the slave power 
contributed to its downfall in the end, — merely awakened the greater 
fury and hastened the final appeal to the sword. 

THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES 

The second senatorial terra of Stephen A. Douglas was drawing 
to a close. The legislature to be chosen in Illinois in 1858 must 
name his successor. He was again popular throughout the North. 
When it was seen that his popular sovereignty would make Kansas, 
and of course all territories north of it, free states ; ^ when it was 
seen that Douglas, by his admirable courage in the face of an angry 
1 This was before the Dred Scott decision was rendered. 



DOUGLAS 599 



administration, had saved Kansas from the Lecompton abomination, 
his star again rose to the zenith. Many Kepublicans now joined in 
applauding him, and the leading eastern members of that party 
favored his return to the Senate, in the hope that his fight with the 
administration would redouud to Republican advantage. 

Douglas was one of the most striking figures of his generation. 
Born among the New England hills two months before the death of 
his father, he migrated to the prairied West in early 
manhood. Settling in Illinois without money and with- ^^^^\ ^^^® °^ 
out friends, he taught school and read law. He soon 
found the field for which above all else he was fitted — the field of 
politics. After serving in various official stations in his adopted 
state, he entered the lower House of Congress in 1843. At first he 
was uncouth in manners, but he quickly adapted himself to the ways 
of polite society and soon became a central figure in the highest 
social circles. " To see him threading the glittering crowd with a 
pleasant smile or a kind word for everybody, one would take him for 
a trained courtier." ^ But he was in his real element among men. He 
would stand in the midst of an adoring throng and entertain them 
with a western story or with his flashing wit, or he would stand on the 
rostrum in the presence of thousands and hold their unbroken atten- 
tion for hours with his melodious eloquence. He was hale and win- 
ning, cordial and full of good cheer. Forgiving and generous, he 
never sought revenge on an enemy. In 1847 Douglas was promoted 
to the Senate, and in a few years he was an acknowledged leader and 
the readiest debater on its floor. His wonderful power over men 
was shown by his putting the Kansas-Nebraska bill through Congress 
in the face of the mighty hurricane of criticism that was rising 
against him; and he showed equal power in regaining his lost laurels 
in the North. His sway in the West was undisputed until the rise 
of a rival who was soon to outstrip him. 

The Republicans of Illinois were unwilling to follow the advice 
of the eastern leaders and help reelect Douglas to the Senate. 
Douglas had been their political foe from far back in old Whig 
days, and tliey could not be persuaded to make him their champion. 
They produced their own candidate for the Senate in the person of 
Abraham Lincoln. 

Lincoln was a still more striking figure than Douglas. Born in 
the slave state of Kentucky, among the lowliest of the lowly, his 
1 Forney's "Anecdotes," Vol. I, p. 147. 



600 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

early life was spent in poverty and want. His mother was a woman 
of excellent good, sense, and, it is claimed, of strong intellect. His 

father, who belonged to the class of poor whites, was a 
Early life of carpenter by trade, but was usually out of employment. 

He was shiftless, lazy, and ignorant, and he scarcely pro- 
vided his family with the necessaries of life. All rules and theories of 
heredity are scattered to the winds in attempting to account for the 
genius of Lincoln. While he was yet a child his mother died. The 
father moved with his family to southern Indiana and married a widow 
with several children, and the double family spent ten years in a 
miserable hut in the wilderness. Meantime Lincoln, being intensely 
anxious to educate himself, though he attended school only a few 
months during his boyhood, studied diligently the few books that 
came within his reach. He became a deep student of the Bible and 
of Shakespeare, and he mastered the books of Euclid. Eemoving 
to Illinois at the age of twenty-one, he became in turn farmer, rail 
splitter, storekeeper, postmaster, surveyor, and river boatman, and he 
served a few months in the Black Hawk War in 1832, though he was 
not under fire. 

Lincoln felt that he was destined to do something in the great 
world of which he yet knew so little. He was unsettled and discon- 
tented ; he flitted from one thing to another. The years passed, and 
at the age of twenty-five he had not settled in a permanent vocation. 
He loved to mingle with men ; he was exceedingly popular among 
his fellows, was full of droll stories, loved the horse race and the 
cockfight; but withal, his face was set with a melancholy that 
nothing could remove. This may have been caused in part by his 
long years spent in physical toil in the frowning forest, while his 

soul was longing for light, for knowledge, for oppor- 
r ht^^^ tunity.^ His marriage was an unhappy one, and the 

want of domestic pleasure threw him the more among 
men, and fitted him the better for his great life work. He served in 
the Illinois legislature, read law, and was admitted to the bar at the 
age of twenty-eight. In 1846 he was elected to Congress, and after 
serving one term in the House, in which he always cast his vote with 
the Whigs or the Wilmot Democrats, he returned to his law prac- 
tice at Springfield. He had almost lost interest in politics, as he 
said, until the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Law. This roused 
him as nothing had done before, and within a few years he was the 
1 See Burgess's " Civil War and the Constitution," Vol. I, p. 6. 



LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS 601 

acknowledged leader of his party in Illinois. Few outside of his 
state knew of the latent power of Lincoln, bnt Douglas knew him 
well, and when he heard that Lincoln was to be his opponent in the 
senatorial race, he said : " I shall have my hands full. He is the 
strong man of his party — full of wit, facts, dates, and . . . the best 
stump speaker in the West ; he is as honest as he is shrewd." ^ 

The principals who were about to engage in this intellectual 
duel had much in common. Each had been born in poverty in 
another state ; each had made the broad-prairied West his perma- 
nent home, and had begun his career without money, friends, or 
influence. They had served together in the Illinois leg- Lincoln and 
islature, had eaten at the same table, had attended the Douglas 
same horse races, and had loved the same maiden. For compared, 
many years they had been personal, but never political friends. 
Both were courteous, honest, fearless, jovial, and companionable. 
Both were sanguine and keenly ambitious to rise in public life, and 
each had the rare quality of winning a large circle of followers. But 
the contrast was still more notable. 

Douglas was below the average stature of men ; Lincoln was 
above it. Douglas was compactly built, graceful, and jDolished in 
manners; Lincoln was the opposite of all these. Douglas had a 
deep, musical voice, and could hold an audience unwearied for hours ; 
but his logic was faulty, and his conclusions often superficial. Lin- 
coln's voice was high-pitched and rather unpleasant, but his form 
of speech was so terse, epigrammatic, and logical, that even his great 
opponent, with all his powers of casuistry, could not escape its force. 
Douglas had reached the zenith of his power, and for four years 
past had held his lofty position amid adverse political winds only by 
his marvelous courage and audacity ; Lincoln was just emerging from 
obscurity, and was soon to become the leading American of his time. 

These two giants were to stand together on the same platform in 
seven different Illinois towns and address the same audiences on the 
great questions of the day. And it is a curious fact that Lincoln 
then attracted national attention only because of his connection with 
the world-famous Douglas, while in our own day Douglas is remem- 
bered in history more for his connection with Lincoln than for any 
other event of his life. 

The campaign opened in June, when the Eepublican convention 
nominated Lincoln at Springfield. The address to the delegates by 
1 Forney, Vol. UI, p. 179. 



602 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

their candidate Avas masterful ; but it was radical. In it he used the 
famous expression, "A house divided against itself cannot stand, I 
believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and 
half free. ... It will become all one thing or all the other." No 
prominent Republican had advanced such radical doctrine before. 
Seward's famous '' irrepressible conflict " was not uttered for some 
months after this. Lincoln's friends urged that he omit this part of 
the speech, but he declared that he would rather be defeated with 
that statement in his speech than win the election without it. He 
further stated in answer to the eastern Republicans who desired to 
see Douglas returned to the Senate : " They remind us that he is a 
great man and that the largest of us are very small ones. Let 
this be granted. . . . How can he oppose the advance of slavery? 
He does not care anything about it. . . . Our cause must be 
intrusted to its own undoubted friends . . . who do care for the 
results. . . . Clearly he [Douglas] is not with us — he does not 
pretend to be — he does not promise ever to be." 

Soon after the campaign had opened, Lincoln, through his man- 
agers, challenged Douglas to a joint stumping tour, a series of joint 
debates. It was a daring thing to do. Douglas was reputed to be 
the ablest orator in the nation. He had no rival in the United States 
Senate. He had measured arms with Seward, Chase, Corwin, 
and Sumner, and had surpassed them all. The eyes of 
challenee ^^^^ country were now turned toward the prairie state. 
The two rivals met in various towns. ^ The crowds, 
composed of both parties, were too great for the public halls, and 
they met in open groves. There was but one great, vital subject to 
be discussed, — slavery in the territories. The speakers were cour- 
teous to each other, but merciless in their political arguments. Lin- 
coln's disadvantage, especially at first, was in the opposition of the 
leaders of his party; but Douglas's disadvantage was still greater in 
the opposition of the Buchanan administration, for after the Lecomp- 
ton struggle he and the President had never become reconciled. 

The chief feature of this remarkable debate was the questions 
publicly asked by each speaker of the other. Douglas began this, 
and by so doing he set a trap for himself from which it was impos« 
sible to escape. Lincoln's fatal question was this: "Can the people 
of a United States territory, in any lawful way . . . exclude slavery 
from its limits, prior to the formation of a state constitution ? " 
1 These debates began August 24 and ended October 15. 



THE FATAL QUESTION 603 

The deep significance of this question is seen only by remembering 
that it involved the irreconcilable difference between the Democrats 
of the North and those of tlie South in their interpretation of the 
Kansas-Nebraska Law. This question placed Douglas in the most 
trying position of his life. He was an aspirant for the presidency ; 
he knew that his audience in these debates included the whole 
United States, and to answer this question on which his party was 
divided would, as he well knew, offend one section or the other; and 
yet to refuse to answer would be childish and cowardly. Six days 
elapsed between the propounding of this question and the next 
meeting, to be held at Freeport. Meantime Lincoln's friends begged 
him to withdraw it, as they claimed Douglas was sure to answer in 
accordance with the feeling at the North, and, if so, he would win 
the senatorship. *' I am after larger game," answered Lincoln ; " if 
Douglas answers as you say he will, he can never be President, and 
the battle of 1860 is worth a hundred of this." ^ 

Douglas answered in accordance with the northern view. This 
opinion became known as the " Freeport doctrine." It was discussed 
by all the leading newspapers of the United States. By many the 
author was scored without mercy, and most of all by Lincoln, who 
showed, with luianswerable logic how inconsistent with this view 
was the Dred Scott decision, which Douglas professed to accept as 
sound Democratic doctrine. 

Douglas won the senatorship, though Lincoln had a majority of 
the popular vote. The result was due to the fact that of the twelve 
hold-over senators, eight were Democrats. 

Douglas was the apparent winner in this great contest, though in 
the light of subsequent events the world must render a different 
verdict. This campaign proved a turning point in the fortunes of 
both contestants, but, like Pharaoh's chief butler and chief baker, 
their fortunes moved in opposite directions. Lincoln soon became 
the foremost man of his age. Douglas never again stood on the 
pinnacle he had occupied before. His Freeport doctrine had mor- 
tally offended the South. His Lecompton revolt was a venial offense 
compared with this ; " and two years later the South refused to accept 
him as their candidate, the Democratic party was severed in twain, 
and the Republicans carried the election. 

1 The truth of this incident lias been questioned by some writers; but It is given 
by Hernden, Lincoln's law partner, and is probably true. 

2 Nicolay and Hay, Vol. H, p. 163. 



604 HISTOEY OF THE UNITED STATES 



JOHN BROWN AND HARPERS EERRY 

On the morning of October 17, 1859, the country was startled by 
the news flashed over the wires that the United States arsenal at 
Harpers Ferry, Virginia, had been seized the night before by a band 
of Abolitionists and negroes, and that the slaves of Virginia were 
rising against their masters. In the North the news created intense 
excitement ; in the South it created rage and terror, for in that sec- 
tion the belief quickly took possession of the public mind that a 
great northern conspiracy had been set afoot with the object of 
exciting slave insurrections throughout the South. There is little 
wonder that such a belief awakened intense feeling at the South, 
for a widespread slave uprising would have been a calamity of the 
most awful consequences ; it would have subjected the women and 
children to nameless horrors and would have destroyed the very 
foundations of society. 

But the report proved exaggerated. The arsenal at Harpers 
Ferry, an insignificant village at the point where the Potomac and 
Shenandoah rivers join their waters and break through their moun- 
tain barriers, had been seized. But there was no uprising of slaves, 
nor was the number of men engaged in the insurrection by any 
means so great as was at first reported. In fact, there were but nine- 
teen, and these, led by an elderly man with a long flowing white 
beard and with a strange, unfathomable eye, had stealthily entered 
the town by night, extinguished the lights, cut the telegraph wires, 
made prisoners of the guards, and taken possession of the armory. 
Soon after daybreak the people of the neighborhood began to rise 
against the invaders, and a desultory fire was kept up during the 
forenoon, a few being killed on either side. Soon after noon a hun- 
dred militia arrived from Charlestown, and others poured in rapidly. 
Thousands of shots were exchanged during the day. In the evening 
Colonel Robert E. Lee arrived with a body of marines, but he made no 
attack until the following morning. He then sent his aid, J. E. B. 
Stuart, who had been in Kansas, and who was to become the famous 
Confederate cavalry leader, to demand a surrender. Stuart, on see- 
ing the aged leader, exclaimed, " Why, aren't you old Pottawatomie 
Brown of Kansas ? " ^ And thus it first became known to the public 
that the. leader of this extraordinary movement was John Brown. 

John Brown was a descendant of one of the Pilgrims who had 
1 See Century Magazine, Jvuie, 1885. 



JOHN BROWN 608 



come in the Mayfloioer in 1620. During the War of 1812 his father 
had been engaged in furnishing cattle for the American armies 
John usually accompanied him as a cattle driver, and 
in this capacity he witnessed the surrender of Hull at j ^^J^^^ °^ 
Detroit. It was about this time that he became a rabid 
abolitionist. He was staying, for a time, with a slaveholder who 
owned a negro boy about Brown's own age and apparently his equal 
in every way, and while he, Brown, was treated with the utmost 
kindness, the black boy was beaten and maltreated for little or no 
caiise. This incident fixed in the youthful soul of John Brown a 
hatred of slavery that increased in intensity to the end of his life. 
Many years later, when the father of a growing family, he, in imita- 
tion of the ancient Carthaginian commander, had his sons take a 
solemn oath that they would join with him in devoting their lives to 
making relentless war on slavery. 

The stormy career of John Brown in Kansas we have noticed. 
This he closed by making a wild raid, with a few followers, into Mis- 
souri, and capturing a dozen slaves, whom he escorted to Canada. In 
the spring of 1859 we find him again in New England plotting his 
last and most famous exploit. His intention was to lead a band of 
men into the Virginia mountains, to call upon the slaves to flock to 
his retreat, to arm them against recapture, and to extend his opera- 
tions over the entire South. In short, his plan was to lead the 
slaves to freedom through a general, violent uprising. 

Late in the summer of 1859 Brown rented a house a few miles 
from Harpers Ferry, where, under the name of I. Smith and Sons, 
he received boxes of arms and ammunition. Everything was done 
with great secrecy. No one suspected tliat this gray-haired stranger 
and his numerous sons had other designs than to purchase a farm, 
as they pretended, and to become stock raisers. After some weeks of 
preparation they threw the whole country into a state of consterna- 
tion, as we have seen, by their night attack on Harpers Ferry. Of 
Brown's followers, three were his own sons and five were colored 
men. Most of them did not know of his intention to seize the 
arsenal till near the time of making the raid. They then attempted 
to dissuade him, urging that the undertaking would be most danger- 
ous. But his iron will was unmoved ; he quietly answered, " If we 
lose our lives, it will perhaps do more for the cause than our lives 
could be worth in any other way." ^ He ordered his men not to take 
1 Sanborn's " Life and Letters of John Brown," p. 542. 



606 HISTOEY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Jife, if they could possibly avoid it, and not a shot was fired until 
they had been in possession of the arsenal for three hours. 

At any time during the forenoon of the 17th Brown might have 
escaped to the mountains, as he had intended to do after supplying 
Iiis party at the arsenal with a stock of arms for his expected 
recruits; but this he failed to do until it was too late. Six of his 
men, including one of his sons, were out scouring the country for 
slaves, and these for the time escaped.^ His other two sons Avere 
killed. But few of the little band remained alive when at length 
the besiegers broke into the engine-house and took them captive. 
Brown himself was severely wounded by a bayonet thrust. 

Brown's composure throughout the siege was a matter of as- 
tonishment to those who witnessed it. With one son dead at his 
side and another mortally wounded, he felt the pulse of his dying 
son with one hand and held his rifle in the other 

Brown s while he commanded his men with the utmost corn- 

capture. 

posure.^ Brown was duly arraigned for treason and 

murder, was given a fair trial in the Virginia court at Charlestown, 

and was sentenced to be hanged. He spent tlie period between the 

time of receiving his sentence and the execution in the utmost 

serenity of mind, never exhibiting the slightest fear or regret except 

for the loss of life that he had occasioned. To a friend he wrote, 

" It is a great comfort to feel assured that I am permitted to die 

for a cause " ; to his wife, " My mind is very tranquil, I may say 

joyous"; to his children, "I feel just as content to die for God's 

eternal truth on the scaffold as any other way." On the day of 

execution he walked out of the jail "with a radiant countenance and 

the step of a conqueror," said an eyewitness. He mounted a wagon 

and sat upon his coffin to the place of execution, and without a 

tremor or a sign of fear he stepped upon the gallows and was swung 

into eternity. Governor Wise, fearing an attempt to rescue Brown, 

had called out several thousand troops and had planted cannon 

around the place of execution ; but no such attempt was made, and 

Virginia, which had been wrought into a high state of excitement, 

breathed freer when old John Brown was dead. 

It is even at this day too early to make a final historic estimate 

of John Brown. Throughoiit the South he was denounced as the 

1 Most of these were captured and put to death; but Owen Brown, son of the 
'eader, was never taken, and he lived for many years afterward in New York. 

2 Sanborn, p. 572. 



ESTIMATE OF JOHN BROWN 607 

blackest of villains, while many at the North pronounced him 
a saint and a martyr. Emerson was led to say that Brown's death 
made the gallows glorious like the cross. Victor Hugo 
pronounced Brown an apostle and a hero. The gen- Character of 
eral sentiment at the North, however, condemned the 
deed of Brown, while the greatest sympathy with the doer was ex- 
pressed on every side. Brown was a man of intense religious con- 
victions ; but he drew his inspiration from the Old Testament rather 
than from the New ; his models were Joshua, Gideon, and Jephthah.^ 
He brooded over the condition of the black man until his judgment 
became warped and distorted. He was utterly impractical. No 
man with robust common sense, with well-balanced mental powers, 
would have regarded his attack on the United States arsenal as other 
than suicidal folly. And yet we must pity rather than blame John 
Brown. By the technical letter of the law he was a criminal ; by 
the motives and intents of his heart he was not. His supreme self- 
command, his heroic courage, his readiness to sacrifice his home, 
his family, his life, for a cause, must elicit our admiration. But we 
cannot place him among the saints, or the great heroes of history ; 
he was an honest, but sadly misguided fanatic ; on this one subject 
he was probably insane. 

No great political effect of Brown's raid was felt. Congress met 
soon after the execution, and great efforts were made to saddle the 
whole affair on the Republican party. It was found that Brown had 
been furnished with money by a few northern friends headed by 
Gerri't Smith, the wealthy New York philanthropist ; but the most 
searching inquiry by a Senate committee failed to prove that the great 
Republican leaders, Seward, Greeley, Lincoln, and Chase, had any- 
thing whatever to do with Brown's movements, or any knowledge 
of the raid till after it had been made. Brown's raid, however, had 
some effect in consolidating the South against the North.^ A son of 
Governor Wise has recently written that the attitude of the North 
surprised the South and did more to open its eyes to the gulf between 
the sections than anything else. The great majority of southern 
voters were non-slaveholding poor whites. Vast numbers of these 
would probably have cast their lot for the Union in 1861, but for 
their fear of a slave insurrection. The southern leaders rung many 
changes on the Brown raid to show that such an insurrection was 

1 Rhodes, Vol. II, p. 161. 

2 See Burgess's " Civil War and the Constitution," Vol. I, p. 43. 



608 HISTOUY OF THE UNITED STATES 

possible and that the North was capable of encouraging it. This 
doubtless had much to do with unifying the South under the banner 
of the slaveholders at the outbreak of the war. 



THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1860 

Scarcely had the country recovered from the excitement of John 
Brown's raid, when it was called to face another presidential election 
— the most momentous of all since the overthrow of the Federalists 
in 1800. Great changes in the political world had been going on 
for several years. The Kansas-Nebraska bill, the Dred Scott de- 
cision, and the troubles in Kansas had shaken Democratic power to 
its foundations. The Repnblican party was irresistibly fastening its 
hold upon the North. Thousands of Democrats who had adhered 
to the party of their fathers with all its faults could now endure it 
no longer, after the ignoble attempt of their President to force the 
Lecompton fraud upon Kansas ; and they were warmly welcomed 
into the Eepublican fold. Nevertheless, the Democrats would 
doubtless have again elected their President but for the fatal split 
within their own ranks. Early in February, Jefferson Davis of 
Mississippi introduced in the Senate a series of resolutions which 
were intended to set forth the Democratic doctrine of the South, and 
which were meant as an ultimatum to the northern wing of the 
party. In these he set forth the extreme doctrine of Calhoun that 
the states were sovereign, that the general government was subor- 
dinate, and that neither Congress nor the territorial leg- 
imlons ^^^°' islatures had the power to prohibit, but the government 
must protect, slavery in the territories. These resolu- 
tions were debated for many weeks, but ere they came to a vote 
the Democratic party had met in national convention at Charleston, 
South Carolina. 

The Charleston convention was inharmonious. The spirit of 
discord that had so long distracted the country now threatened the 
one last great bond between the North and the South — the Demo- 
cratic party. Many looked with awe upon the gathering storm, 
when they realized what its meaning might be to the Federal Union. 
For long years the North and the South had been growing farther 
and farther apart. The Whig party had destroyed itself in attempt- 
ing to cater to both sections; the religious bonds, the industrial and 
social bonds between them had for the most part been severed. 



DEMOCRATIC SPLIT AT CHARLESTON 609 

Nothing was left to hold the North and the South together peacefully 
except this great political party whose representatives were now 
gathering at Charleston ; and this bond was about to be brjoken. 

Douglas was again the Democratic idol of the North. But he had 
re- won his northern laurels only by sacrificing his popularity in the 
South ; and while he was now the first and only choice of the north- 
ern wing of the party, the South refused to accept him. But it was 
the platform, and not the candidate, on which the convention divided. 
The committee that framed the platform was composed of one dele- 
gate from each state. There were eighteen free states and fifteen 
slave states ; but as the delegates of two free states, California and 
Oregon, voted steadily with the South, that section had a majority 
in the committee. The committee, therefore, adopted a platform, 
based on the Davis resolutions in the Senate, embody- -jij^g 
ing the extreme southern doctrine on the subject of Charleston 
slavery in the territories ; namely, that no power could convention, 
exclude it, that Congress must protect it. The northern delegates 
could not accept this doctrine without sacrificing the vote of every 
northern state in the election. In vain they pleaded with their 
southern brethren <to yield and save the party from disruption ; the 
southern delegates were inflexible. Douglas meantime declared that 
he would refuse to be a candidate on such a platform. But the con- 
vention was not obliged to accept this platform dictated by the com- 
mittee. The South had a majority in the committee, but not in the 
convention; and now, for the first time in the history of Democratic 
national conventions, the northern delegates made a determined 
stand, refused the dictation of the South, cast aside its proffered 
platform, and adopted another, brought in by a minority of the com- 
mittee. By this platform as adopted the status of slavery in the 
territories was to be determined by the courts. 

The next act in the great drama immediately followed. The Ala- 
bama delegates rose and seceded from the convention, and they were 
followed by those from Mississippi, Louisiana, South gplitin 
Carolina, Florida, and Arkansas. The remainder of the Democratic 
convention then began balloting for a candidate, and convention. 
after fifty-seven fruitless ballots the convention adjourned to meet 
on June 18 at Baltimore, while the seceding faction decided to meet 
at Richmond, Virginia. 

The adjourned convention met at the appointed time and place. 
Every reason now existed for a reunion of the factions. The Repub- 
2b 



610 HISTORY OF THE UNITKI) STATES 

iicans had met in the meantime, and had placed their candidates in 
the field ; and every index pointed to a Kepublican victory unless the 
Democrats would unite. But this was impossible. The North could 
not, and the South would not, yield. Had the Nortli yielded the 
point at issue, the Democratic party north of Mason and J)ixon's 
line would have been destroyed. The northern delegates held their 
•ground, and in consequence most of the delegates from the South 
who had not withdrawn at Charleston now did so, and they met in an- 
other hall. The convention then nominated J)ouKlas for President 
and Herschel V. Johnson of Georgia for Vice rresidciit. The seced- 
ing faction, joined by their brethren from liichmond, nominated 
John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky for President and Joseph Lane 
of Oregon for Vice President, and the severance of the Democi-atic 
party was comi)lete. Thus the great political party that had been 
founded by Jefferson, that had governed the country for half a 
century, had successfully carried on two foreign wars, and had 
acquired Florida and every foot of our public domain beyond the 
Mississippi, — this great party had at last quarreled with itself and 
invited its own destruction. 

The Republican convention met in the fast growing city of 
Chicago on the 16th of May. The convention was rendered an ob- 
ject of intense interest by the fatal disagreement at Charleston ; for 
the belief was widespread that here would be named the next Presi- 
dent of the United States. A great '* wigwam," seating twelve 
thousand people, was built for the purpose, but this could accommo- 
date only a fraction of the gathering clans that poured into the city 
from all points of the compass. The conventioti gave little evidence 
of being the exponent of a new-born party founded on a great moral 
principle; it was less orderly and seemed much less serious than 
the one tliat had met at Charleston. The streets of the city were 
filled with noisy multitudes shouting for this or that candidate. Ne 
longer did the leaders of the party hold aloof, as four years before 
at Philadelphia, when they willingly let the prize go to a romantic 
adventurer of the West. Now the best men of the party stood ready 
and eager to receive the honors of the convention. 

The acknowledged leader of the party was William H. Seward 
of New York. Plis claims were strong. He was the chief originator 
of Republican doctrine, and for years before the party was born he 
had stood in the forefront in battling against the encroachments of 
the slave power. But he had weak points. He was thought to 



NOMINATION OF LINCOLN 611 



be too radical by many ; he was the aiitlior of the " higher law " doc- 
trine, and this, with his "irrepressible conflict," was not popular in 
the great conservative states that bordered on slave 

land. Another element of weakness in Seward was the „^^\ l?^^ 

convention, 
fact that when governor of New York he had oft'ended 

the Know-nothings on the school question. These had now for the 
most part become Republicans and were willing to accept any candi- 
date except Seward. 

Next to Seward in the great contest stood Abraham Lincoln of 
Illinois. Lincoln was past fifty years of age, but, until his famous 
debate with Douglas two years before, he was scarcely cooper union 
known to the great public. The prominence of Douglas speech, Feb- 
had led the people to look upon his daring antagonist, ruary, i860, 
and the vital question at issue had led them to read his si)eeches. 
These were found to equal the proudest efforts of Sumner, of Chase, 
or of Seward. Again, Lincoln had recalled public attention to him- 
self by a powerful speech at Cooper Union in New York City, by 
which he displayed anew his masterly grasp of the great questions 
of the day. None could now deny that in the political sky he was a 
star of the first magnitude. 

Below these two leaders stood Edward Bates of Missouri, whose 
chief claim lay in the fact that he was from a slave state and that 
his nomination would in part answer the charge that the party was 
a sectional one ; Salmon P. Chase of Ohio ; and Simon Cameron of 
Pennsylvania. But none of these had any chance of receiving the 
nomination unless the convention failed to choose between the two 
leading candidates, Seward and Lincoln. The Seward men felt con- 
fident; but the Lincoln shouters made the greater noise. It was 
said that two men, whose voices could be heard above the most vio- 
lent storm (and one of them was a Democrat), were hired to lead in 
the shouting for the Illinois candidate. 

On the first ballot Seward led, with Lincoln second. On the 
third Lincoln was nominated. The cheers for the "rail splitter" 
were tremendous. So great was the uproar of the con- 
vention that the boom of cannon on the top of the „!^°„„*«j 
11 111 1 • 1 • • yii • nommat«d. 

wigwam could scarcely be heard withm it. Chicago 

was delirious with delight ; but the Seward men were deeply de- 
jected, and their leader, Thurlow Weed, burst into tears. Hannibal 
Hamlin of Maine was nominated for Vice President, and the work 
of the convention was over. 



612 HISTORY OF, THE UNITED STATES 

Outside of Illinois and a few adjacent states the name of Lincoln 
created little enthusiasm. Why set aside the great jSTew York 
statesman for this untried newcomer in public life ? At first a feel- 
ing of depression swept over the party. It was feared that the 
convention had made a mistake, as its predecessor had done at Phila- 
delphia in 1856. But the convention had builded wiser than it knew. 

The platform adopted by the convention pronounced for a protec- 
tive tariff, condemned indirectly the John Brown raid and the Dred 
Scott decision, while it left unnoticed the Fugitive Slave Law, and 
the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. But it was 
very decided on the greatest question of the times — slavery in the 
territories. It pronounced slavery an evil, and while denying any 
intention of the party to interfere with it in the states where it ex- 
isted, it denied the authority of Congress, of a territorial legislature, 
or of any individual to give legal existence to slavery in any territory 
of the United States, and demanded that Congress prohibit the 
institution in the territories. 

Still another party entered the field in this great contest. It was 
composed of old line Whigs and others who could find no political 
resting place with the extremes represented by Lincoln and Brecken- 
ridge, nor on the middle ground occupied by Douglas. It called 
itself the Constitutional Union party, adopted the terse platform 
" The Constitution, the Union, and the enforcement of the laws," 
which, in the apt words of Horace Greeley, meant anything in gen- 
eral and nothing in particular, and nominated John Bell of Tennes- 
see for President and Edward Everett of Massachusetts for Vice 
President. Thousands of citizens voted with this party simply 
because they could not decide which side they were on. 

The campaign was less boisterous than many of its predecessors. 
Issues rather than men were discussed — or rather, one is&ue, the 
The three same that had been before the country for several years 
platforms — slavery in the territories. Outside of Pennsylvania, 
compared. where the tariff received a large share of attention, this 
great subject absorbed the public mind. The issue was squarely 
drawn between the Lincoln and Breckenridge extremes. The Re- 
publicans took the positive ground that, as slavery was a moral and 
political evil, it should be permitted to spread no farther, and that 
Congress should prohibit it in the territories. The Breckenridge 
Democrats took the equally positive ground that, as slaves are con- 
stitutional property, their possession in the territories must be 



PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1860 611 

protected by Congress. The Douglas Democrats took the middle 
ground that Congress must keep its hands off, and that the people 
of a territory must decide for themselves whether slavery should 
exist among them. If the Douglas party should win, the great sub- 
ject would simply be left unsettled ; if Lincoln or Breckenridge 
should carry the election, the issue would be squarely joined and 
the defeated party must yield to the majority, or resist by violence. 
Threats of dissolving the Union, in case of Lincoln's election, were 
freely made in the South ; but in the North it was not generally 
believed that such a step^would be taken. Had the Korth fully 
realized the gravity of the situation, the election of Lincoln would 
have been doubtful ; for the people, a great many of them, whatever 
their hatred of slavery, dreaded still more a dissolution of the 
Union or civil war. Douglas made a noble fight. He spoke in 
many states ; but with all his tireless energy and eloquence, the tide 
against him was too great to be overcome. Nor could Breckenridge 
hope to carry a northern state, and, as all the southern electors were 
not enough to make a choice, his election was impossible. Bell 
could not dream of carrying more than a few states. This left Lin- 
coln as the only candidate whose election was possible, and in case 
of his failure the election would go to the House. But the House 
was hopelessly divided, no party controlling a majority of the states. 

The Repulolicans, however, felt confident. If the Democrats had 
united at any time during the summer or early autumn, with Douglas 
as their candidate, they might possibly have carried the election ; 
but not after the October elections in a few of the Northern states. 
When Pennsylvania voted in October and was carried by the Lincoln 
party, electing Andrew Curtiu governor by thirty-two thousand ma- 
jority, the last hope of successful opposition was crushed. Nothing 
under heaven could now prevent the election of Lincoln. This fact 
almost pleased the extreme South. The slaveholders preferred the 
election of Lincoln to that of Douglas ; for if Douglas were elected, 
the great question would remain unsettled ; if Lincoln were success- 
ful, the South would become united against the North and would 
have an adequate pretext for disunion.^ 

The great battle of the ballots was fought on November 6. 

Lincoln received the votes of all the Northern states except New 

Jersey, and in that state he won four of the seven electors, the 

other three going to Douglas through a fusion arrangement. Lin- 

1 Greeley, Vol. I, p. 329. 



614 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



coin's electoral vote reached 180, while 152 were sufficient to elect. 
Breckenridge received seventy-two electoral votes, Bell captured 
three slave states, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, thirty-nine 
electors, while Douglas, whose popular vote was far greater than 
that of Breckenridge or Bell, received but twelve electoral votes — 
those of Missouri and three from New Jersey. The secessionists of 
the South were extremely chagrined at the fact that Bell, who stood 
on a distinctively union platform, had polled over half a million 
votes, almost as many as Breckenridge. This want of southern 




Republican, I j Constitutional 
Lincoln. I 1 Union, Bell. 



Election Chart of 1860. 

unity might have proved very embarrassing to the disunionists the 
following year, but for the fact that Bell, and most of his followers, 
probably on the issue of coercing a state, cast their lot with them. 

The meaning of the result of this great election was plain to the 
world. It meant that the voice of the people in all the Northern 
states pronounced slavery an evil and forbade its further spread in 
the United States. For many years a few thousand slaveholders 
had dominated the government, had dictated every presidential 
policy, had laid down the law for the millions. But at last the 
multitude had risen in its might and declared that this condition 
should endure no longer. 



NOTES 615 



NOTES 



The Black Warriof. — In the early spring of 1854 an incident known as the 
Black Warriur affair threatened the peaceful relations between the United 
States and Spain. The Black Warrior was a merchant steamer plying between 
New York and Mobile, usually stopping at Havana. On February 28 this 
vessel was seized and declared confiscated with its cargo by the Spanish authori- 
ties at Havana, on the pretense that she had violated the trade regulations of 
the port. Her captain abandoned the vessel and appealed to the United States 
government for protection. President Pierce and his Cabinet made a demand 
that Spain make proper reparation, and communicated with Soul^, our minister 
at Madrid, to that effect. But Sould exceeded his instructions, offended the 
Spanish government, and received a haughty reply. Soul4 and the slaveholders 
now hoped for a war with Spain, that the United States might acquire Cuba, 
but northern sentiment refused to support this project. The Black Warrior 
was at length released, and the war spirit subsided. This affair had something 
to do with bringing out the Ostend Manifesto a few months later. See p. 572. 

The Nicaragua Filibusters. — In 1854 William Walker of California pro- 
ceeded with a band of reckless men to Nicaragua, and allied himself with one 
of the warring factions of that country. In a short time he had possession of 
the city of Granada and proclaimed himself President of Nicaragua. Soon 
after he had succeeded in usurping the power, he issued a decree reestablishing 
slavery in the country, where it had not existed for many years. This revealed 
the true object of his expedition — to secui'e Central America for slavery, and 
eventually to add those states to our Union in the interests of the slaveholders. 
After he had held the countiy for two years, a coalition against him drove him 
out. Twice afterward he made attempts to regain his hold on Nicaragua ; but 
on the last of these trips he was overpowered, captured, tried by court martial, 
condemned, and shot to death. 



CHAPTER XXV 

AN ANTE-BELLUM VIEW 

A HURRIED view of the great people that were now about to 
engage in the bloodiest of all civil wars in the annals of history- 
will here be appropriate. Soon after the second war with England 
the people of the United States began to feel a consciousness of 
national greatness and power as never before, and the marvelous 
development of the country in the half century that followed gave 
evidence that this national pride rested on a sound basis. Within 
that period the population was greatly increased ; the nation took 
its place among the greatest of manufacturing and commercial 
peoples ; in literature, education, and invention it more than kept 
pace with the world's advancing civilization. A few of these devel- 
opments may be described under separate heads, beginning with 

INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES 

No other country ever gave to the world in the same length of 
time such a series of useful inventions as did the United States 
in the thirty years ending with 1860. First among them in impor- 
tance is perhaps the electric telegraph, the patent for which was 
granted to Samuel F. B. Morse in 1837, though twenty years passed 
before it came into very general use. In 1858 the first Atlantic 
cable was laid through the efforts of Cyrus W. Field. 
tiff h ^^ reached from Newfoundland to Ireland, a distance of 
seventeen hundred miles ; but after it had been in opera- 
tion for three weeks, several hundred messages having been exchanged, 
the cable parted, and eight years passed before another was successfully 
laid. To show how this wonderful invention has made the world akin, 
a comparative illustration is useful : I have before me a New York 
newspaper dated August 4, 1815. Its chief foreign news item is an 
account of the great battle between the French and the allied powers 
at Waterloo in which Napoleon was overthrown. This was the first 

616 



GREAT INVENTIONS 617 



news to reach America of that famous battle, which had been fought 
on the eighteenth of June, nearly seven weeks before, and several 
weeks were yet to pass before it could reach the interior of the coun- 
try. How great the contrast with the following: The Coronation 
of King Edward VII of England took place on August 9, 1902, at 
noon, and some hours before noon of the same day the account of 
the event was read oii the streets of the American cities. Hand 
in hand with the telegraph came the cylinder press, first 
operated in 1847, by which, with all its improvements ^y"°^®' 
to this day, the news received from the wires and put 
in type, is printed and folded in newspaper form at the rate of forty 
eight thousand an hour. 

Among labor-saving machines the mower and reaper, patented 
by Cyrus McCormick in 1831, and the sewing machine, invented by 
Elias Howe in 1846, must be placed in the first rank. 

The reaper which enabled one man to do the work of ^o^®'^^''^^ 

^ r69.per. 

many, made possible the great wheat farms of the West 

and cheapened breadstuffs throughout the world. Before the inven- 
tion of the sewing machine woman was a slave to the needle; but 
with the coming of that exceedingly useful machine 
woman was set free in a great measure and enabled to j^T}^^^ 
read, travel, and become interested in public questions.^ 
This invention also reduced the price of clothing and shoes for all 
classes. 

Among the other discoveries and inventions of this period was 
the discovery of ether, or rather of its application as an anaesthetic,^ 
which has proved one of the greatest boons to suffering humanity. 
By its use the patient sleeps like a child while under- 
going a surgical operation. Another discovery of a 
very different nature was made in western Pennsylvania in 1859. 
A company of men, boring into the earth some seventy feet, " struck 
oil," which flowed at the rate of a thousand barrels a day. The 
news awakened the greatest enthusiasm, and through 
this and similar discoveries in other parts of the coun- 
try and in Canada the petroleum business has become one of the 
greatest industries of the world. Another remarkable discovery 
dates from this same year, 1859. Some miners were digging along 
the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in what is now 

1 See Thorpe's " History of the American People," p. 429. 

2 By D. W. T. G. Morton of Boston. 



618 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

the state of Nevada, when they discovered a silver mine. It was 

soon found that not only that region, but also various 

^ ^^^' other parts of Colorado, Utah, and Arizona were rich in 

silver ore, and the mining of silver soon became one of the great 

industries of the West. 

The inventions resulting in the steam railway belong to an earlier 
period; but the development of the railway belongs chiefly to the 
period we are treating. Not until the middle of the 
^^' nineteenth century did the extension of railroads really 
have a beginning in the United States. In 1850 one could travel by 
rail between the chief cities of the East, but the rising West as yet 
had few railroad advantages. Before 1860, however, several great 
trunk lines extended from the eastern seaboard to the valley of the 
Mississippi, the increase in mileage within the ten years being five- 
fold — ^from six thousand to thirty thousand miles. But railways 
had reached no such degree of perfection as in our own day, and acci- 
dents with fatal resvilts were very common. The same was true in 
a still greater degree of steamboats. The loss of life from these two 
sources was so great as to raise a loud protest from the 
people and the press. Congress passed a law in 1852 
(still on our statute books) to regulate steamboat travel. It provided 
for the careful inspection of steamers, for small boats and life-pre- 
servers to be carried on each, and made the owners responsible for 
accidents arising from a neglect of the provisions of this law. 

In the cities great changes had taken place since the first quarter 
of the century had closed. The principal streets were now paved 
with stone and lighted with gas. Fire engines took the place of the 
old hand bucket about the middle of the century. Omnibuses and 
horse-car lines were introduced back in the thirties ; and waterworks, 
one of the greatest of city improvements, came into general use at 
about the same time. The attractions of city life had its efEect on 
the population ; the percentage of the people who lived in the cities 
was now far greater than it had been in earlier times. 

The material prosperity of the country during the decade ending 
with the panic of 1857 was amazing. Manufactories were multiplied 
on every hand, and our commerce whitened every sea. Webster 
wrote in 1850 that " our foreign commerce was hardly exceeded by 
the oldest and most commercial nations." The New TorJc Herald 
stated in 1853 that in " both sailing and steam vessels we have sur- 
passed the whole world." James Buchanan declared in 1854 that 



AMERICAN AUTHORS 619 

•'our mercantile marine is the largest in the world." ^ It is greatly 
to be regretted that all this was changed by the shock of civil war, 
and that, owing to our narrow navigation laws, we have never re- 
gained our prestige on the sea. 

EDUCATION AND LITERATURE 

All the states had established free-school systems by 1860. In 
the Western states a certain portion of the public lands was set apart 
for school purposes, and as this grew in value the edu- 
cational fund was greatly swelled. The rural schools ° °° ^' 
were usually ungraded, as many of them are to this day, but the 
rudiments of an education were within reach of all classes. It has 
been noted by foreigners that no armies ever before went forth to 
battle composed of men so universally intelligent as those of the 
Civil War.^ The colleges were also growing and multiplying, but 
their efficiency by no means approached that of the present day. 

In literature America was coming to the front with rapid strides. 
The historians took the lead. Before 1860 George Bancroft had done 
most of his great work on Colonial and Revolutionary 
history ; Prescott had written his charming histories, ^ orians. 
" The Conquest of Mexico," " The Conquest of Peru," " Ferdinand 
and Isabella," and "The Reign of Philip II"; while Parkman had 
produced most of his no less charming works. Richard Hildreth 
completed his history in six volumes in 1852, and Motley his " Rise 
of the Dutch Republic " four years later. Nearly all these historical 
works will live in our literature. 

In the field of poetry, Longfellow, Whittier, Bryant, Lowell, 
Poe, and Holmes, had reached the zenith of their powers before 
the Civil War, In fiction this period furnishes us 
with but one great name, that of Nathaniel Hawthorne, 
who as a writer of romance stands alone in American literature 
and has no superior in any age or language. The novels of James 
Fenimore Cooper and of William Gilmore Simms were 
very popular in their day and are still read by many, 
and the same is true of Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose greatest work 
has been mentioned. As miscellaneous writers Ralph Waldo 
Emerson and Washington Irving stand above all others, with 
Thoreau closely following. 

1 See Rhodes, Vol, III, p. 8. 2 See Goldwin Smith's " United States." 



620 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

There were many other writers of those days who attracted 
wide attention, but they served their day and generation only, and 
most of them are now forgotten. Were we called on to name the 
American authors of this period whose works, in our opinion, have a 
permanent place in the world's literature, we would name (not con- 
sidering the historians) but two — Emerson and Hawthorne. Next 
to their writings we might name the works of Irving, the poetry of 
Poe, and the single poem of Bryant, " Thanatopsis." Aside from these 
are separate works which will probably survive, not for their literary 
value, but owing to their historic interest — such as "Evangeline," 
" The Biglow Papers," some of Whittier's poems, and " Uncle Tom's 
Cabin." 

The religious growth of the country had been quite equal to its 
material growth. Before 1860 the leading Protestant bodies — 
Baptists, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, 
e igion. Methodists, and Presbyterians — had become powerful 

organizations ; each was vigorously engaged planting missions and 
building churches in the new settlements, in founding schools and 
colleges in the older states ; and each had begun to send missionaries 
into foreign fields. The Koman Catholics had also made commend- 
able progress. Many of the foreign immigrants were of this faith, 
and the Church put forth great efforts to supply for them schools and 
churches in the various parts of the country where they settled. 

One of the strangest of American religious phenomena is the rise 

of the Mormons. As early as 1820 Joseph Smith of New York, a 

native of Vermont, began to have visions and to dream 

The ormons. (jj.gg^jj^g_ j^ ]^g27 he claimed to have found some 

golden tablets, revealed to him by an angel, the inscriptions of which 
he published in 1830 as a new revelation from heaven. He called it 
" The Book of Mormon," or " The Golden Bible." This book had 
been copied, as the weight of evidence seems to show, from a manu- 
script in a Pittsburg printing office by an employee of the office 
named Rigdon, who was now in league with Smith. It had been 
written by Solomon Spaulding of Conneaut, Ohio, and was a fanciful 
history of the ancient inhabitants of America, who were claimed to | 
be descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel.^ On the publication 
orf " The Book of Mormon," Smith had his " Three Witnesses," who 
solemnly declared that an angel had revealed to them also that the 
new religion now preached by Smith was the true and only religion j 
1 See Linn's " Story of the Mormons," Chap. VU. 



WESTWARD MOVEMENT OF THE MORMONS 621 



but these men afterward quarreled with Smith and declared that 
their testimony was false and the whole scheme a fraud. But Smith 
continued to preach his new religion, and soon had a few converts. 
They removed from New York to Kirtland, Ohio, thence to Mis- 
souri, and at length settled in Illinois and built the town of Nauvoo. 
The converts now numbered s'everal thousand, and Smith was auto- 
crat. In 1843 Smith claimed that he had received a new revelation 
making it lawful for a man to have more than one wife. This was 
the origin of polygamy among the Mormons, or " Latter-day Saints." 
The people of Illinois soon grew tired of the Mormons. Smith 
came into conflict with the authorities and was lodged in jail, where, 
in 1844, he was set upon by a mob and shot to death. Brigham 
Young, one of the " twelve apostles," now became the leader, and in 
1847 the whole body of Mormons moved across the western plains to 
Great Salt Lake and built Salt Lake City. They called the place 
Deseret, but the United States government organized it into a ter- 
ritory under the name of Utah. In 1857 the Mormons rebelled 
against the United States authority. Troops were sent to Utah, and 
they soon put down all opposition, after which a " Gentile " gov- 
ernor was appointed to succeed Brigham Young, who had been 
governor. The Mormons have made iiiany converts among certain 
classes, and their Church has shown an unexpected growth in the 
Rocky Movmtain region. The whole number of Mormons in the 
world at this time is estimated at about three hundred thousand, 
probably ninety-five per cent of whom are in the United States.^ 

POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION 

In 18C0 there were thirty-three states in the Union, and the pop- 
ulation was 31,443,321, an increase during the preceding ten years 
of nearly nine millions. Eighteen were free and fifteen were slave 
states. The population of the free states was a little over nineteen 
millions and of the slave states above twelve millions. About one 
fourth of the southern population (3,954,000) was African slaves ; 
and this left the white population of the South at something over 
eight millions — less than one half that of the North. 

1 Another branch of the Mormon Church has its headqiiarlers at Lamoni, Iowa. 
This "Reorganized Church" claims to be the true Mormon Church and refuses all 
connection with the Mormons of Utah. Its president is Joseph Smith, son of the 
founder of Mormonism, and its members number nearly 50,000. They are an indus- 
trious, respectable people, and are highly esteemed by their neighbors. 



(522 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

During the decade a steady stream of emigrants from the eastern 
states had poured into the Mississippi Valley. The gain in the 
state of Illinois alone reached almost nine hundred 
Bo^ ufation thousand in the ten years. In all the states along the 
upper course of the great river there was a rapid in- 
crease of population ; the prairies were cut up into farms, and the 
forests were hewn down to make way for civilization. The Pacific 
Coast was filling rapidly, more than three hundred thousand people 
having settled in California within the ten years between 1850 and 
1860, while some fifty thousand found a home in Oregon and Wash- 
ington. Between the Pacific Coast and the Mississippi Valley lay a 
vast mountain region nearly a thousand miles wide and extending 
from the sunny lands of Mexico to the snows of British Columbia. 
This region was unpeopled except by Indian tribes, the Mormons of 
Utah, and here and there a mining camp or a trading post, and it 
was generally believed to be uninhabitable by civilized man. But 
in the years following the war the population began to press up the 
mountains from either side, and it has been discovered that this great 
mountain region is not only exceedingly rich in precious metals, but 
that it has also, through irrigation, great agricultural resources. 

In the East the changes were less marked. In some of the great 
states of the East, such as New York and Pennsylvania, the multi- 
plying industries, notably mining and manufacturing, 
the^East^^ and the growing cities, held the population and at- 
tracted many foreign immigrants ; but in most of the 
older states the increase was slow, owing chiefly to the movement of 
the people westward. In the Southern states the growth of popula- 
tion was far less marked than in the North and West. In no slave 
state, except Missouri and Texas, was the increase much over one 
fourth as great as that of New York, or one third that of Pennsyl- 
vania. This wide difference was due wholly to the institution of 
slavery, which repelled the free home seeker who must earn his liv- 
ing by his own toil. 

Foreign immigration continued in an ever increasing stream, 
which was still more increased by the discovery of gold in Califor- 
nia and by the revolutionary movements in Europe during and after 
the year 1848. The immigrants, in the order of numbers, were Irish, 
Germans, English, French, and Canadians. The Irish settled mostly 
in the eastern cities and became a strong factor in the industrial 
life of these centers. The Germans and English became for ^^ho 



IMMIGRATION ^ 62(j 



most part farmers in northern New York, Pennsylvania, and the 
states lying farther west, and their descendants still constitute one 
of the stanchest elements of our agricultural strength. Many of the 
Canadians also became farmers, but a larger number were engaged 
in the great northern pine forests as lumbermen.^ 

It is notable that the foreign immigrants settled in the North 
and West, and almost none of them went to the South. The natural 
advantages of the South are quite equal to those of the North, but 
home seekers found little to attract them where slave labor was 
supreme and where their social standing would not be above that of 
the poor whites. And further, the slaveholders did not encourage 
free men to settle among them, for they well knew that every incre- 
ment to the free labor in their section would tend to weaken the 
institution of slavery. 

1 See Thorpe's " History of the American people," p. 426. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

DRIFTING TOWARD HOSTILITIES 
CAUSES AND PRELIMINARIES 

Many causes have been given by various writers as bringing 
about tbe Civil War; but after all there was only one cause — 
slavery. Let us go back for a hurried glance at the great events 
of forty years that pointed toward war. It is true that there were 
muttered rumblings, arising from the slave question, since the found- 
ing of the government, but there was no general aligning of the 
North and the Sovith on opposite sides until the great agitation of 
1820 that resulted in the Missouri Compromise. This compromise, 
though it doubtless aided in keeping slavery out of the Northwest, 
was an immediate victory for the South. 

Then came the Texas question. The South longed for Texas. 
The North objected, but only feebly, and Texas came in as a slave 
state. Hard on this came the Mexican War. Its 
t!f,?^L^ obiect we have noticed in a former chapter — more 

slave territory. Anotlier victory for the slaveholder? 
Not exactly ; for it happened that the people and not the politicians 
had it to decide whether California should be a slave or a free state, 
and they decided for freedom. Next followed the Compromise of 
1850, and this was a victory for the South ; for the one feature 
objectionable to the slaveholder — the admission of free California — ■ 
had already been decided by the people and w^as therefore not a part 
of the compromise, and the other feature to attract the chief attention 
— the Fugitive Slave Law — was forced by the slaveholder upon the 
North. 

Four years then passed, when the slaveholder scored his greatest 
victory thus far in the Kansas-Nebraska bill, repealing the Missouri 
Compromise. By this he received back what he had paid for Mis- 
souri. This might have troubled his conscience a little — for he still 
kept Missouri — until the highest tribunal in the land decided, through 

624 



CAUSE OF THE WAR 625 

the Dred Scott case, that the slaveholder had been too good to his 
opponents in granting the Missouri Compromise line, that he had 
exceeded his powers, like a son bartering away an entailed estate, 
which he had no power to sell — in other words, that the bargain 
had been null and void all along. This was hardly fair to the 
North, for the slaveholder had eaten his cake, — he had settled 
Missouri with slaves, — and yet he took back the price he had paid 
for the privilege. 

This ended the victories of the slaveholder. He made one more 
terrific struggle — for Kansas — but he lost. Why? Because, as 
in California, the people had the matter to settle. It is a very nota- 
ble fact that in all these minor struggles antedating the war the 
South won in each case, except in those of California and Kansas ; 
and in these two only had the people an opportunity to decide. All 
the others were decided by the ruling class, so-called. 

From these facts we reach the twofold conclusion : first, that the 
slaveholder dominated the government for many years before the 
■war ; second, that the people in general were not in sympathy with 
him. If then the people, the source of all power, did not approve the 
slaveholder's rule, why did they not take matters into their own hands, 
as they had the right and the power to do?^ It may be answered 
that they did this eventually. First they defeated the Democratic 
party for waging the Mexican War ; then they slew the Whig party 
for the compromise measures. But such mild treatment was 
ineffective, and the people, seeing that heroic measures were neces- 
sary, founded a new political party, based it on the non-extension of 
slavery, and elected their President.^ This was a notice that the 
extension of slavery must cease ; and this the slaveholder could not 
endure — hence came the war. 

Some say that the war arose from the different interpretations of 
the Constitution on the question of state sovereignty, miscalled state 
rights. But what caused this difference of interpretation ? Slavery. 
State sovereignty was but a weapon, the most convenient and effective, 
with which the slaveholder battled for his favorite institution. Why 
should he wish to destroy the Union which his fathers had helped 

1 One cause of the people's tardiness was their indifference. It required many 
years for the North to learu that the Union could not continue half slave and half free. 

2 It is true that fewer than half the people voted for Lincoln ; many were too timid 
to vote their convictions, others could not break away from the historic party of 
their fathers; but it is certain that by 1860 a large majority of the people of the 
country opposed the further extension of slavery. 

2s 



626 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

to form ? AVhy should he be less loyal thau the New England 
manufacturer, the Pennsylvania miner, or the Ohio farmer ? It was 
not so at the beginning of the century ; it is not so to-day, since the 
apple of discord has been removed. For sixty years no state or 
statesman had threatened the Union through state rights per se. In 
every case, when so used, it was some grievance that led to the use 
of state rights as the handiest effective weapon.^ When Jefferson 
abandoned his extreme state rights views for a stronger union, the 
status of that doctrine would have been settled except on accovmt of 
other grievances for which it was made a mask. But for slavery 
state rights would have adjusted itself ; and this it was doing, for it 
was less prominent in 1840 than at the beginning of the century. 
State rights in the abstract had nothing to do with bringing on the 
war. 

Others say that secession caused the war. Very true ; but what 
caused secession ? Slavery. Still others will say that the election 
of Lincoln brought about secession and war. But why was Lincoln 
objectionable to the South, except on account of his views and the 
attitude of his party on slavery ? The Kansas-Nebraska Law, the 
Dred Scott decision, the border strife in Kansas, — each played its 
part in hastening the war, but they were all slavery questions. In 
short, all the various causes that converged to bring about the dread- 
ful conflict may be summed up into one sweeping cause of causes — 
slavery. It is not true, however, that the southern people, the great 
majority of whom were not slave owners, fought through the war to 
maintain slavery. They fought for separation, believing it best for 
their future, because of their estrangement from the North — but it 
was slavery that caused the estrangement. 

In a remoter sense, however, climatic and economic conditions, 
which rendered slave labor remunerative at the South and not at the 
North, may be said to have caused the war ; but these conditions 
would have brought no war without slavery. The Northern states 
emancipated soon after the Revolution, not that the people were 
more righteous than those of the South, for they were not, but 

1 New England had a quarrel with the government during the War of 1812, and 
appealed to state sovereignty ; Pennsylvania had a similar experience in 1808, Ohio 
in 1820, South Carolina in 1832. As Alexander Johnson truly says: "Almost every 
state in the Union in turn declared its oion sovereignty, and denounced as almost 
treasonable, similar declarations in other cases by other states." But the doctrine was 
given up in other sections while it was retained in the South hecause of the peculiar 
institution. Thus at the South the generation preceding the war was thoroughly 
indoctrinated with state rights, and it was this that led such men as Rohert E. Lee to 
side with the South. But this condition was brought about wholly by slavery. 



THE SLAVEHOLDER 627 



because slavery had not taken such a hokl on the North. Slavery 
in the one section and not in the other brought about a growing dif- 
ference in social, economic, and political conditions, and the two sec- 
tions drifted apart for many years. The statement that the causes 
of the war were " numerous and varied " ^ is misleading if unex- 
plained, for every cause had its root in slavery. It is morally cer- 
tain that there would have been no war but for slavery — unless it 
must be admitted that no people are capable of adjusting in right 
proportion the relations of the great opposing tendencies, Nationality 
and Democracy, without bloodshed. 

The slaveholder was remarkably shrewd, but he made blunders. 
One was his forcing the Fugitive Slave Law upon the northern con- 
science. This led the northerner to see slavery in its ugliest form. 
The pleasant relations between the master and slave he did not see ; 
he saw only the fleeing black man and heard his tale of woe ; again, 
he saw the fugitive seized and dragged back to the laud of bondage. 
Such scenes awakened in the people of the North ;i moral resent- 
ment against slavery as nothing else could have done. 

The most serious blunder of the slaveholder was his forcing the 
war by an attempt to break up the Union. This was a daring leap, 
and it proved to be a fatal blunder. He had been pro- jj^g slave- 
tected by the Constitution and by his influence over the holder's 
northern politicians ; now he shattered the Constitution Wunder. 
and alienated his northern friends ; he appealed his case from the 
lower court, the Constitution and the government, to the higher 
tribunal, the people. Had he not learned by the fate of California 
and Kansas, by the rough handling of the Whig party and of the 
Kansas-Nebraska Democrats, that the people were not with him ? 
The slaveholder knew that the North was immeasurably stronger 
than the South; he certainly knew that in an exhausting war, a 
fight to the finish, between the Union and the slave power, both 
could not survive. Did he underestimate the Union sentiment, the 
love for the old flag at the North ? Did he expect to be permitted 
to depart in peace ? Or did he rely on foreign recognition and aid ? 
The slaveholder was admirably brave and daring, but in some ways 
he miscalculated, and he made a fatal blunder in permitting his 
cause to be appealed to the sword.^ 

1 Macy's " Political Parties," p. 117. 

2 The line of discussion in this section is similar to that of Chapter IV of my 
"Side Lights," Series H. 



628 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



SECESSION 

The news that Abraham Lincoln had been elected to the presi- 
dency^ though not unexpected, fell like a pall upon many parts of 
the South. Many of the radicals, it is true, professed to rejoice at 
the result ; for now, they claimed, they had sufficient cause for seces- 
sion ; but with the great majority the feeling was one of awe and of 
evil forebodings. The threat to secede from the Union was as old as 
the century; it had been indulged in by many states North and 
South, and it usually awakened little fear. But in this case the 
South was in deep, deadly earnest. The ground on which the South 
based its right to secede was that the Union was a confederation of 
sovereign states, each of which had the legal power to withdraw from 

the compact at pleasure. The pretext for secession at 
auses ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^ shown by the " declaration of causes " 

secession. ' -^ 

issued by South Carolina, that thirteen of the Northern 

states had passed " personal-liberty laws " in violation of the Consti- 
tution, that the antislavery agitation of the North had rendered 
property in slaves insecure, and that a man whose " opinions and 
purposes were hostile to slavery " had been elected President of the 
United States. It was also claimed that the South had been taxed 
by high tariff duties for the benefit of northern interests. 

South Carolina took the first step toward dismembering the Union. 
Even before the election Governor Gist of that state sent a circular 
letter to the governors of the other cotton states inquiring if they were 
ready to take the decisive step in case of Lincoln's success. From 
most of them the answer was rather discouraging. North Carolina 
and Louisiana were unwilling; Alabama and Georgia hesitated; 
Florida alone gave a hearty affirmative response. But the impetuous 
South Carolina would wait for none of them. Her legislature met 
on November 5 to choose presidential electors, for in this state alone 
the electors were still chosen by the legislature, and not by the peo- 
ple. This was the opportunity. The legislature remained in ses- 
sion till the news of Lincoln's election had caused a whirlwind of 
disunion enthusiasm to sweep over the state. Now was the time to 
strike, for a few weeks of reflection might cool the ardor of the 
people. The legislature lost no time in calling for the election of 
a secession convention. This election was held on December 6, and 
the convention met on the 17th. 

The short campaign was marked by the wildest enthusiasm. 



OTHER STATES JOIN SOUTH CAROLINA 62» 

Without party division the best men of the state were chosen ; five 
had been governors of the state, and many had served in (Congress. 
By the time this convention met the people had been wrought up to 
fever heat. "The excitement of the people is great under the sense 
of deep wrongs," wrote the newly elected governor. There can be 
no doubt of their sincerity. They honestly believed that the con- 
tinued agitation of the North against slavery threatened the peace 
and happiness of their homes, and would, if continued, render life 
unendurable at the South. For many years they had been taught to 
love their state above the Union, and now it was easy for them 
to decide on the one remedy for their wrongs, as they believed, — 
secession. 

The demeanor of the delegates was grave. They seemed to feel 
a deep sense of their responsibility. Their " Declaration of Indepen- 
dence " was solemnly read to the assembly. The ordinance of secession 
repealed the act of 1788, by which the state had adopted the Consti- 
tution, and pronounced the union between South Carolina and the 
United States of America dissolved. The vote was unani- secession of 
mous, and the state thus " resumed her sovereign powers." south Caro- 
Excited throngs had gathered outside the convention lina, Decem- 
hall; the streets of Charleston were filled with an ex- oer 20, 1860. 
pectant multitude. When the word was passed to the waiting 
crowds that the ordinance of secession had been passed, they broke 
forth into uncontrollable cheers, the cannon boomed, the bells rang, 
and palmetto flags were waved in exultant joy throughout the city. 
The South Carolinians compared themselves with the heroes of 
1776 ; they seemed never to doubt that a new nation was then and 
there born, and they rejoiced at being witnesses of the mighty event. 
The state then issued an address to the other slave states urging 
them to leave the Union, and to join with her in forming a southern 
confederacy. 

Within one month after the secession of South Carolina four other 

states had followed her example, — Mississippi on January 9, Florida 

on the 10th, Alabama on the 11th, and Georgia on the ^ , 

. Other states 

19th. In each of these secession was accomplished ggggde. 

through a convention elected for the purpose, but in 

none was the seceding ordinance submitted to a vote of the people. 

Had this been done, the ordinance would doubtless have passed in 

each state, but in each, except perhaps Mississippi and Florida, a 

strong minority vote would have been recorded against disunion, 



630 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

and this would have disclosed a weakness of the movement which 
the leaders were unwilling to reveal.^ In Georgia, the Empire State 
of the South, the feeling against secession was strong. Alexander 
H. Stephens, Avho led the faction opposed to disunion, declared 
that the state would have refused to take the step but for the cry, 
" We can make better terms out of the Union than in it." This 
was doubtless true, and it proves that Georgia meant to leave the 
Union only temporarily for the purpose of making terms with the 
North. Even then the convention recorded 89 votes against 
the ordinance in a vote of 297. Louisiana was the next to follow, 
on January 26, and Texas seceded on the 1st of February. The 
faithful old governor of Texas, Sam Houston, did all in his power to 
prevent secession, but the legislature usurped the power and called a 
convention. This state was the first of the seceding states to sub- 
mit the ordinance of secession to a vote of the people. It was carried 
at a popular election, but there was a considerable vote recorded 
against it. 

These seven seceding states comprised the great cotton belt 
of the South. On February 4 they joined their fortunes and formed 
the Southern Confederacy.^ A joint convention met for this pur- 
pose at Montgomery, Alabama, adopted a temporary constitution, and 
chose a provisional President and Vice President. 

This provisional Constitution was supplanted by a permanent 
one, adopted by Congress on March 11, 1861. Having been ratified 
by the states it went into effect in February, 1862. A brief com- 
The Confed- parison between this and the Federal Constitution is 
erate Con- interesting. The Confederate Constitution was modeled 
Btitution. closely after that of the United States, the term " Con- 

federate States" being used instead of United States, and "Con- 
federacy " for Union. In the preamble we find, " We, the people of 
the sovereign states," instead of " We the people of the United 
States." In some points in which this Constitution differs from 
our own, the changes may be pronounced improvements, such as : 
The President was to be elected for six years and was not to be 
eligible for reelection ; he was empowered to veto items in an appro- 
priation bill while approving the remainder of the bill; members of the 

1 It must be remembered that the Federal Constitution had been adopted by the 
various states through conventions, and not by direct vote of the people. The South, 
therefore, is not open to criticism for following the precedent. 

a The Tesas delegates had not yet arrived. They came soon afterward. 



THE CONFEDERATE CONSTITUTION 63\ 

Cabinet were to be entitled to a seat in either house of Congress for 
the discussion of matters pertaining to their respective departments. 
Other changes were : A protective tariff was made illegal ; internal 
improvements were confined to aids to navigation, which were to be 
repaid by duties on the navigation so aided ; the postal system was 
to be self-sustaining after March 1, 1863. True to the theory of 
state sovereignty, a state legislature by a two-thirds vote could 
impeach a national official acting witiiin the state. A slaveholder 
was permitted to travel in any state with his slaves. 

Provision was made for the admission of new states ; but it is 
notable that no provision was made for secession from the Confed- 
eracy. The most striking feature of this Constitution was that it 
forbade the reopening of the foreign slave trade. The meaning of 
this clause has been construed in two ways : as a respectful recog- 
nition of the enlightened public opinion of the world, or as a bid 
for the border slave states to join the Confederacy ; for if the foreign 
trade were not reopened, the border states might retain the market 
for their slaves, by joining the Confederacy. 

For chief magistrate the whole South turned to Jefferson Davis 
of Mississippi. We have met Mr. Davis in the Mexican War, in 
the United States Senate, and in the Cabinet of Pierce. He was a 
native of Kentucky, had migrated to Mississippi, had espoused the 
cause of the slaveholder, and had risen in public and private life until 
he was the recognized leader of the far-famed aristocracy of the South. 
He was a graduate of West Point and was thoroughly trained in 
military, as well as in political, life. A nominal Democrat, he was 
in reality just the opposite ; he was an aristocrat of the old school, 
typically represented in the preceding generation by John Ran- 
dolph. Davis was a sincere, honest man, dignified, conservative, 
and intensely devoted to duty as he saw it.^ He was the chief, 
though not the most radical, representative of the ultra-slaveholders, 
and, after the death of Calhoun, the ablest leader in the South. 

For Vice President, Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia was 
chosen. Though he was a man of strong intellect, the choice fell 
upon him rather because of the elements he represented. He had 
been a Whig, and had joined the disunionists only out of loyalty 
to his state. It was believed that his selection for the second 
office would attach to the southern cause the former Whigs and 
those who had reluctantly joined in the disunion movement. Mr. 
1 Burgess, Vol. I, p. 17. 



632 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

.^ ■ — m 

Davis chose a Cabinet of six members, one from each of the seceding 
states except his own.^ There were but two really strong men in 
this Cabinet, — Robert Toombs of Georgia, secretary of state, and, 
Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana, attorney-general. 

Thus within three months after the election of Lincoln, and one 
month before his inauguration, seven of the Southern states had 
withdrawn from the Union, and had set up a government 
Mde ° ^^ their own, — on account of anticipated evils, — and 

this in the face of the repeated statements of the 
Republicans that they had no intention of interfering with slavery 
where it already existed, and in the face of the fact that they could 
not do so if they would, because both houses of Congress were still 
Democratic. As to the constitutional right to secede, the question 
is theoretical, and no amount of discussion would settle it in the 
minds of all. One point, however, may be mentioned. It is certain 
that the f ramers of the Constitution never meant that violent secession 
from the Union they formed should be j^ossible. The Articles of Con- 
federation provided that the Union formed by them should be " per- 
petual " ; and while the Constitution, which supplanted them, does not 
mention this, it does provide for " a more perfect union" than the one 
that it replaced. How could a "more perfect union" be less en- 
during than the *' perpetual " Union it was intended to supplant ? 
And besides, as President Lincoln argued, it is beyond the bounds 
of reason that any government would provide for its own destruction. 

But there is another light in which the unbiased historian must 
view this matter. Assuming that slavery is right, that the North 
was wrong in condemning it, the South was right in its desire to 
separate from the Union. A separation by violence, as Mr. Lincoln 
said, would have been an irreparable blow to popular government, 
but a peaceful separation by mutual agreement, had such a thing 
been possible, would have been immeasurably better than for the 
two sections to remain together and keep up forever the distressing 
quarrel that had distracted the country for so many years. With 
all our intense pride of nationality, it is a mistake to believe 
that the inclusion of the vast domain of the United States under 
one government is absolutely essential to the advance of modern 
civilization. It were better far that the country be divided into 
two friendly rival powers than that it remain under one government in 

1 More accurately, President Davis did not name the Cabinet, but left the selection 
from each state to the delegates iu the convention from that state. 



BUCHANAN AND SECESSION 633 

^1^— l■■^^^■ ■- " ■ - . n - ■ ■< ■ ^ ^^^m^m, ■■ ^ 

perpetual warfare with itself. But, as is now acknowledged by all, 
slavery was a blighting evil to the country, a blot on the civilization 
of the nineteenth century ; and, viewed in this light, the secession 
of the South may be considered a blessing, for it brought about the 
ultimate destruction of slavery. 

THE WINTER IN WASHINGTON 

President Buchanan was greatly perplexed at the rash and pre- 
cipitate action of the cotton states. A true unionist and an honest 
man at heart, his sympathies were nevertheless at first with the 
South, He firmly believed that the South had reason to be exasper- 
ated at the continued antislavery agitation at the North. In his 
annual December message to Congress he openly expressed this 
sentiment, but advised against disunion, as the election of an anti- 
slavery President did not afford just cause for dissolving the Union, 
especially as it was the result of " transient and temporary causes, 
which may probably never again occur." He also reminded the 
South that, with the exception of the Missouri Compromise, now 
repealed. Congress had never enacted a law that was unfavorable to 
the interests of slavery. What an admission from such 
a source ! The message also denied the power of the BuJijanan 
President, or even of Congress, to prevent secession. 
Mr. Buchanan intended, no doubt, to conciliate the South by the 
tone of his message, but this he failed to do. On the other hand, 
the slaveholders were greatly encouraged in their work of destroy- 
ing the Union, for now they were assured that there would be no 
forcible opposition to their course during the remainder of Buchan- 
an's term. But Buchanan was not alone responsible for this mes- 
sage. Aside from the powerful influence of the southern members 
of his Cabinet over the mind of the President, he had received from 
his attorney-general, Jeremiah S. Black of Pennsylvania, an official 
opinion on the subject of secession, and on this opinion his message 
was largely based. 

The North received the message of the President with astonish- 
ment. The press was severe in its criticisms, and the effect was 
soon felt in the Cabinet. General Cass resigned his position as 
secretary of state because he could not agree with the President on 
the subject of secession,^ and Mr. Black became his successor. A 
1 Notably on reenforcing the forts in Charleston harbor. 



634 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

few days later South Carolina passed its ordinance of secession, and 
this, with the rising sentiment at the North, wrought a sudden 
change in the attitude of Black. He now took a determined stand 
for the Union, and it was he that influenced the President not tA 
recognize the South Carolina commissioners who came, a short time 
afterward, to treat with the government. But Black was not alone. 

Edwin M. Stanton, who became attorney-general, and 

Joseph Holt, the secretary of war, were stanch defend- 
ers of the Union cause, and these three soon gained the ascendency 
over the vacillating President. In January General John A. Dix 
of New York was called to the treasury department, and his ringing 
dispatch to the treasury agent at New Orleans, " If any man attempts 
to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot," had a magic 
effect in stimulating the North. Buchanan from this time forth was 
in full agreement with his reorganized Cabinet, though he still claimed 
that the executive had no power to coerce a seceding state. In a 
special message on January 8 he declared it the duty of the Presi- 
dent to collect the public revenues and to protect the public property 
in all the states, and to use force in so doing if necessary. So differ- 
ent was the tone of this message from that of December that it was 
difficult to realize that they had emanated from the same pen. 

No President had ever been placed in a more trying situation 
than was James Buchanan. He has been severely censured for his 
southern sympathy in the autumn of 1860. But it must be remem- 
bered that his most intimate lifelong associates were southern states- 
men, that he was deeply grieved at the recent defeat of his party, 
and that the revolt in the South was a revolt against the success of 
his political enemies. Could he now suddenly break the instincts 
of a lifetime, come out openly against his old friends, and espouse 
the cause of Republicanism ? And further, it is almost certain that 
he believed at first that secession would be a temporary thing, that 
the Southern states would soon become quiescent, and that the fright 

given to the people of the North by the southern out- 
Buchanan break would be a good lesson for them. Again, it must 

be remembered that Buchanan was not a leader of men ; 
he had little executive ability ; he was cautious almost to timidity ; 
he was not an originator of great movements, nor capable of stand- 
ing out for a principle. For his attempt to force the Lecompton con- 
stitution on Kansas a few years before, Buchanan stands unforgiven 
at the bar of history ; but for his action in this great crisis near the 



EEACTION IN THE NORTH 635 

close of liis public life, the unprejudiced American must deal gently 
with his memory. 

The agitation in the North during this fateful winter was 
almost equal to that of the South. But there was little spirit of 
defiance ; it was rather one of conciliation. Meetings were held iu 
New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, which expressed sentiments 
of conciliation for southern ears. At Philadelj)hia George William 
Curtis, who had been a strong antislavery advocate, was forced to 
cancel a lecture engagement for fear of a riot, and the Republican 
mayor of that city declared in a public speech that the criticisms of 
slavery from the pulpit, the lecture room, and the press should cease 
and must be " frowned down by a just and law-abiding 
people." A reaction against Republicanism was visible ^<'li*^.<'^l 
on all sides, and thousands regretted having voted for 
Lincoln,^ not that their sentiments on slavery had changed, but 
because they preferred the old regime to war or disunion. This 
feeling of the people was reflected in Washington, and the whole 
winter was spent by Congress in considering how the southern 
discontents might be conciliated. 

A so-called Peace Congress met in Washington on the day of 
the meeting of the Confederate Congress at Montgomery. It was 
called by Virginia, and all the Southern states that had 
not seceded, and most of the Northern states, responded. p®^°® 
Among the delegates to the Peace Congress we find 
some of the leading men of the country — William P. Fessenden of 
Maine, George S. Boutwell of Massachusetts, Wilmot of Pennsylvania, 
Chase of Ohio, Reverdy Johnson of Maryland, and the venerable ex- 
President Tyler of Virginia, who was chosen chairman of the Con- 
gress. After three weeks' deliberation this " Congress " sent its 
recommendations to Congress ; but they came to nothing, and it is 
needless to discuss them. 

The Senate had been deeply engaged in the discussion of the 
"Crittenden Compromise," so called from its author, John J. Crit- 
tenden of Kentucky. This aged senator, who had devoted a long and 
useful life to the service of his country, was perhaps better fitted 
than any other to adjust the relations between the two sections, had 
such a thing been possible. He not only represented a border state 
that hung in the balance; he was also himself a political neutral. 
Formerly a Whig, he did not, at the fall of his own party, join the 
1 Blaine, Vol. I, p. 273. 



636 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Hepublieans or the Democrats, but occupied a middle ground ; and he 
was now fitted above all men to view both sides with the unpreju- 
diced eye of a jurist. Crittenden introduced his plan of compromise 
to the Senate on December 18, and two days later a committee of 
thirteen was appointed to consider the grave questions it involved.* 
This committee was composed of the best talent in the Senate, and 
represented all parties. With the venerable Crittenden at its head, 
with Seward, Wade, and others representing the Republicans, Jeffer- 
son Davis and Eobert Toombs the extreme South, and Douglas the 
Democratic medium, the committee began its work in earnest. The 
great subject was slavery in the territories and Crit- 
Compromise ^enden proposed that the line of 36° 30' be re- 
stored and extended to the Pacific Ocean ; that Congress 
have no power to interfere with slavery in any state or territory 
south of that line ; and that these provisions be added to the Consti- 
tution in an amendment which no future amendment could have 
power to affect. They were supported by the Democrats, but the 
Republicans and the extreme southern men voted in the negative and 
defeated the amendment. It afterward became known that the 
southern members would have voted for them, biit for the stand 
made by the Republicans, and the latter have been censured for not 
having prevented the Civil War by making this concession. But 
their party had been founded, and their victory at the polls had been 
won, on the principle of non-extension of slavery in any territory. 
How could they make a concession that Avould destroy the foundation 
on which their party was built ? On the last day of December the 
committee reported its inability to agree. 

The House meantime was laboring to the same end through a 
committee of thirty-three. This committee formulated a series of 
resolutions, embodying in substance the Crittenden Compromise ; but 
they failed of passage. The House, however, adopted one resolution 
forbidding Congress or the people for all future time to molest 
slavery in any state where it existed, without the consent of the state. 
In other words, it made slavery perpetual in the United States. This 
moral, social, and political evil of the land, this darkest blot on 
American civilization, was to be intrenched forever in the organic 
law of the country. Such an amendment to the Constitution would 
have struck a blow at modern progress from which the country 

1 More than two hundred proposals of amendment were offered at this session, 
but this one received the chief attention. See Ames's " Proposed Amendments," p. 194. 



A PERIOD OF SUSPENSE 687 

could not have recovered iu a hundred years. And yet it was sup- 
ported by many leading Republicans, and it passed the Senate, as 
well as the House, by the necessary two-thirds vote, and was sent to 
the states for ratification. But even such humiliation on the part of 
the North could not arrest the coming conflict ; and the amendment, 
though later ratified by three states, Ohio, Maryland, and Illinois, 
fell to the ground, the whole question having been transferred 
meantime to the battle field. 

But Republican humiliation went still farther. Congress organ- 
ized the three territories of Colorado, Nevada, and Dakota without a 
word concerning the prohibition of slavery within them. 
No one of course believed that these territories would *®P^^lican 
become slave states, but in admitting them Avithout 
mention of slavery the sole object was to avoid irritating the South. 
In this act the Republican party took the very same ground that 
Webster had taken in his Seventh of March Speech in 1850, and for 
the very same reason. These acts were passed, as well as the pro- 
posed amendment, after both houses had become Republican by the 
withdrawal of the representatives of the seceding states. 

From the House of Representatives these members withdrew 
gradually as their respective states seceded, most of them quietly and 
without a word of bravado or defiance. The senators -v^ithdrawals 
were less reticent. Most of them made parting speeches, from 
the general tenor of which was a censuring of the North Congress, 
for its antislavery agitation and its electing of a Republican Presi- 
dent, a warning to the North that any attempt at coercion would be 
met by force of arms, and an expression of general satisfaction in 
their hope of peaceful and pleasant relations between the two na- 
tions. If one of them had a doubt that the South would be able 
to maintain its independence, such doubt found no place in his 
speech. Nothing seemed more grotesque than the effort of the sena- 
tors from Florida and Louisiana, which had been purchased by the 
United States government, to explain that their respective states had 
now " resumed " their sovereign capacity. The most serious of 
these valedictories was that of Jefferson Davis. Assuming a plain- 
tive and pathetic strain, he begged to be forgiven if he had pained 
any one in the heat of discussion ; he expressed his sincere belief in 
the right of secession, and his regret that his state could no longer 
enjoy the benefits of the Union. So touching and mournful was 
this address of Davis that his audience was moved to tears. That 



638 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

niglit the great southern leader is said to have wrestled with God ia 
prayer for peace. He was one of the few southern leaders Avho did 
not believe that the North would stand by and see the Union dis- 
membered without war. 

As the people of the North saw with chagrin that all their over- 
tures for reconciliation during this fateful winter were ignored by 
the South, as they beheld the property of the United States — forts, 
arsenals, and munitions of war — taken possession of by the seceding 
states, their feeling of conciliation began to change to one of resent- 
ment. Many at first believed the secession movement to be the 
usual wolf cry to frighten the North. As the affair grew more 
serious, public opinion was divided ; some were for coercion, others 
claimed that disunion was preferable to war. Among these latter 
was Horace Greeley, who advised that the southern sisters be per- 
mitted to depart in peace.^ This attitude was taken by Henry Ward 
Beecher and by many other men of influence. Then came the period 
of conciliation; but as this failed, the inclination to preserve the 
Union by force gained ground rapidly. Greeley and Beecher were 
won to this view, and even President Buchanan was not averse to it, 
but he professed to want the authority. It is possible that Buchanan 
might have nipped secession in the bud by reenforcing Charleston 
harbor, but he declined to do this lest he should irritate the South to 
further violence. 

Charleston harbor was the center of public interest during the 
winter. Fort Moultrie was occupied by Major Robert Anderson with 
Eemoval to ^ handful of men ; but, deeming it unsafe, he dismounted 
Fort Sumter, his guns, burned the carriages, and quietly moved to 
December 26. ^\-^q stronger fort, Sumter, near by in the harbor. This 
act was irritating to South Carolina, as it indicated that the forts, 
which the " sovereign " state claimed as its own, were not to be 
given up without a struggle. Still greater was the irritation when 
President Buchanan sent the Star of the West to relieve the fort with 
supplies. As the little vessel steamed into the harbor (January 9), 
it was fired on from shore batteries and driven from the harbor with- 
out having accomplished its mission. These were the first shots of 
the Civil War. 

Before the close of Buchanan's presidency the Confederate gov- 
ernment had seized every fort, navy yard, mint, post office, and 
customhouse within the bounds of the seven states — except Fort 
1 New York Tribune, November 9, 1860. 



THE NEW TRESIDENT 639 

Sumter, Fort Pickens, Key West, and the Dry Tortugas. General 
Twiggs had also surrendered to Texas a large portion of the regular 
army which was then in that state.^ This seizure of public prop- 
erty was looked upon by the North as robbery, while at the South it 
was considered but a fair division. 

The slave power seemed bent on its own destruction. It ignored 
every effort of the North to bring about a reconciliation. Every 
index seemed to point unerringly to war — a weak and vacillating 
President, the blind precipitancy of the South, the seizure of the 
forts, the firing on the Star of the West, the refusal of the South to 
listen to the friendly call for her to return. The lovers of peace 
looked with dismay on the rushing torrent of events, all pointing to 
dreadful, internecine war. The religious world cried unto the heavens 
in a wailing, piteous prayer for peace ; but its prayer seemed unheard. 

We now understand it all. Slavery was the blight on American 
civilization. The spirit of modern progress demanded its removal. 
In the course of human events nothing could do this but war. The 
nation must rise in its might and strike down this ungodly foe to its 
progress and development, and that meant war. 

THE NEW ADMINISTRATION 

The time was now at hand for the installation of the new Presi- 
dent. The moment was an ominous and fearful moment. Deplora- 
ble was the condition of the country. Seven states had left the 
Union and had organized a government of their own. They had 
seized United States property worth $30,000,000. Other states 
were on the verge of secession. The glorious Union for which 
Washington had fought, which Jackson had preserved, which rail- 
lions of Americans loved better than life, seemed on the verge of 
falling into fragments. Society was broken to pieces ; men were 
hurrying to and fro with hot faces, not knowing what to do. Would 
the South yet return to its allegiance ? It had answered. No. Would 
the Union be dismembered, or would there be war ? 

The answer was still locked in the bosom of one man, one of 
whom the world as yet knew but little. He had entered the capital 
by night and by stealth, for fear of the assassin's bullet. He stood 
now before the multitude and outlined the policy of the nation on 

1 The arms and equipment were seized, but the soldiers were permitted to return 
to the North. 



640 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

the most momentous question that a great and free people were ever 
called on to decide. Never before and never since has a word fallen 
from a President's lips so eagerly awaited by the millions as was 
this inaugural addi'ess of Abraham Lincoln. 

The inaugural was exceedingly moderate in tone. In spite of 
the failure of Congress in its conciliatory measures, he again held 
out the olive branch. He declared that he had no purpose, directly 
or indirectly, of interfering with slavery where it existed, and affirmed 
his belief that he had no lawful right to do so ; he expressed his 
willingness to abide by the Fugitive Slave Law, and he went so far 
as to give his approval to the unchangeable amendment to the Con- 
stitution, making slavery perpetual in the United States. Could the 
spirit of compromise go farther than this ? Lincoln had been elected 
on a platform based on the non-extension of slavery, but not a word 
of this do we find in the address. He dealt only with the larger sub 
ject of preserving the Union. 

But the iron hand was incased in the velvet glove. The speaker 
went on to declare that the Union was older than the Constitution, 
that the Constitution was adopted "to form a more 
hiauffural perfect Union," that "no state upon its own mere 
motion, can lawfully get out of the Union," and that all 
ordinances to that effect were legally void. He declared the Union 
still intact and indissoluble ; he declared his purpose of executing the 
laws in all the states, aud that the Union would defend and main- 
tain itself. The meaning of this was as clear as daylight. If the 
seceding states would not retrace their false step, there would be 
war. "The ills you fly from," said the speaker, "have no real 
existence. In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and 
not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. . . . You can 
have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government; while 
I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it." 

This remarkable address was weak at one point, to say nothing 
of its approval of that inflexible amendment to the Constitution. 
The speaker promised that there should be no " invasion " of any 
state, as if it were an " invasion " for the United States to send 
troops to any part of its own soil. He also asserted that it were 
better to leave the Federal offices unfilled for a time than to force 
" obnoxious strangers " upon a people who were hostile to the gov- 
ernment. This was a plain avowal by Lincoln that he would follow 
Buchanan's policy for the time in his attitude toward secession. 



THE NEW ADMINISTRATION 641 

The Cabinet chosen by the hew President was, William H. 
Seward, secretary of state ; Salmon P. Chase, secretary of the treas- 
ury; Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania, secretary of 
war ; Gideon Welles of Connecticut, secretary of the e a me . 
navy ; Caleb B. Smith of Indiana, secretary of the interior ; Edward 
Bates of Missouri, attorney-general, and Montgomery Blair of Mary- 
land, postmaster-general. Two of the Cabinet, it will be noted, were 
from slave states, but none of them held slaves. The Cabinet was 
not harmonious on the great question before the country, nor had 
its members yet learned that, in addition to their ordinary depart- 
ment duties, they were only an advisory body, that the new Presi- 
dent was their master, and that his judgment and not theirs would 
shape the policy of the nation. The general belief was that Seward 
would be the power behind the throne, that this unsophisticated 
President from the western prairies was fortunate in having such a 
genius to shape his policy and to guide his administration — and none 
believed this more firmly than Seward. A month had not passed 
when Seward offered to the President a memorandum,^ outlining a 
policy for the government and at the same time offering himself as 
the agent to carry it out. Mr. Lincoln dismissed the subject with 
the quiet remark, " If this must be done, I must do it." 

A week after the inauguration two commissioners from the 
South, John Forsyth and Martin J. Crawford, sent by President 
Davis, submitted to Secretary Seward a paper requesting an inter- 
view for the purpose of adjusting the questions growing out of the 
political separation of the two governments, and expressing their 
desire that a peaceful settlement would be reached. To these Mr. 
Seward, without ascertaining the views of the President, is said to 
have given some encouragement, leading them to believe that Fort 
Sumter would not be reenforced; but Lincoln decided otherwise, 
and his decision was final. 

FORT SUMTER 

The immediate attention of the country was attracted to the 
Charleston harbor. The defenses of the harbor had fallen into the 
hands of South Carolina, except Fort Sumter, still held by Major 
Anderson. This little morsel became the first object of contention, 
the means of precipitating the conflict of the giants. Fort Sumter 

1 Nicolay and Hay, Vol. Ill, p. 445. 
St 



642 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



was necessary to the Confederacy ; it was the key to the harbor of 
the chief seaport of the South, save New Orleans. And yet the 
North could not yield up the fort without acknowledging the inde- 
pendence of the Confederacy. The provisions in the fort were run- 
ning low, and if not relieved, Anderson must abandon it. The 
South intimated that an attempt to supply the fort would be con- 
sidered an act of war. The matter was the subject of much negotia- 
tion at AVashington. Five of the seven members of the Cabinet 
opposed an attempt to relieve the fort, and at length Lincoln prom- 
ised not to do so without first notifying the governor of South Caro- 
lina. On the 8th of April this promised notice was given, and 
vessels were laden with provisions for Fort Sumter. General P. G. 
T. Beauregard, who had resigned from the United States Army to 
join the Confederate service, had command of the forces about 
Charleston. He telegraphed to Montgomery the news of Lincoln's 
intention. 

President Davis called a Cabinet meeting to decide the great 
question. He and Lincoln both well knew that war was now inevi- 
table, but each was loth to strike the first blow. Davis's secretary 
of state, Toombs, declared that it would be fatal to fire on Fort 
Sumter. "At this time it is suicide," said he, "murder, and will 
lose us every friend at the North. You will wantonly strike a 
hornet's nest which extends from mountain to ocean, and legions 
now quiet will swarm out and sting us to death." ^ But other coun- 
sels prevailed, and the order was wired to Beauregard to demand the 
surrender of the fort, and, in case of refusal, to reduce it. Beaure- 
gard made the demand, and it was refused. On the morning of 
April 12, some hours before daylight, the Confederate general sent 
word to Major Anderson that fire would be opened on the fort in an 
hour ; and at the appointed moment a shrieking shell from Sullivan's 
Island announced to the world that the day of compromise was past, 
and that the most stupendous tragedy in modern history was begun.^ 

Fifty cannon were soon pouring their deadly missiles into the walls 
of the doomed fort. As the morning arose the people of Charleston 
gathered along the wharf in thousands to witness the spectacle. 
Anderson and his little band returned the fire with vigor. The 

1 Stovall's " Life of Toombs," quoted by Rhodes, Vol. Ill, p. 347. 

2 Anderson had said that he ninst abandon the fort by noon of the 15th, if no 
supplies reached him. The decision to fire was made by Beauregard's four aides, who 
had discretionary power. Had Davis or Beauregard known the exact intention of 
Anderson, it is possible that the fort would not have been fired on. 



SURRENDER OF FORT SUMTER 643 

walls of the fort were soon shattered and crumbling ; the barracks 
and woodwork were set on fire, and only by the greatest effort 
did the men save all from being consumed. They 
rolled nearly a hundred barrels of powder into the sea "^^ bombard- 
to prevent explosions. So stifling was the air with 
smoke, dust, and cinders, that the men lay upon their faces and 
breathed through wet cloths. After the bombardment had continued 
for thirty-four hours the little band ^ surrendered and marched out 
with the honors of w^ar, and Fort Sumter passed into the hands of 
the Confederacy. This was considered the first blow of the Civil 
War, for the little matter of the Star of the West had been forgotten. 
At the fall of Siimter Charleston gave itself ujj to the same unre- 
strained, delirious joy that had marked the passing of the secession 
ordinance four months before. 

The effect of the attack on the fort was magical throiighout the 
North. If the shot was not " heard round the world," it certainly 
echoed from overy hill and reverberated in every valley from the 
New England coast to the shores of Oregon. " Fort Sumter crys- 
tallized the North into a unit, and the hope of mankind was saved," 
said Emerson. The North had hesitated all through the winter. 
Millions were undecided what to do ; but now this attack on a 
United States fort awakened their resentment with a unanimity 
that was surprising. Two days after the fall of Sumter President 
Lincoln issued a call for seventj^-five thousand militia, and the response 
from every section of the North was most gratifying. 
Not only the adherents of his own party, but all classes * ° arms, 
of citizens forgot their party differences and rushed to the defense 
of the country. Mi-. Buchanan came out strongly for the Union. 
" The North will sustain the administration almost to a man, and it 
ought to be sustained at all hazards," wrote the ex-President to a 
former member of his Cabinet. 

But most notable of all was the action of Douglas, to whom 
a parting word is now due. If there was a man in the North, aside 
from the President, in whose hands the fate of the Union 
rested, it was Stephen A. Douglas. The Republican ^^^Z^^ 
party could not have won in the gigantic struggle but 
for the aid of the northern Democrats. More than a million men at 
the North looked to Douglas as their political leader, and his influence 

1 Anderson had one hundred and twenty-eight men, including non-combatants 
It is a strange fact that not a life was lost on either side in this hombardment. 



644 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

was at least coordinate with that of the memory of Jackson. What 
a power for good or for evil rested with this man ! and the use he 
made of this power must lead posterity to condone every error of his 
earlier life. Not only did Douglas powerfully defend the President's 
inaugural in the extra session of the Senate, but on the day that 
intervened between the fall of the famous fort in the Charleston 
harbor and the call to arms, Douglas called on the President, and in 
a long, confidential interview pledged his support and offered his 
services in the cause of the Union. ' Next morning the press of the 
North published the President's call for troops, and in the same 
edition an account of this interview with Douglas. The effect 
on the followers of Douglas may be imagined. Southern hopes 
of a divided North vanished like a mist. Lincoln was greatly 
pleased with this attitude of his former, rival, and, it is believed, 
would have offered him some high position of honor, had his life 
been spared. But Douglas was soon called to pay the debt of 
Nature; in June of this same year he was gathered unto his 
fathers. 

The fall of Fort Sumter had an effect on the South quite equal 
to that on the North. This first blow struck by the South had the 
effect, as we have seen, of crystallizing the North against 
s ^^^h* °" *^^ disunion, and it unified a large portion of the South on 
the opposite side. Four slave states that had hesitated 
for months now proceeded to pass ordinances of secession, and thou- 
sands who had favored preserving the Union till that moment readily 
joined the forces of secession. This is explained, not only by the 
fact that the firing on the fort was a notice that the day of negotia- 
tion was past, but by the further fact that President Lincoln's call to 
arms that soon followed indicated his policy of coercion — a thing 
most distasteful to the South. 

If there was one man in the South who could have prevented the 
secession of these four states it was John Bell of Tennessee. For 
many years he had stood high in the councils of his 
state and of the nation. He and Douglas had received 
a combined vote in the South a hvmdred thousand greater than the 
vote of Breckenridge. He could have held for the Union not only 
many of the old Whigs who had voted for him, but also the Douglas 
Democrats — probably half a million men ; he might have been able 
to prevent secession in Tennessee and North Carolina ; and Virginia 
never would have seceded if cut off from the cotton states by these 



OTHER STATES SECEDE 64S 

two.' But this man, who had stood on a "Constitution " and "Union " 
platform, now, probably because of his dislike of coercion, trampled 
the Constitution in the dust and gave his voice for disunion. 

Virginia was the first to join the procession. Her convention 
had been sitting for weeks, and as late as April 4 had voted by 
two to one against secession. But Richmond was full 
of conspirators who labored night and day to get the Jg^f^gg* 
Old Dominion into the Confederacy. Now the hour 
had come ; the state could swing in the balance no longer ; and she 
cast her lot with her slaveholding sisters. But two days after 
Lincoln's call to arms the Virginia convention passed a secession 
ordinance. It then provided for submitting the ordinance to a 
popular vote ; but this election would be dignified by calling it a 
farce. The convention proceeded to put the Virginia troops into 
the hands of Jefferson Davis, to send delegates to the Confederate 
Congress, to invite the Confederate government to make Richmond 
its capital, and to officially proclaim the commonwealth a member of 
the Confederacy, — all before the people had voted on the ordi- 
nance. Then they voted, and ratified it by a substantial majority. 
There was nothing else to do but to " get out of the state," as Senator 
Mason put it. Before the secession of Virginia was proclaimed, move- 
ments were set on foot to seize the United States arsenal at Harpers 
Ferry and the government Navy Yard near Norfolk with its im- 
mense military stores, including two thousand cannon. Both were 
in the hands of the state authorities before the end of April. These 
were worth $10,000,000 ; all the seizures by the South put together 
reached the grand total of $40,000,000. 

North Carolina and Arkansas seceded in May, and Tennessee in 
June. This made eleven, and here the process of secession stopped. 
Every effort was made by the Confederacy to win the jjo^th Caro- 
four remaining slave states, — Delaware, Maryland, lina, Arkan- 
Kentucky, and Missouri ; but though the governors sas, and Ten- 
of Missouri and Kentucky did everything in their lessee secede, 
power to lead their respective states to secede, their efforts were 
fruitless. Even in the seceded states the disunion sentiment was 
not unanimous. In eastern Tennessee thousands of the mountain- 
eers opposed secession and remained true to the Union during the 

1 Virginia preceded these in seceding, but Virginia was morally sure that North 
Carolina and Tennessee would follow her. See Blaine's" Twenty Years of Congress," 
Vol. I, p. 311. 



646 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

war. The same was true in western Virginia, where the people, re- 
pudiating the action of the state, broke away from it and formed the 
state of West Virginia. For thirty years the South had been united 
on tlie great questions growing out of slavery, while the ISTorth was 
always divided; now this condition was reversed — the North (save 
an isolated individual here and there) was united, not on the slavery 
question, but on the issue of preserving the Union, while the South 
was hopelessly divided. 

NOTES 

Lincoln's Journey to Washington. — Lincoln's journey to the capital was 
roundabout. He passed through most of the large northern cities, and in his 
brief addresses he seemed to treat the grave state of the country too lightly, 
declaring that there was no need of fear that there would be any bloodshed. 
When in Philadelphia on February 22, he received letters from Seward and 
General Scott advising that his published programme be changed, as there were 
serious threats of assassinating him when he passed through Baltimore. To 
this he refused to agree. " I cannot consent to it," said he. " What would the 
nation think of its President stealing into the capital like a thief in the night." 
He went to Harrisburg that morning, and there it was determined by his friends 
that it was needless to endanger his life, and that he should go to Washington 
incognito during the coming night. Lincoln yielded ; but he ever afterward 
regretted having done so. Colonel Scott, president oi the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road, took entire charge of the project. He cut all the telegraph wires leading 
out of Harrisburg, and sent Lincoln with a single companion, Colonel Lamon, 
to Philadelphia to catch the night train to Washington. Everything went 
smoothly, and after the friends of Lincoln had spent a sleepless night at Harris- 
burg, the wires being repaired about daybreak, they received the cipher tele- 
gram previously agreed on, "Plums delivered nuts safely," and Colonel Scott 
threw his hat into the air and shouted, "Lincoln is in Washington." See 
McClure's "Lincoln and Men of War Times," p. 45 sg. 

Douglas at Columbus. — A few days after the fall of Fort Sumter, Stephen 
A. Douglas, in journeying eastward to Washington, stopped to spend a night at 
Columbus, Ohio. The people of the city soon learned of his presence, and a 
large crowd gathered in the dim-lighted street about his hotel and called for an 
expression from him on the great question before the country. The crowd, 
composed of all parties, was not noisy ; it was earnest, serious, and thoughtful. 
Douglas had not thought of making a speech, but he went half dressed to the 
unlighted window, his form appearing in dim outline to the waiting crowd. 
Then he spoke solemnly in slow, measured sentences, his deep, musical, sono- 
rous tones rolling over the crowd — a veritable voice in the night. Here the 
great Democratic leader declared for the preservation of the Union at all hazards, 
for the crushing of insurrection, and pledged himself to the support of the Lin- 
coln administration in the great crisis. " The people scarcely cheered," says an 
eyewitness, " and the silence seemed as a deep religious Amen from the multi- 
tude." See Coxe's " Reminiscences of the Civil War," pp. 5-0. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

BEGINNINGS OP THE GREAT WAR 

A VIEW OF THE BELLIGERENTS 

The United States was now divided into two hostile sections 
ready to spring at each other in deadly combat. The North, includ- 
ing the border states and the newly admitted Kansas, was com- 
posed of twenty -three states, the South of eleven ; the population of 
the North exceeded twenty-two millions, while the population of 
the seceding states was about nine millions. According to these 
figures it would seem that the North must win in the great contest 
that was before them. But in some respects the South had the ad- 
vantage of the North. One of these was its unanimity. We have 
noticed that the slave states were geographically divided, that four 
of them refused to secede, and that two, Virginia and Tennessee, ex- 
perienced a revolt against secession ; but aside from these exceptions, 
the oneness of spirit in the slave states was remarkable. This seems 
the more surprising when one considers that in the entire Confed- 
eracy there were only about eight thousand large slaveholders, and 
that not more than three hundred and fifty thousand held slaves at all. 
These represented a population of less than two millions. More 
than five millions of the southern whites therefore were absolutely 
without interest in slave property ; and yet these were as faithful as 
their slaveholding neighbors to the southern cause. 

The North, on the other hand, was less unanimous after the first 
year of the war, when it became an abolition war, as well as a war 
against disunion. The firing on Fort Sumter, as aforesaid, swept 
the free states with one grand, patriotic impulse ; but before the 
close of the great contest partisanship rose again to the surface, and 
the administration was often handicapped by a want of hearty sup- 
port. This was shown by the draft riots in New York, by the 
adverse result of the elections in many states, and by the severe criti- 
cisms of the methods of conducting the war, from within as well as 
from without the dominant party. 

647 



848 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Another advantage of the South was found in its better trained 
men. The slaveholders were men well trained in the use of fire- 
arms and in horsemanship, while no such a class could 

onhTsouth ^® ^^^^^ ^* *^® -^°^'^^ outside the regular army. The 
southern armies therefore were more efficient at first 
than their opponents from the North. 

A third advantage of the Southerners was found in the fact that 
they fought on their own soil, and had the sympathy and support of 
the people. After secession had been accomplished they felt that 
the United States was a foreign nation, that its armies were invad- 
ing their soil and destroying their homes for the sole purpose of 
conquest and subjugation. Such a belief infuses into men a desper- 
ate valor that nothing else can produce. 

The advantages of the North, however, were greater than those of 
the South. First, it had more men and more money. The proportion 
of nlen was about as five to two, and this difference became very 
marked in the latter part of the struggle. In wealth the North far 
surpassed the South. At first the credit of the United States was low, 
but soon after the Midas touch of Secretary Chase began to be felt, 
our bonds found a ready sale. A brilliant stroke was the establishing 
of the national banks in 1863, by which the government became re- 
sponsible for the issue of local banks, and by thus laying its hand on 
the people's money, it restored confidence on all sides. The credit of 
the nation was far better at the close of the war than at its beginning. 

The Confederacy had little specie, and it issued large quantities 
of paper money ; but as the years passed and its cause seemed hope- 
less, its bills fell steadily in value until they became worthless. 

Another advantage of the North lay in its foreign relations. 
Nothing is more essential to our modern civilization than foreign 
relations and foreign commerce. It was important to the United 
States to maintain its cordial relations with other powers, and it 
was absolutely essential to prevent the recognition by foreign 
countries of the independence of the Confederacy. Had any of the 
great European powers recognized the South, the blockade of the 
southern ports could have been broken in an hour, and the South could 
have sold its cotton, while food, clothing, and munitions of war 
would have poured into its ports in endless quantities. But the 
Confederacy fought the war through under the incalculable disad- 
vantage of being without foreign relations, and the fact is due chiefly 
to the diplomatic skill of Lincoln's administration. 



NORTH AND SOUTH COMPARED 649 

The North, however, might have won in the great struggle 
though its foreign relations had been suspended, as it had unbounded 
resources and the ability to use them. This brings us to the chief 
advantage of the North over the South — its ability to manufacture 
its own materials. Every soldier in the northern armies could have 
been fed from the northern farms, clothed from the northern mills, 
and fully equipped from the northern foundries. But the South 
was purely an agricultural region. Slave labor was incapable of 
manufacturing ; it could only delve the soil ; nor could the skilled 
workman be induced to go to the South and work among slaves. 
Hence its rich minerals, its vast and inexhaustible resources, were 
left in the earth. It raised cotton, rice, tobacco, and cereals, sold 
them abroad, and purchased almost every manufactured article from 
the North or from Europe. When the war came, this trade was all 
shut off, and it was then too late to build factories ; the men of brains 
were in the armies. This want of ability to manufacture, occasioned 
by slavery, was a source of fatal weakness to the South, and insured 
its ultimate defeat. Thus slavery not only brought about secession 
and the war, but, the war once begun, it brought about the defeat of 
the South. 

EVENTS OF APRIL 

The month of April, 1861, was exceedingly eventful in American 
history. We have noticed the fall of Fort Sumter, the secession of 
Virginia, the seizure of Harpers Ferry and of the great Navy Yard 
at Gosport near Norfolk, and have referred to the President's call to 
arms. Then came the great uprising of the North, the attack on 
the troops in Baltimore, the marshaling of southern armies, the" 
proclamation of the blockade by President Lincoln — all within one 
week after the attack on Sumter. The President's call for troops 
was met throughout the North with a ready response. The farmer 
left his plow and the artisan his workshop, the merchant abandoned 
his store, and the banker his countingroom to answer the call to 
save the Union. Congress, it is true, has sole power to create armies 
and navies, but this call for militia was based on a statute of sixty- 
five years' standing, by which the President was enabled to call the 
militia in any numbers into the service of the Union when necessary 
for the public safety. The object, as stated in the proclamation, was 
to put down insurrections in certain states, which were mentioned by 
name, and to repossess the forts and other places that had been seized. 



650 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

All mention of the Confederacy, and even of the states as units of 
insurrection, was avoided. Secession vi^as not therefore recognized 
as the action of a state, but as the unlawful proceeding of certain 
disaffected classes within it. 

The President's call was addressed to the governors of all the 
states North and South, except those in which rebellion existed. 
The response from the North was hearty and unanimous. 
faU^kTarms "^^^ solitary Democratic governor in the North (in Rhode 
Island) marched at the head of his militia to the battle 
field. From the lower South favorable answers were neither expected 
nor received. The answers showed a spirit of defiance aud a decisive 
refusal to send troops for the " wicked purpose of subjugating the 
Southern states." From the four border states that did not secede 
the answers were far from satisfactory. The governors of Kentucky 
and Missouri flatly refused, while those of Maryland and Delaware 
delayed and did nothing.^ 

As the Massachusetts troops were passing through Baltimore on 
the 19th of April, they were attacked by a mob of southern sympa- 
thizers. The mayor did all in his power to preserve order, but the 
mob could not be restrained ; it attacked the troops with pistols and 
missiles, and they were obliged to open fire in self-defense. Four of 
the soldiers and probably a dozen of their assailants were killed. 
This was the first bloodshed of the Civil War. 

If anything more was needed to fire the northern heart after the 
attack on Sumter, the work of the mob in Baltimore supplied the 
deficiency. President Lincoln dealt with the matter in great modera- 
tion. He did not lose his temper ; he quietly decided to avoid fur- 
ther trouble by bringing his troops to the capital by way of Annapolis. 
Baltimore remained in a state of great commotion for three weeks, 
when General B. F. Butler of Massachusetts took military possession 
of the city. 

This 19th of April was to receive still another mark as a historic 
date. It was on this same day that witnessed the first bloodshed of 
the Civil War, the anniversary of the first bloodshed of the Revolution, 
that the American President issued a proclamation of unmeasured 
importance. He proclaimed a blockade of the ports of the seceded 
states.^ This seemed an audacious utterance indeed. The United 

1 Governor Hicks of Maryland raised some troops after long delay. 

2 The ports of Virginia and North Carolina were not inclnde<I in this proclama' 
tion, but these were included in an additional one issued on the 27th. 



THE BLOCKADE 651 



States Navy was composed of but forty -two wooden vessels, and 
more than half of these were in foreign waters, while the blockade 
covered three thousand miles of seacoast. Was the new 
President a dreamer or a genius ? The world had not 
yet taken his measure, and knew not how to classify him. At first 
the blockade amounted to little ; but erelong the vessels began to 
arrive from afar, merchant vessels were turned into ships of war, 
the northern shipyards were kept busy day and night, one southern 
port after another was shut in by a cordon of war vessels, and long 
before the close of the war the South was hemmed in and isolated 
from the rest of the wOrld. Great stacks of cotton piled along the 
seaboard could be bought for four cents a pound, while it was worth 
f 2.50 at Liverpool. A ton of salt worth $7 or f 8 at Nassau, was 
worth $1700 in gold at Eichmond before the close of the war — all 
because of the blockade. The South was in the direst need of arms 
and clothing, but it could purchase nothing from abroad, owing to 
the blockade. Had the southern markets been open to the world, the 
conquest of the Confederacy would have been almost impossible. 
Scarcely more did the northern armies toward compassing the collapse 
of the rebellion than did the blockade. 

The spirit of secession in Maryland was not confined to the city 
of Baltimore ; it swept in a sudden wild, enthusiastic wave over the 
state. But it was short-lived ; it was the cry of a vigorous minority. 
Before the close of April the sober second thought began to assert 
itself ; two thirds of the people were found to be for the Union, and 
the legislature decided by a large majority to cling to the old flag. 
And yet Maryland did not rush to the defense of the 
Union. As the state lay between the two great sections, 
the people halted between two opinions. The legislature voted to 
take a neutral ground as to actual hostilities, and sent an embassy to 
Montgomery, and another to Washington, to implore the respective 
Presidents to cease the unholy war. In the course of the war, how- 
ever, many Marylanders fought in the Union armies, while others 
took the side of the South. 

In the other two great border states, Kentucky and Missouri, 
there were similar struggles, with the same result as in Maryland. 
It happened that in Missouri both the governor, Jackson, and the 
legislature were favorable to secession. In January a call was made 
for the election of a convention to decide the great question, and to 
the chagrin and surprise of the authorities a large majority of the 



652 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

delegates so elected were Unionists. Governor Jackson, however, 
did everything in his power to lead the state into secession and to 
seize the United States arsenal at St. Louis. But St. Louis at this 
moment contained a stanch defender of the Union in the person of 
Francis P. Blair, Jr., a brother of Mr. Lincoln's postmaster-general. 
The governor found his plans foiled at every point by the ever 
watchful Blair. Captain Nathaniel Lyon, who had com- 
Missouri. mand of the arsenal, worked hand in hand with Blair 

to save the state and the arsenal. Governor Jackson was busy 
organizing the forces of secession : he established '' Camp Jackson " 
in the suburbs of the city, and sent to President Davis for arms and 
ammunition. These arrived on May 8, and two days later Lyon 
marched out with six thousand men, surrounded the camp, and forced 
its surrender without bloodshed. 

This was a great blow to the secession cause in Missouri, but the 
trouble did not end here. The whole state was in turmoil, and the 
scenes of a few years before in Kansas were repeated. Governor 
Jackson and Sterling Price, his chief lieutenant, demanded as a con- 
dition of peace that Federal troops should not be stationed within the 
state, nor be permitted to pass through it. Blair and Lyon refused to 
agree to this, and their decision was construed by Jackson and Price 
as a declaration of war upon the state, Jackson issued a call for fifty 
thousand volunteers to defend the state. This was a challenge, and 
Lyon, so accepting it, sailed up the Missouri in June and took posses- 
sion of the capital. Thus Missouri became one of the first battle- 
fields of the war, as we shall notice on a later page ; but at this point 
we turn to take a view of her sister south of the Ohio. 

President Lincoln was extremely anxious to save Kentucky for 
the Union, not simply because of its strategic importance, which 
was great, but also because it was his native state and he regarded it 
with peculiar affection. Governor Beriah Magoffin was a decided 
secessionist, as was also the foremost man in the state, John C. 
Breckenridge ; but their combined influence was not great enough to 
control the people of the state, or even the Democratic legislature. 
Governor Magoffin used every effort in his power to lead the legis- 
lature to call a secession convention and to arm the state under 
Simon B. Buckner, a known secessionist ; but that body 
answered him by passing a law requiring an oath of 
allegiance to the Union. However, Kentucky, like Maryland, 
failed to hasten to the aid of the Union at the President's call; 



THE BORDER STATES 663 

it decided on a neutral ground towards the war.^ President Lin- 
coln tacitly consented to the neutral position of Kentucky, on the 
supposition that the soil of the state would soon be invaded by 
Confederate armies, when the people would gladly welcome Federal 
troops to expel them ; and this is exactly what came to pass. On 
the 20th of June the state voted for members of Congress, and to 
the lasting joy of the administration the Union party polled nearly 
three votes to one for the secessionists, electing nine out of ten mem- 
bers by a combined majority of 55,000. Thus ended the hopes of 
the disunionists for Kentucky, though the state, like Maryland and 
Missouri, furnished many soldiers for each side in the war. 

OPENING OF HOSTILITIES IN VIRGINIA AND MISSOURI 

President Lincoln's call for 75,000 men and for an extra session 
of Congress was answered by President Davis by a call for 100,000 ^ 
men and for an extra session of the southern Congress. The Con- 
federate Congress met on the 29th of April, authorized the raising of 
$50,000,000, forbade the payment of all debts due from the southern 
people to individuals or corporations in the free states, admitted 
Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas to the Confeder- 
acy, and moved the capital to Richmond. 

Lincoln, on May 3, called for 42,000 more volunteers for three 
years unless sooner discharged, for an increase of the regular army 
by 22,714 men, and for the enlistment of 18,000 seamen for the 
navy. It was now plain that both sides were preparing for war 
in earnest. The great immediate concern of the Lincoln administra- 
tion was to make safe the city of Washington. Soon after the fall 
of Sumter a member of Davis's Cabinet had boasted that by the 
first of May the Confederate flag would float over the capital at 
Washington. This threat was published throughout the North, and 
it caused much fright among the people. The fear was greatly 
increased by the knowledge of the gathering of the Confederate 
armies in northern Virginia and the inability of the 
northern troops to pass through Baltimore on their way -y/^asMneton 
to the defense of the capital. No attempt to take the 
city was made by the Confederates, but had such an attempt been 

1 Nevertheless the Confederate Congress went through the farce in December, 
1861, of admitting Kentucky into the Confederacy. 

3 Or rather, he stated in his message that such an army was being raised undel 
authority of a preceding act of Congress. 



654 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

made before the 25th of April, it might have succeeded. But all 
fears were scattered on that day by the arrival of two New York 
and Massachusetts regiments. And others were coming. Before 
the end of May 60,000 troops had gathered in the city, and they 
crossed the Potomac and took possession of Alexandria and of the 
famous heights of Arlington.^ Here they paused; and the Con- 
federate army, scattered from Harpers Ferry to Norfolk, also 
remained inactive. 

Meantime the war had actually begun in another quarter. Early 
in May Governor Letcher of Virginia called for the militia of that 
state to assemble under arms for the purpose of repelling an appre- 
hended invasion from the " government at Washington." This 
meant nothing less than an enlistment in the Confederate service. 
But the people living beyond the Alleghanies, throughout that sec- 
tion of Virginia bordering on Ohio and Pennsylvania, were not in 
sympathy with the rebellion. They had few slaves, and their 
interests lay with the North. Why should they take up arms 
against the Union and the flag which they loved ? They refused to 
do so ; they held mass meetings in Wheeling and other cities, and 
declared their adherence to the Union. Some forty counties, includ- 
ing a few east of the mountains, held a convention in June, and the 
delegates were almost unanimous in their desire to have the western 
counties break away from the old state and form a new one. One of 
the chief objects of the convention was to bring about a division of 
the state. The convention chose Francis H. Pierpont governor, not 
of the proposed new state, but of Virginia, taking the ground that 
the loyal citizens of the state truly represented it, and that the 
disunion government at Richmond was illegal. It was this govern- 
ment that applied to Washington for a division of the state. Some 
time later senators and representatives were sent to the Congress — • 
not at Richmond, but at Washington. A constitution was framed 
for the new state, and was ratified by the people in May, 1862. 

The following year West Virginia became a state in the 
Vireinia Union, Congress agreeing with the loyal citizens that 

they legally rep'resented Virginia. The clause in the 
Federal Constitution forbidding the division of any state without 

^ As Colonel Ellsworth, the commander of the New York Fire Zouaves, entered 
Alexandria he saw a Confederate flag flying over a hotel, and, mounting the stair on 
the inside, he hauled it down. As he came down the stairway he was met by the 
hotel keeper, who shot Ellsworth dead on sight. The next instant the hotel keeper 
was shot by one of Ellsworth's men. See Greeley, Vol. I, p. 533. 



PREPARING FOR BATTLE 055 

its consent was overcome on the ground that, as secession was 
illegal and void, the West Virginians represented Virginia, and their 
consent to the division was deemed sufficient. 

Governor Pierpont had applied to President Lincoln for assist- 
ance in driving out the secessionists. The request was granted, and 
western Virginia became the first battle ground of the Civil War ; 
and the first hero of the war, aside from Major Anderson, was 
George B. McClellan, a young army officer who had McClellanin 
resigned his commission and was now president of a West 
railroad company and residing in Cincinnati. His first Virginia, 
serious work was to clear western Virginia of Confederates, and he 
addressed himself to the task with great vigor. 

In a series of skirmishes, covering but a few weeks, he drove the 
enemy entirely out of that part of Virginia. The Union loss, accord- 
ing to McClellan's report, was twenty killed and sixty wounded, 
while the loss of the enemy ^ was about twenty times as great, with 
a thousand taken prisoners. This preliminary work was very im- 
portant in its results. It saved that entire section for the Union, 
reestablished the broken railroad lines westward from Washington, 
and pointed toward McClellan as the coming man in the great war 
that was to follow. 

While these things were going on, conditions were matui'ing in 
eastern Virginia for the first great battle of the war. Public opinion 
at the North was impatient at the inaction of the army along the 
Potomac. Why not strike a blow for the Union ? This was the cry 
all over the North, and though General Winfield Scott, the com- 
mander in chief, did not favor giving battle at that moment, the 
pressure was too great to be resisted. General Irvin McDowell 
held 45,000 men on the Potomac opposite Washington; General 
Butler, who had been transferred from Baltimore, occupied Portress 
Monroe with 10,000, while General Patterson marched from Penn- 
sylvania into Virginia with 20,000 men. Opposed to these were 
General J. B. Magruder, facing Butler with about the same force ; 
General Joseph E. Johnston with some 12,000 men, who had retreated 
from Harpers Ferry to Winchester at the approach of Patterson ; 
while opposite McDowell, with his base at Manassas, Beauregard,^ 
who in former years had been a classmate of McDowell at West 
Point, held the main Confederate army of about 20,000 men. Such 

1 The belligerents both being Americans, the term " enemy " is used in these pages, 
for either side, as a convenience. '•' Beaiirpfjard had resij^ned from the United 

States army, as had also many of the Confederate officers, some two hundred in all. 



656 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

was the military situation in eastern Virginia when the administrac 

tion decided on a general advance for the purpose of offering battle. 

On the 16th of July McDowell moved forward with 30,000 men, 

to attack Beauregard at Manassas. Every indication pointed to a 

northern victory. McDowell was a good strategist. 
^''^^i^e^'^ The plan of the coming battle was his own, though the 

general movements were directed from Washington by 
General Scott. The North was in high spirits in anticipation of the 
battle. Many members of Congress drove out from Washington 
to receive the earliest word of the expected victory of the ** Grand 
Army." And it would have been realized but for the unaccount- 
able action of General Patterson, who failed to detain Johnston at 
Winchester as he was ordered to do. Instead of doing this he with- 
drew to Charleston, twenty-two miles away, and Johnston hastened 
to join Beauregard with the major part of his army. Patterson was 
a veteran of the War of 1812 and of the Mexican War, and though 
he was a Breckenridge Democrat in the campaign of 1860, there 
is little ground to question his loyalty to the Union. His costly 
blunder was the result of incapacity. He was speedily relieved of 
his command, and ISTathaniel P. Banks was appointed in his stead. 

McDowell had planned the battle with reference to Beauregard's 
army alone, and did not know of the arrival of Johnston till after 

the battle. He decided to make the attack on Sunday, 
Bull Euu J^^y 21, and before three o'clock in the morning his 

army moved from Centreville in three columns under 
Generals Tyler, Hunter, and Heintzelman.^ Tyler was to make a 
feint on Beauregard's left ; the other two were to make a long detour 
and cross Bull Run at Sudley Ford and make the real attack. 
Hunter's division met the enemy at ten o'clock and opened fire. In 
a short time the Confederates were driven back a mile and a half to 
a plateau where General Thomas J. Jackson stood with a brigade 
awaiting the Union forces. At this point the Confederate General 
Bee, who was mortally wounded later in the day, is said to have 
exclaimed to his men, "Look at Jackson, there he stands like a 
stonewall ! " — and from that time this remarkable commander, whose 
powers were yet to be revealed, was known as " Stonewall " Jackson. 
The firing was heard by Beauregard and Johnston, then four 
miles away, and they galloped to the scene of the conflict. Johnston 

1 Two other divisions, under Miles and Runyon, were left to guard the base at 
Centreville and the communications with Washington. 



BATTLE OF BULL RUN 66f 

was the ranking officer, but he approved most of the plans of Beau- 
regard, and the two worked in harmony during the day. They 
arrived on the field at noon and ordered an immediate renewal 
of the fight. The battle raged for three hours longer. The divi- 
sions of Tyler and Heinzelman having joined that of Hunter, the 
Union forces surged up the slope and gained possession of the hill. 
They were driven back by Jackson at the point of the bayonet ; but 
they rallied and regained their ground, sweeping the Confederates 
from the field. Such was the condition at three o'clock. The Union 
troops began to rejoice in their victory. 

But at this moment the Confederates began to cheer and to move 
forward with great confidence. Why the sudden change ? General 
Kirby Smith had just arrived with the remnant of Johnston's 
army, over twenty -five hundred men. These fresh troops were joined 
to the army of Beauregard and the whole force moved impetuously 
against McDowell. The word now flew through the Union ranks 
that Johnston's army had arrived, and the untrained 
militia were seized with a sudden fear.^ They began to 
waver, to retreat down the slope-; and in a little time they were a 
panic-stricken, disorganized mass, fleeing for their lives across the 
Virginia plains. In vain did McDowell and his officers attempt to 
rally the frightened men. They believed the Confederates were 
pursuing them (which was not true), and they fled on and on till late 
in the night, many of them never stopping till they reached the 
heights of Arlington or Washington, thirty miles from the scene of 
the conflict. Thus ended the famous, disastrous battle of Bull Eun. 

The news of the defeat at Bull Eun caused deep depression and 
indignation at the North. McDowell was severely censured, but he 
had done nobly, and deserved no blame. The army was denounced 
as a band of cowards, but unfairly and unjustly. Most of them 
were untrained in military affairs; they had enlisted in the war 
through a patriotic impulse, with little knowledge of the real charac- 
ter of war. They had been thrown into a panic, had lost their heads 
and become uncontrollable through a sudden fright. Such an expe- 
rience might come to any body of raw militia, but it would hardly be 
possible with regulars. 

1 They had uot yet learned that Johnston with most of his army had arrived on 
Saturday. The Union loss in this battle was 481 killed, 1011 wounded, and about 1300 
prisoners, many of whom were wounded. The Confederate loss was 387 killed, 1582 
wounded, and a few prisoners. The Union army also lost 28 cannon, 5000 muskets, and 
half a million cartridges. 
2u 



658 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

The battle of Bull Run was in the end a great lesson for the 
North. It misled the South by giving the people a false sense of 
security, a belief that ultimate success was certain. The North, on 
the other hand, after a few days of depression and discouragement, 
arose to the gravity of the situation. People realized for the first 
time that a long and bloody war was necessary to save the Union ; 
and the slight wound received at Bull Run awakened the mighty 
energy that was essential to success. 

Next to Virginia, Missouri became the earliest battle ground of 
the war. As we have noticed, Governor Jackson and the legislature 
made the most desperate efforts to lead Missouri into secession, but 
the people thought otherwise. They elected a Union convention 
which declared the office of governor and other offices vacant, and 
appointed Union men to fill them. These appoint- 
ments were ratified by the people. But the discredited 
governor and a fragment of his discredited legislature met in 
November, and boldly set forth a declaration of independence and 
pronounced the state out of the Union. This movement proved a 
fiasco ; it had no influence with the people. 

We left General Lyon at Jefferson City, whence he removed to 
Springfield to join his forces with fifteen hundred men under Colonel 
Franz Sigel. The Missourians under Sterling Price had meantime 
been joined by General Ben McCulloch with a force from Texas 
and Arkansas, raising the entire army to nearly twelve thousand, 
while that of Lyon was not over six thousand. On the 9th of August 
Lyon advanced from Springfield to the banks of Wilson's Cre^k, ten 
miles from the town, where Price and McCulloch were encamped. 
Sending Sigel with twelve hundred men around the enemy's right 
Battle of ^^ strike from the rear, Lyon commanded the main army 

Wilson's and advanced to attack in front. The two attacks were 

Creek. made, front and rear, at almost the same moment, about 

five o'clock in the morning. Sigel made a desperate charge but 
was driven back with a loss of two thirds of his men. In front the 
battle continued for some hours, Lyon leading his men with great 
gallantry. Twice he was wounded, and his horse was shot under 
him ; but while the blood was streaming from a wound 
£_Q^ in the head, he mounted a second horse and shouted to 

his men to follow him in a final attack ; but at that mo- 
ment he received a fatal shot in the breast. The death of Lyon, 
one of the bravest and most skillful officers in the service of the 



LINCOLN'S MESSAGE 65S 



government, was a national disaster. After his death the little army, 
under Major Sturgis, fought on valiantly for an hour longer, when 
it retreated in good order to Springiield and thence to Holla. The 
total Union loss in the battle of Wilson's Creek slightly exceeded 
twelve hundred, while the Confederates sustained a loss of about 
eleven hundred and fifty. 

THE EXTRA SESSION OF CONGRESS 

Before the battles of Wilson's Creek and Bull Run the Thirty- 
Seventh Congress had met in special session at the call of the Presi- 
dent. Two notable leaders of the Senate, Seward and Chase, were 
now in the Cabinet, and the seat of the latter was filled by John 
Sherman, whose six years' service in the House had prepared him 
for a long and useful career. Of the twenty-two senators represent- 
ing the eleven seceded states, all had left that body save Andrew 
Johnson of Tennessee, who alone remained true to the Union. But 
many able leaders yet remained. New England was represented by 
Sumner and Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, Jacob Collamer of 
Vermont, Fessenden of Maine, and John P. Hale of New Hamp- 
shire. From Pennsylvania came David Wilmot; from Ohio, Ben- 
jamin Wade; from Illinois, Lyman Trumbull; from Kentucky, 
John C. Breckenridge, and from far-away Oregon, the popular Eng- 
lish-born soldier-statesman, Edward D. Baker. 

The leader of the House was Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, 
who held the leadership throughout the war, and whose sympathy 
with the slave almost led him to dislike his own race. Among the 
ablest men in the House were George H. Pendleton of Ohio, Elihu 
B. Washburn of Illinois, and George S. Boutwell of Massachusetts. 
Galusha A. Grow of Pennsylvania was elected Speaker. 

Mr. Lincoln's message was a remarkably clear statement of the 
condition of the country, the purpose of the government, and the 
importance to the world of saving the Union. "This issue," he 
stated, "embraces more than the fate of the United States. It 
presents to the whole family of man the question whether a consti- 
tutional republic or democracy — a government of the 
people by the same people — can or cannot maintain its j^^^g^^ 
territorial integrity against its own domestic foes. . . . 
Must a government be too strong for the liberties of its own people, 
or too weak to maintain its own existence ? " That the President 



660 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

no longer thought of compromise is clear from his statement that 
" no popular government can long survive a marked precedent, that 
those who carry an election can only save the government from 
immediate destruction by giving up the main point upon which the 
people gave the election." As to the criticisms of the President 
for having in April suspended the writ of Habeas Corpus,^ he shows 
how this apparent violation of one law was to enforce all the others 
that had been violated at the South, and disposes of the matter in a 
stroke by saying, '' Are all the laws but one to go unexecuted, and 
the government itself go to pieces lest that one be violated ? " He 
confessed in this message that he had surpassed his constitutional 
powers in his call of May 4 for an increase in the regular army and 
of the navy; but he showed the public necessity for these acts and 
asked Congress to ratify them. He also called for four hundred thou- 
sand men and $400,000,000 to prosecute the war. 

The session was in full swing when the news of the Bull Run 
defeat reached the members ; but this only stimulated them, as it 
did the entire North, to the greater determination to put down the 
rebellion at all hazards. One of the first important acts was to 
authorize the President (July 25) to call out five hundred thousand 
volunteers for three years, or for the period of the war; and a few 
days later another act was passed largely increasing the regular army 
and the navy. The finances were also well taken care of. The 
secretary of the treasury was authorized to borrow $250,000,000 by 
issuing bonds and treasury notes; duties on certain imports were 
greatly increased ; an annual income tax of three per cent was laid 
on all incomes exceeding $800. Finally, on August 6, the last day 
of the session, the earlier acts of the President in augmenting the 
navy and army were ratified, and he was authorized to seize and 
confiscate any property used or intended to be used against the gov- 
ernment of the United States. After having thus put the country 
on a war footing. Congress adjourned, leaving the President practi- 
cally military dictator. 

The session was remarkable for its rapid dispatch of business 
and for the adoption of the following resolution, offered by the ven- 
erable Mr. Crittenden of Kentucky : " That . . . Congress, banish- 
ing all feeling of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its 
duty to the whole country ; this war is not waged ... in any spirit 
of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest . . . but to preserve 
1 For the suspending of Habeas Corpus, see note at end of chapter. 



RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND 661 

the Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several 
states unimpaired; and as soon as these objects are accomplished, 
the war ought to cease." By this resolution it will be seen that the 
war was not a war against slavery at this time ; but nothing could 
long keep the slavery question out of Congress ; this was shown in 
December of the same year, when Congress, called upon to vote on a 
resolution similar to the above, defeated it by a large majority. 
Even in this extra session an act, known as the Confiscation Act, was 
passed, hj which freedom was given to any slave who should be em- 
ployed in any way against the government of the United States. 

THE TRENT AFFAIR 

The " Trent Affair " played an important part in our foreign re- 
lations during the early portion of the war period ; but the account 
of it must be preceded by a hurried glance at the relations that led 
up to it. 

It was impossible that a prolonged civil war should be carried on 
in America without profoundly affecting the civilized world ; and 
the attitude of Europe, especially of England, was a matter of deep 
concern to the American people at the beginning of the great strug- 
gle. Never before had a more friendly spirit existed between Eng- 
land and the United States than in the autumn of 1860, Seldom 
had a year passed from the founding of the United States govern- 
ment seventy years before, without a dispute of some kind with the 
mother country ; but in December, 1860, President Buchanan could 
truthfully say in his message to Congress that as "two dangerous 
questions arising from the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty and from the right 
of search " (which had come up for the last time in 1858) had been 
amicably settled, our relations with Great Britain were of the most 
friendly character. Lord Lyons, the British minister at Washing- 
ton, pronounced this message the most cordial that had ever ap- 
peared in such a communication. Moreover, the young Prince of 
Wales had just visited our shores, bearing the good will of his royal 
mother to our government and people, and receiving from them the 
most unfeigned expressions of the nation's friendship. The London 
Times, commenting on the planting of a tree at the tomb of Wash- 
ington by the prince, said : " It seemed, when the royal youth 
closed the earth around the little germ, that he was burying the last 
faint trace of discord between us and our great brethren in the 



662 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

West." But all this was soon changed by the rising war cloud in 
America. 

The nation looked to England for sympathy in its struggle foi 
life; the southern Confederacy appealed to England's commercial 
North and interests, for it was the South that supplied the mate- 
South appeal rial that moved the machinery of the great cotton mills 
to England. of Liverpool, of Manchester, and of Leeds. How would 
England decide between the two sections ? On the one hand were 
the friendly relations with the United States ; on the other, the want 
of cotton, which could be had only by breaking the blockade and 
thus making war with the United States. An independent South 
meant free trade with the cotton states in future, and the bait was 
an alluring one to the English. But another consideration it was 
that probably prevented an early recognition of the Confederacy by 
Great Britain. Slavery was the acknowledged corner stone of the Con- 
federacy, and the English disliked slaver5^ From the time of Lord 
Mansfield's famous decision in 1772 slavery had not been permittad 
on the home soil, nor in the English colonies after 1833. How 
could the English aid in establishing a nation founded on slavery ? 

But commercial interests are powerful, and the sympathies of 
the higher classes in England were at first almost wholly with the 
South ? ^ The press and the great quarterlies of England favored 
the South. "We believe the conquest of the South to be a hope- 
less dream," said the Quarterly Review. " The Federal 
nress^^^^ government can never succeed in putting down the re- 
bellion," said Mr. Gladstone.^ Early in March a mo- 
tion was introduced into the House of Commons for the recognition 
of the independence of the South. Commercial interest, however, 
was not perhaps the solitary cause of this feeling. There was a 
general fear on the other side of the Atlantic that the American 
republic was growing too great. This was voiced by Sir Edward 
Bulwer Lytton, who said in an address,^ " I believe that such separa- 
tion will be attended with happy results to the safety of Europe and 
the development of American civilization. . . . America would have 
hung over Europe (but for its being divided by the Civil War, which 

1 See Justin McCarthy's " History of Our Own Times," Vol. II, p. 224. 

2 In 1896 Mr. Gladstone, in his old age, wrote in his diary that his offense was 
grossly improper iu giving this opinion in 1862. See Morley's " Life of Gladstone," 
Vol. II, p. 81. 

8 Before the agricultural society of Hertford County, September 25, 1861. Quoted 
by Harris, " The Trent Affair," p. 27. 



THE QUEEN'S PROCLAMATION 663 

the speaker assumed to be already accomplished) like a gathering 
and destructive thunder cloud." This feeling was natural in Europe, 
nor is it a just ground for present-day resentment in America. 
Europe foresaw that the United States, if they remained together, 
would grow into a vast power of unmeasured strength, but did not 
foresee that we would be a conservative people who love peace far 
better than war. To become a military bully because of conscious 
power is utterly foreign to the American spirit, nor can such a con- 
dition ever be possible without a complete revolution in public opin- 
ion, of which there is yet no tendency. 

Before the close of Buchanan's administration Secretary Black had 
written an order to our foreign ministers that they use every effort 
with the respective countries to which they were assigned j^^ queen's 
to prevent a recognition of the Confederacy. This proclama- 
was repeated in a more emphatic way by Secretary tion.May 14, 
Seward soon after the inauguration of Lincoln. Most ^^^^" 
countries made favorable answers ; but England, through her foreign 
minister, refused to commit herself one way or the other. Early in 
May, Charles Francis Adams, son of John Quincy Adams, embarked 
for England as minister to that country from the United States. On 
the day of his landing and before he had met the British officials, the 
queen's proclamation of neutrality was made public. This accorded 
to the South the same belligerent rights, the same war privileges, 
that international law accords to a sovereign power. This hasty 
action of Great Britain, which was soon followed by France and most 
of the other European governments, was looked upon by the American 
people as showing an unfriendly spirit. It is true that the United 
States was forced a few months later to do this very thing — to 
acknowledge the belligerent rights of the South, not openly, but by 
its treatment of Confederate soldiers according to the rules of war — 
but why should a foreign power do this first, before a state of war actu- 
ally existed, and in the face of our protest ? As John Bright said 
in the House of Commons, " It was done with unfriendly haste." ^ 

1 Speech of March I'S, 1865. British writers have justified the action of the queen 
by taking the ground that President Lincoln had in substance acknowledged the 
belligerency of the South by his blockade proclamation of April 19, and that a foreign 
power could not respect the blockade without recognizing the state of war. But 
there is no international rule of this sort. For example, Russia blockaded her own 
ports on the Black Sea for five years succeeding 1831, as they were in the hands of the 
Circassian rebels. England recognized this blockade without acknowledging the 
belligerent rights of the rebels. See Harris, p. 51. 



664 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

^ _ ^ — ^ 

In a few months, however, when it was seen that the British 
government was not inclined at that time to acknowledge the inde- 
pendence of the Confederacy,^ the feeling of bitterness awakened by 
the proclamation was greatly softened. There was also a reaction 
in England. Public opinion veered around and in some degree came 
to favor the North. This change was partially due to a series of 
articles describing slavery in the South, published in the London 
Times from its special correspondent who was traveling in the 
Southern states. 

Meantime the Confederate government was industriously seeking 
recognition from foreign powers, especially from England. The 
southern leaders believed that cotton would eventually unlock the 
doors that were at first closed against them. " We do not like 
slavery," said Lord Palmerston, the British Premier, to an American 
in London, " but we want cotton, and we dislike very much your 
Morrill tariff."^ While refraining from recognizing the South 
as a nation, the British government seemed to be preparing for some 
unusual movement. Twenty-five thousand fresh British troops were 
stationed along the Canadian border, in the fear that the Americans 
" might do something," as the English foreign minister said to Mr. 
Adams. Accordingly Secretary Seward addressed a circular letter 
to the governors of all the states along the northern border and the 
New England coast, suggesting that they, in conjunction with the 
Federal government, put the ports and harbors in the best state of 
defense. This circular caused much unfavorable comment in Canada 
and England. 

Scarcely had this circular reached the respective governors when 
occurred the episode known as the Trent Affair, which strained the 
peaceful relations between the United States and the British Empire 
almost to the breaking point. President Davis had determined to 
send two men of established reputation to represent his government 
at London and Paris. James M. Mason of Virginia and John Slidell 
of Louisiana were chosen. Mr. Mason belonged to one 
Sliden ^^ ^^® most prominent families of Virginia ; he had 

served for many years in the United States Senate, 
and was the writer of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Slidell had 
also served in the Senate. Both were secessionists of the ultra type. 

1 The motion to recognize the independence of the South introduced in the 
Commons in March, was withdrawn in June. 

2 See Rhodes, Vol. III. pp. 431, 433. 



CAPTURE OF MASON AND SLIDELL 665 

At midnight of October 12, 1861, Mason and Slidell escaped 
from Charleston Harbor in an armed blockade runner and reached 
Havana in safety. On November 7 they embarked from that port 
for Southampton, England, on the British mail steamer Trent. At 
about noon of the next day, as the Trent was steaming through the 
Bahama Channel, she was hailed by an American sloop and ordered, 
by a solid shot across her bows, to heave to. Disregarding this, the 
Trent was brought to a stop by a shell that exploded in front of her. 
The American vessel proved to be the San Jacinto, a screw sloop of 
fifteen guns. Captain Charles Wilkes was her commander. Wilkes 
was known as a skillful naval officer, but he was better known as a 
scientist and an explorer. He had made a famous voyage to the 
Antarctic seas, where he discovered and gave his name to that dreary, 
unpeopled land which is marked in our geographies as "Wilkes 
Land." Hearing that the two southern envoys had em- jj^g seizure 
barked on the Trent, Wilkes determined to make them October 13, 
his prisoners. The English captain was highly indig- 1861. 
nant at the demand, but he had no power to resist, and after Mason 
and Slidell and their two secretaries had been transferred to the San 
Jacinto the Trent was permitted to proceed on her way. The two 
men were carried to Boston Harbor and confined as prisoners of 
war in Fort Warren. 

The news of Wilkes's capture produced the first hearty rejoicing 
of the war throughout the North. The press and the people raised 
a shout of joy over the clever capture. Captain Wilkes was given 
an ovation in Boston, another in New York, and he became a popular 
hero of the day. Congress tendered him a vote of thanks, and the 
Cabinet, except one member, joined in the general chorus of rejoic- 
ing. But there was one man, the wisest and farthest-sighted of 
them all, who did not join in the general joy. This was President 
Lincoln. On the evening of the day that brought the news of the 
capture, he said that he feared the captives would prove white 
elephants, and declared that " we fought Great Britain for insisting 
by theory and practice on the right to do precisely what Captain 
Wilkes has done." He foresaw that the attitude of England in 
the matter must be reckoned with, and Postmaster-General Blair 
shared his views. 

When the news of the capture reached England, a universal 
outburst of anger overspread the kingdom. As the American 
public had rejoiced without considering the gravity of the situation, 



666 HISTORY OP THE UNITED STATES 

SO the English people were equally thoughtless in flying into a 
passion. They ignored all precedents arising from their own claim 

of the right of search, and saw in the act of Wilkes 
Sr Und " '^ ^^^^^ *^® violation of the British flag. The law officers 

of the Crown decided that the act of Captain Wilkes 
was illegal because he did not take the Trent into port and subject 
his capture to the decision of a prize court. The war spirit rose 
to fever heat, and the government began making immediate prepara- 
tions for war. Great quantities of cannon, muskets, and ammuni- 
tion were loaded on shipboard for Canada. Thirty thousand men 
were sent to Halifax, in the belief, however, that they were going 
straight to Charleston to join the Confederate armies. 

With great promptness the British ministry framed a formal 
demand on America for reparation. This was sent to the queen 
for her approval, and Prince Albert wrestled with it a whole night, 
greatly modifying the harshness of its tone. This was the last 
official writing of the Prince Consort ; his health was rapidly failing, 
and within a few weeks he was dead. But seven days were allowed 
in which to return an answer to the British demand. When this 
became known to the American people, there was a cry of rage 
against England. It was believed on all sides that England would 
have made no such demand had we not been embarrassed at home 
by a great civil war — that she would have been willing to discuss 
the merits of the question, to cite precedents, and to leave the 
matter to arbitration. All this was refused in the peremptory 
demand. Public opinion was divided, but not equally. The 
great majority wanted war at any cost. Seward believed — and 
he had many followers — that we could defeat England and put 
down the rebellion at the same time. Others drew a darker picture 
— the destruction of our seaboard cities, the annihilation of our 
navy, and the breaking of the blockade; the loss of trade, the vast 
expense in money and human life, and the coalition of England 
with the South ! And yet many who saw this awful picture still 
raised their voice for war rather than submission. Others said, 
" Let us yield now from necessity and be revenged hereafter." John 
W. Eorney, one of the leading newspaper men in the country, said in 
the Philadelphia Press: ''Let us swear, not only to ourselves, but to our 
children that come after us, to repay this greedy and insolent power 
with the retribution of a just and fearful vengeance." But most of 
the people refrained from the use of such extravagant language. 



THE TRENT AFFAIR 667 

Meantime the momentous question had to be decided. The seven 
days had almost expired. Every eye was turned toward Washington, 
and at length the answer came. The government as- 
tonished the public and the world, disappointed the ^.°^®"*'* 
South, and averted a great war by quietly yielding the 
point — releasing the prisoners and disavowing the act of Wilkes.* 
Why this submission of a proud and mighty people, who believed 
themselves in the right ? The answer is simple : We could not then 
afford another great war. The decision probably saved the life of 
the nation, and the nineteenth century can furnish few greater 
strokes of statesmanship. It was chiefly the work of one great soul, 
the greatest genius of his generation — Abraham Lincoln. 

The consensus of European opinion on the Trent Affair was 
favorable to the British view; and this was practically the view 
taken by Mr. Seward in his elaborate answer to Lord Lyons. 
Seward acknowledged that Wilkes had committed an error, but 
declared that he had acted with the single idea of serving his country, 
and without the slightest intention of offending the British flag. 
Great Britain was wholly in the wrong in working herself into a war 
fever without waiting for a word of explanation or asking if we meant 
to offend her, in sending an ultimatum, a demand for immediate 
redress, while mobilizing armies, and in refusing to discuss the 
merits of the subject at all. 



NOTES 

The Writ of Habeas Corpus. — In May, 1861, a serious dispute arose between 
the President and Chief Justice Taney concerning the suspension of the writ of 
Habeas Corpus. The Constitution provides that the writ may be suspended 
only in case of rebellion or invasion, but by whom is not stated. President 
Lincoln took the responsibility of suspending the writ, and caused the arrest of one 
John Merriman, for recruiting a Confederate force in Maryland, and imprisoned 
him at Fort McIIenry. Merriman applied to the chief justice for a writ of 
Habeas Corpus and Mr. Taney issued it, on the ground that Congress only had 
the right to suspend the writ. But President Lincoln refused to be bound by 
the decision of the chief justice, and applied for the opinion of his attorney- 
general, Mr. Bates, who sustained the President. The Constitution, interpreted 
by the correct principles of political science, could not deny to the President the 
power of suspension of this writ, as Congress might not be in session at a time 

1 Mason and Slidell proceeded to Europe, but they accomplished nothing. They 
received no public welcome in London. The Lnndon Times said, " We should have 
done just as much to rescue two of their own negroes." 



668 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

of sudden invasion, and on the President would devolve the responsibility of 
maintaining public order. 

Belligerent Rights. — This matter was settled by the battle of Bull Run. 
President Lincoln had stated in his blockade proclamation that Confederate 
privateers when captured would be treated as pirates. Early in June the pri- 
vateer Savannah was captured by the United States war vessel Ferry, and the 
crew were taken to New York City and lodged in jail for trial. But soon after 
Bull Run, President Davis put some of the prisoners taken in that battle in 
chains, and sent word to the authorities at Washington that he would deal with 
them in the same manner as the United States government should deal with the 
crew of the Savannah. This led Mr. Lincoln to recede from his position, and 
the crew were exchanged as prisoners of war. From this time the United States, 
in practice, though not in theory, accorded belligerent rights to the South. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE CIVIL ■WAR — THE FIRST YEAR'S CONFLICT 

The Federal disaster at Bull Run was better tlian a victory for 
the North, for it roused the whole people to a sense of the magnitude 
of the task before them. It led hundreds of thousands of determined 
men to leave their homes and take up arms in defense of the 
Union; while the South was led by its victory to a false sense of 
security, to a belief that secession had succeeded, and that the war 
was practically over. The uprising of the North was on a grand 
scale. Every city, village, and hamlet was astir with martial activ- 
ity, and within a few months after Bull Run more than half a million 
men had joined the northern armies.^ These were stationed at various 
points along the border line, from the coast of Virginia to the plains 
of Kansas. The largest army was that before Washington, and the 
young leader who had won the admiration of the country in the 
mountains of western Virginia was called to its command. McClellan 
took control the last week in July, leaving General W. S. Rosecrans 
at the head of the forces in West Virginia. General John C. Fremont 
was appointed to the military district of the West, and he reached 
his headquarters at St. Louis near the close of July. General Robert 
Anderson of Fort Sumter fame was placed in command at Louisville, 
and General Benjamin M. Prentiss at Cairo. These commands were 
all changed within a year or two, as we shall notice in the course of 
the narrative. 

The preparations for war were less vigorous at this time in the 
South than in the North. The Confederate president, who did not 
share the belief of his countrymen that Bull Run had ended the 
war, employed all his personal and official influence to awaken 
the people to the belief that a long and bloody war was before them. 
At the beginning of July the South had about 112,000 men in the 

1 The December reports of the secretaries of war and the navy show that thera 
were at that time in the service of the government 640,637 volunteers, 20,334 regulacft- 
and 22,000 marines. 



670 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

field, stationed chiefly in Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and south- 
ern Missouri. On the 8th of August the Confederate Congress, led 
by Mr, Davis, authorized the enlistment of 400,000 men for three 
years, and the work of raising and organizing this force continued 
through the autumn and winter ; but there was no such universal, 
spontaneous movement as characterized the North, and at the close of 
the year 1861 scarcely one fourth of this number had been raised. 

In the matter of army equipment the South was at first fairly 
well supplied, owing partly to the thoughtful foresight of Mr. Floyd, 
Mr. Buchanan's secretary of war, who, in apparent anticipation of 
war between the sections, had removed great numbers of muskets 
from northern to southern arsenals. The seizure of Harpers Ferry 
and Norfolk and the muskets captured at Bull Run were of 
great service to the southern armies. The North, though badly 
armed at first, began at once the manufacture of arms and other 
munitions of war on a large scale, and after the first year of the war 
there was an adequate supply for all demands. The Confederates 
also set about manufacturing powder and arms, but the supply was 
never adequate, and the southern cause suffered constantly from this 
defect. For some months after Bull Run and Wilson's Creek there 
was no battle or military movement of importance; we turn therefore 
to a notice of 

THE FIRST NAVAL EXPEDITIONS 

At a notable gathering of the European powers at Paris in the 
spring of 1856 it was decided, among other things, that privateering 
be abolished. The United States was requested to join in this 
agreement, but it refused. A few months later, however, the United 
States government offered to accept the Paris agreement, if the 
powers would add another article exempting all private property 
from capture by an enemy at sea. But to this they refused to agree. 
Had the United States foreseen the fearful retribution that would 
be visited upon it within the coming decade on account of the first 
refusal, there is little doubt that the original agreement would have 
been accepted. 

One of the first acts of the Confederate president was to authorize 
privateering — the preying of Confederate cruisers on the raerchant 
marine of the United States. This was a vital spot at which the 
South could strike without fear of retaliation, for the wealth of the 
South in shipping could be rated at zero. Confederate privateering 



COAST EXPEDITIONS 671 



was begun early in the struggle, and it was partly to intercept the 
blockade runners that the first Federal naval expeditions along the 
Atlantic coast were undertaken. 

On the 26th of August, 1861, General B. F. Butler embarked 
in a small improvised fleet from Fortress Monroe for Hatteras 
Inlet, on the coast of North Carolina. Two days later 
the fleet was throwing shells into the newly built forts, exDed^tion 
Clark and Hatteras, at an opening of Pamlico Sound, 
and in twenty-four hours both forts had surrendered, with nearly 
seven hundred men, a thousand stand of arms, and thirty-five cannon. 

A more pretentious expedition was that of General Ambrose E. 
Burnside, who sailed from Fortress Monroe in January, 1862.^ His 
fleet numbered eighty vessels, large and small, mounting ninety-four 
guns, and bearing an army of twelve thousand men ; the naval com- 
mander was Commodore L. M. Goldsborough. The destination was 
the eastern coast of North Carolina, where at Hatteras Inlet the 
small force left by Butler some months before still held its 
ground. The object of the expedition was to blockade and to gain 
possession of Pamlico Sound and the adjoining coast. 
The fleet arrived, crossed the bar into Pamlico Sound, expedition 
and proceeded northward to Roanoke Island, which lies 
between Albemarle and Pamlico sounds. The Confederate forces 
on this island, about three thousand strong, were in command of 
Henry A. Wise, whom we have met as governor of Virginia, at the 
time of the execution of John Brown. The Union fleet landed seventy- 
five hundred troops on the island on the evening of February 6. Next 
morning they floundered through marsh and bog till they reached 
the enemy's breastworks, which, after firing several volleys, they 
scaled in one impetuous rush, making prisoners of the whole force 
of the enemy. This was a victory of much importance, as Roanoke 
Island stood at the gateway of both great sounds east of the main 
coast of North Carolina. 

Burnside gave his army a few days' rest ; and then, leaving an 
adequate force to hold the island, he set out for new victories. He 
determined on the capture of New Berne, a little city on the Neuse 
River which flows into Pamlico Sound, and next to Wilmington the 
most important seaport on the North Carolina coast. The capture 
was effected after a dreary march through the mud, and a sharp, 
decisive battle. 

1 See Bumside's account in " Battles and Leaders," Vol. I, p. 060 sq. 



672 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Still another important victory was to be scored by this army. 
Soon after the capture of New Berne, Burnside sent General Parke 
against Fort Macon, forty miles to the southeast on the coast. Fort 
Macon was an old and strong stone fort, and had been the property 
of the Union. Parke demanded a surrender, and when this was 
refused, he trained his guns upon the works and bombarded them 
for one day, when the fort, with its contents, including its five 
hundred brave defenders, was delivered into his hands. The Burn- 
side expedition was a very successful one, and the coast of North 
Carolina was held to the end of the war by the Union armies. 
Burnside, however, was ordered northward in midsummer, 1862, to 
join the Army of the Potomac under McClellan. 

One more successful naval expedition belonged to this early 

period of the war. Some time before the expedition of Burnside a 

fleet of fifty ships left Hampton Roads under Admiral 

Dupont's g^ Y^ Dupont.^ General Thomas W. Sherman had com- 

expecUtion. -, /^ ■,-,-, n , i ,^ ^ 

mand of the land force, some twelve thousand men. 

The commanders of the vessels were ignorant of their destination ; 
but each had sealed orders to be opened at sea in case the fleet be- 
came scattered. When they were off Cape Hatteras a tempest swept 
the sea, and the fleet was soon scattered far and wide. The sealed 
orders were then opened and each commander discovered that he 
was going to Port Royal, on the coast of South Carolina between 
Charleston and Savannah. Several of the vessels were lost or dis- 
abled. The rest met at the designated place early in November. 
The sound on which Port Royal is situated is almost shut off from 
the open sea by Hilton Head Island and Phillips Island, separated 
by a narrow channel. Two forts. Walker and Beauregard, stood guard 
on either side of the channel. The Confederate commander was 
General T. F. Drayton, whose brother, Captain Percival Drayton, 
commanded a vessel in Dupont's approaching fleet.^ A small fleet 
within the sound was commanded by Commodore Tatnall, a veteran 
of the War of 1812 and of the Mexican War, and late of the United 
States Navy. 

The cannonading, which began on November 7, was very heavy, 
and the roar was distinctly heard at Fernandina, seventy miles 

1 At the opening of the Civil War the highest rank in the navy was captain. In 
July, 1862, Congress created several rear admirals, of whom Dupont was one. 

2 There were various other instances where brother fought against brother in the 
Civil War. 



MONITOR AND MEBRIMAG 678 

away. Within six hours both forts were silenced, the Confederates 
fled, and the stars and stripes were hoisted over the ruined walls. 
Tatnall set fire to his fleet and escaped, leaving the harbor of Port 
Eoyal in the possession of Dupont and Sherman. Thus another 
important harbor came under the control of the government. This 
victory, with those of Butler and Burnside above mentioned, was of 
great value to the Union cause. They greatly revived the spirit of 
the northern people after the disasters of Bull Eun and Wilson's 
Creek ; they had a salutary moral effect on Europe ; they rendered 
the blockade effective almost throughout the entire coast from Vir- 
ginia to Florida, and they furnished admirable bases for future 
operations during the war.^ 



THE DUEL OF THE IRONCLADS 

The most famous of all naval duels, and one of the most impor- 
tant in the world's history, was that between the Monitor and the 
Merrimac at Hampton Roads on Sunday, March 9, 1862. But four 
years before this time France had built the first ironclad ; England 
soon followed her lead and built two, and these three alone existed at 
the opening of the Civil War. But none of these had come into action, 
and it was left for the United States, in its unnatural contest with 
itself, to furnish the world with the first battle between ironclads. 

On abandoning the navy yard near Norfolk in April, 1861, the 

Union forces burned what was combustible, including the steam 

frigate Merrimac. The vessel when partially consumed 

sank beneath the waves. A few months later the Con- tt® . 

n -, , ■ T •, 1 -, • • • 1-, Merrimac. 

federates raised it and converted it into an ironclad. 

The work progressed for many months, until March 8, 1862, when this 

new ironbound monster, now called the Virginia, steamed down the 

Elizabeth River toward Hampton Roads, where lay at anchor several 

of the finest United States warships. 

Meanwhile the Lincoln administration, knowing of the building 

of the Merrimac, was preparing to meet her with a vessel of her own 

class. A contract for an ironclad was made with John Ericsson, 

the Swedish inventor. Ericsson ignored the French and English 

models and built a vessel on a plan of his own invention. Day and 

night the work was pushed at the Brooklyn shipyard, and the new 

ironclad, named the Monitor, was finished almost at the same hour 

1 " Battles and Leaders," Vol. I, p. 682. 
2x 



674 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

as was the Merrimac. But she had much further to go, and the 
Merrimac, under • Captain Buchanan, reached the scene of action 
some hours in advance of the Monitor ; and memorable hours thej 
were in American naval history. 

The Merrimac steamed slowly up the harbor toward Newport 
News on that calm afternoon of March 8, on her mission of destruc- 
Destruction of ^^^^- When she came within three quarters of a mile 
the Cumber- the Congress, a fine frigate of fifty guns, opened fire on 
Zrtnriandthe her, as did also the Cumherland, a sloop of thirty guns ; 
Congress. ^^^^ ^j^^ strange-looking monster held her peace. At 

length, when she came within easy range, she fired into the Camber- 
land with fearful effect, then she raked the Congress with a broadside. 
After this, steering direct for the Cumberland, she rammed that 
vessel, and the impact stove in her side, making a hole "wide 
enough to drive in a horse and cart." The Cumberland filled rapidly 
with water, but the gallant crew kept working their guns to the last. 
The vessel sank with a final roar, and the mast, still protruding 
above the water, marked with its fluttering jjennant the burial place 
of a crew as brave as any that ever died in their country's cause. 
For an hour longer the Congress continued the struggle, when she 
surrendered ; and the Confederates burned her in the evening. During 
this contest the shore batteries at Newport News poured volley after 
volley into the Merrimac, but neither their shots nor those from the 
vessels seemed to affect the iron pachyderm. The Minnesota, seeing the 
distress of her unfortunate sisters, had steamed down the channel to 
take part in the battle, but she ran aground and stuck fast. Here 
she lay helpless in the middle of the channel and might have become 
an easy prey to the Merrimac. But it was late in the afternoon, and 
the captain of the Merrimac decided to wait till the following morn- 
ing to complete his destructive work. The delay was fatal. 

The news of this fearful day's work was flashed northward, and 
it created consternation. Mr. Lincoln held a Cabinet meeting to 
discuss the new terror. 

" The Merrimac," said Secretary Stanton, " will change the whole 
character of the war; she will destroy, seriatim, every naval vessel; 
she will lay all the cities on the sea coast under contribution." The 
greatest anxiety prevailed in government circles ; but the next day 
brought different news. 

On that night the Monitor arrived from New York, commanded 
by Lieutenant John L. Worden. Steaming up the mouth of the 



DUEL OF THE IRONCLADS 675 



James by the light of the buruiug Congress, she hove to near the 
grounded Minnesota and waited for the morning. Early in the 
morning the Merr'nnac stood for the Minnesota and 
opened lire — but here was the new enemy to deal with. ^lonitor. 

The Monitor instantly threw herself before the Minnesota and 
engaged the Merrimac. The two vessels were alike only in being 
ironclads. The Merrimac was a clumsy, unwieldy vessel of thirty- 
live hundred tons, and carried eight heavy guns and seven small ones. 
She was aptly described as " a huge, half-submerged crocodile." The 
Monitor was a small vessel of but nine hundred tons and carried two 
eleven-inch Dahlgren guns in a revolving turret, twenty feet in 
diameter, and gave the appearance of " a cheese box on a raft." It 
seemed like the fight of a pygmy and a giant. 

For several hours these two vessels fought like demons, some- 
times but a few yards apart. The Merrimac attempted to ram her 
antagonist, but the Monitor skillfully avoided the blow jj^g j^^jj^ 
and escaped injury. One double shot from the Monitor March 9,' 
forced in the sides of the Merrimac several inches, 1862. 
knocking the crew off their feet with the concussion and causing 
every one to bleed from the nose or the ears.^ At length, when the 
ships were but ten yards apart, a shell from the Merrimac struck the 
pilot house of the Monitor, and exploded directly over the sight-hole. 
Commander Worden, who was standing just back of this spot, was 
stunned and his eyes were utterly blinded with burning powder. He 
then ordered his vessel to retire that the extent of the injury to the 
pilot house might be ascertained. The Merrimac then steamed back 
to Norfolk, and the battle was ended. The fight was terrific and 
grandly picturesque, but there was no loss of life, and only a few were 
wounded on the Merrimac, and but one, Lieutenant Worden, on the 
Monitor. The battle was a draw ; but in its effects it must be re- 
garded a victory for the Moyiitor, for the 3finnesota and the other 
Union vessels were saved, the power of the 3Ierrimac was destroyed, 
and two months later, when the Confederates abandoned Norfolk, 
she was burned.^ 

This first fight of ironclads had the effect of revolutionizing 
naval warfare throughout the world. All the navies of the world 

1 " Battles and Leaders," Vol. I, p. 702. 

2 The Monitor was wrecked the following December off Cape Hatteras, and sank 
■with nine of her crew. Lieutenant Worden was carried to Washington for treatment. 
He recovered his eyesight and was soon back in the navy ; he was afterward made a 
rear admiral. 



676 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

were composed of wooden vessels, and here in Virginia waters it was 
demonstrated that no wooden ship could stand before an ironclad. 
The day of the " ship of the line " of the " oak leviathan " was over 
from this hour. " Whereas," said the London Times, " we had one 
hundred and forty-nine first-class warships, we have now two. . . . 
There is not now a ship in the English navy apart from these two 
that it would not be madness to trust to an engagement with that 
little Monitor^ Every maritime power in the world began from this 
date to reconstruct its navy on the basis of the ironclad. 

OPERATIONS IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 

The North had expected to hear ere this of some notable achieve- 
ment of the Army of the Potomac ; but McClellan was still unready, 
and while he continued his preparations various movements took 
place in the great central valley of the continent. The people of 
the upper Mississippi Valley had a twofold reason for rising against 
the rebellion of the South. Eirst, they would save the Union, and 
second, they would save the river. Their second reason was partly 
commercial and partly sentimental. They could not endure the 
thought of this great artery of trade, this opening to the world's 
markets for all their products, this their own majestic, beloved river 
— they could not endure its flowing for a thousand miles through 
a foreign land. To prevent such a condition the men of the West 
rose in arms to save the Union. 

The comprehensive, twofold object of the Union armies in 1862 
was to take the Confederate capital and to open the Mississippi 
River. To accomplish these euds it was important that the forces 
east and west work in harmony, and to do this they must be directed 
by one brain, by a commander in chief. But here the government 
was at a loss. General Scott had long passed the prime of manhood, 
and was in no way fitted for the great task. For a short time 
McClellan was made commander in chief, and then H. W. Halleck ; ^ 
but both proved unsatisfactory, and, until the last year of the war, 
the armies east and west of the mountains acted, in a great measure, 
separately, without any effective common commanding authority, 
save that of the President, who laid no claim to military knowledge. 

So numerous were the battles and skirmishes in the West, as 
well as in the East, that we must leave many of the minor onea 

1 Halleck was nominal commander in chief from July, 1862, till March, 1864. 



REMOVAL OF FRfiMONT 677 

unnoticed, and give our attention to the larger movements which con 
tributed most to the final outcome of the war. We left two small 
opposing armies in southern Missouri after the Battle 
of Wilson's Creek in August, 1861. For many months ppAmont 
thereafter no important movement occurred in that 
section. John C. Fremont had been put in command of the depart- 
ment that included Missouri, and his headquarters were at St. Louis. 
But ere long he was charged with incompetency and flagrant misuse of 
his authority — with corruption in giving out contracts, with bearing 
himself like an Oriental nabob, with keeping men waiting for days 
to see him on pressing business of the department, with throwing 
men into prison without a cause, and with general incompetence. 
These charges were brought before the President, who, investigating 
them with the utmost care, found them to be true, and Fremont was 
removed. What a comment on the narrow escape of the country in 
electing James Buchanan President instead of Fremont in 1856 ! 

Before Fremont's removal he had issued a proclamation, for the 
purpose, as some thought, of calling public attention from the 
charges against him, confiscating the property and setting free 
the slaves of all persons in Missouri who had taken up arms 
against the government, or who should do so in the future. This 
was by far the most radical move that had yet been made against 
the slaveholder. When Mr. Lincoln heard of it he saw at a glance 
that the order, if sustained by him, would seriously impair the Union 
cause in Kentucky. He accordingly ordered Fremont to modify his 
proclamation so as to conform to the recent Confiscation act of 
Congress. 

This incident is memorable from the fact that it caused the first 
serious disaffection in the Republican party. A great many of the 
radical antislavery members of the party, including such leaders as 
Charles Sumner, openly favored Fremont. In the Middle West, 
especially in Ohio, Lincoln was denounced most vigorously, and was 
accused of trying to suppress Fremont because he feared him as a 
rival for the presidency. When a little later Lincoln removed Fre- 
mont from his command, the radicals, not knowing the true cause, 
were furious. But the President preserved his usual calm, and 
time has fully vindicated his course. 

At the beginning of the year 1862 the Confederates held the . 
southern part of Kentucky, the line between the opposing forces 
passing through Mill Springs, Bowling Green, Fort Henry on the 



<f78 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



Tennessee, and Columbus on the Mississippi. To break this line 
and push it farther south, and if possible to rescue the Unionists of 
Battle of Mill ©astern Tennessee, was the first object of the Federal 
Springs, Janu- armies. Accordingly General H. W. Halleck, who now 
ary 19, commanded in the West, sent G eneral George H. Thomas ' 

with some ten thousand men to open away. Thomas 
met a force of five or six thousand men under General George B. 
Crittenden, a brother of the Union general, Thomas S. Crittenden,^ 
at Mill Springs, Kentucky, and a desperate battle ensued. The Cou- 




ISBl ^f <s^ 

iieas^ line showB the territory held -|i* {/ 



O I' I "' ""^ ""^ ^^ ""' ConfeJenites. ^•' ^y^^j 
Longitude West] 9 7 from Greenwich 87^ 



pAHAMA 
^ISLANDS 



federates fought bravely during the day, but they were completely 
routed, and at nightfall they fled toward Nashville. Meantime 
Colonel James A. Garfield had driven General Marshall from the 
mountainous region along the Virginia border. The way was now 
open to eastern Tennessee ; but owing to the scarcity of provisions 
and the badness of the roads, the project was given up, and Thomas 
rejoined Buell. 

Kentucky was now occupied by three armies, with another at 

1 It was Buell who sent Thomas, but Buell was at this time subject to the orders 
of Halleck. 

2 These two brothers, who took opposite sides in the war, were sons of the famous 
Kentucky senator, J. J. Crittenden. 



OPERATIONS ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI 679 

Cairo, Illinois, hovering on its border and about to enter the state. 
General Albert Sidney Johnston, then reputed the ablest commander 
of the South, held an army at Bowling Green, and General Leonidas 
Polk, the Episcopal bishop of Louisiana, who was also a soldier and a 
graduate of West Point, commanded a force at Columbus. Opposed 
to these were a Union army at Louisville under General Don Carlos 
Buell ^ and the army at Cairo under General U. S. Grant. 

General Grant had seized Paducah in Kentucky, and had made 
in the preceding autumn an expedition down the Mississippi to 
Belmont, Missouri, where he had a sharp fight with Belmont 
General Pillow. Grant bore down on the Confederate November 7, 
position, captured the camp, and drove the enemy to 1861. 
the bank of the river. But General Polk, who held Columbus, across 
the river from Belmont, sent an additional force, and also threw 
shells from the heights of Columbus to Belmont. The result was 
that Grant and his forces fled precipitately to their transports and 
returned to Cairo. 

Western Kentucky is traversed by two parallel rivers that empty 
into the Ohio near together. The larger of these, the Tennessee, 
takes its rise in the foothills of the Alleghany Mountains in south- 
western Virginia, makes a grand detour southward into northern 
Alabama, crosses the state of Tennessee twice, and flows into the 
Ohio near its confluence with the Mississippi. The Cumberland, 
much smaller than the Tennessee, rises in eastern Kentucky, sweeps 
in a great curve through northern Tennessee, and flows northAvard 
into the Ohio within a few miles of the mouth of the Tennessee. 
These two rivers, which were navigable for hundreds of miles, fur- 
nished the southern armies with invaluable means of transportation, 
and the Union commanders conceived the idea that the evacuation 
of Kentucky could best be forced by operating up these two rivers. 

General A. S. Johnston was now the commander of all the Confed- 
erate armies west of the mountains, except in the extreme South. He 
saw too late that while the Mississippi had been strongly guarded 
by heavy batteries — at Columbus, Island No. 10, Memphis, and 

1 General Anderson, who was first in command at Louisville, was relieved, owing 
to failing health, by General William Tecumseh Sherman. Sherman stated to some 
Cabinet oflScers that it would require two hundred thousand men to clear Kentucky 
of the enemy. So extravagant seemed this statement that Sherman was considered 
insane, and was so characterized in the newspapers throughout the country. He was 
relieved by Buell in November, 1861. His statement evinced his foresight and judg- 
ment, as events proved. See McClure's " Lincoln and Men of War Times." 



680 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Vicksburg — the two inland rivers had been neglected. Two small 
forts, Henry and Hieman, on the Tennessee, were now quickly 
strengthened, and also a far more formidable one on the Cumber 
land — Fort Donelson. In order to protect Nashville, Johnston, 
at the beginning of February, made the fatal blunder of dividing 
his force of thirty thousand men, placing fourteen thousand in 
Kentucky to watch Buell and sending sixteen thousand to Fort 
Donelson. Early in February General Grant captured Forts Henry 
and Hieman, most of their garrisons having fled to Fort Donelson. 

Fort Donelson at this time was the scene of great excitement. 
The garrison knew that the Union army had invested Fort Henry, 
twelve miles across the country on the Tennessee. They knew 
also that it was only a matter of a few days till their own fort 
would be surrounded by gleaming bayonets and frowning cannon. 
Fort Donelson was admirably situated on a plateau a hundred feet 
above the river, and covered about a hundred acres. It had sev- 
eral heavy guns, and was held by eighteen thousand men under 
command of General John B. Floyd, late secretary of war in the 
Cabinet of Buchanan. Beneath the bluff on the river bank were two 
powerful batteries commanding the approach of the river. 

While Flag Officer Foote with his seven gunboats steamed up the 
Cumberland, Grant was busy moving his army from Fort Henry to 
Fort Donelson. His army, in two divisions, under com- 
5j,Qefs™n''*°^ mand of General John A. McClernand, the Illinois con- 
gressman, a lawyer and not a soldier by profession, and 
General Charles F. Smith of the regular army, began closing in around 
the doomed fort. But before the battle began General Lew Wallace, 
the future author of " Ben Hur," arrived from Fort Henry with a third 
division. Pickets were thrown forward, and the sharpshooters hunted 
their holes among the rocks and trees.^ The chief action of the day, 
aside from the continuous firing of artillery, was an assault on some 
rifle pits on a hillside, ordered by McClernand. Colonel Morrison, 
with an Illinois brigade, led the charge, and a braver one never was 
made during the war. The men surged up the hill amid a tempest 
of bullets and were driven back, leaving many strewed along the 
hillside. Again, and still again, they dashed toward the rifle pits, 
picking their way among dead and dying comrades, until at last, 
the leaves on the hillside being set on fire, they sullenly retreated, 
and " their souls were riven with the shrieks of their wounded com 
1 See " Battles and Leaders," Vol. I, p. 407. 



FORT DONELSON 681 



rades, whom the flames crept down upon and smothered and charred 
where they lay." ^ 

Thus ended the 13th of February. There had been no general 
engagement. Foote arrived that night with his seven gunboats, four 
of them ironclads. Next day his guns were trained on the batteries 
on the river bank. The Confederate reply was terrific. Foote was 
severely wounded ; two of his boats were disabled, one being struck 
fifty -nine times, and drifted helpless down the stream, and the others 
followed until they were beyond the range of the enemy's guns. 
That night the two armies lay crouching so near together that 
neither dared light fires. The Confederates were cheered at the 
defeat of the gunboats and at their success of the day before ; but 
the next day would tell the story. 

Grant's army, including those on guard, was about twenty-seven 
thousand strong, exceeding that of the enemy by at least six thou- 
sand.^ Floyd knew this, and in consultation with his two chief 
lieutenants, Pillow and Buckner, he decided to attack the Union right 
at dawn and hurl it upon the center, and thus to open a way out to 
the road that leads to Nashville. The night was spent in preparing 
for this, and in the early morning Pillow with ten thousand men fell 
upon McClernand, and Buckner soon joined him with an additional 
force. For some hours the roar of the battle was tremendous. 
Toward noon many of McClernand's men ran short of powder and he 
was forced to recede from his position. Pillow seems then to have 
lost his head. He felt that the whole Union army was defeated, 
and though the road to Nashville was open, the Confederates made 
no attempt to escape. Just then General Grant rode upon the scene. 
He had been absent all the morning down the river consulting with 
Foote, not knowing that the enemy had planned an escape. This 
moment, says Lew Wallace,^ was the crisis in the life of Grant. 
Had he decided other than he did, the history of his life would have 
closed at Donelson. Hearing the disastrous news, his face flushed 
for a moment ; he crushed some papers in his hand. Next instant 
he was calm, and said in his ordinary quiet tone, to McClernand and 
Wallace, " Gentlemen, the position on the right must be retaken." 
Then he galloped away to General Smith. In a short time the 
Union lines were in motion. General Smith made a grand assault 

1 Lew Wallace in " Battles and Leaders," Vol. I, p. 412. 

2 Livermore's " Numbers and Losses of the Civil War," p. 78. 
8 " Battles and Leaders," Vol. I, p. 416. 



682 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

on the enemy's outworks and rifle pits. Wlien his lines hesitated. 
Smith waved his cap on the point of his sword and rode in front, 
up the hill, in the hottest fire of the enemy, toward the rifle pits — 
and they were carried. At the same moment Lew Wallace was 
leading his division up another slope with equal gallantry. Here 
again the Confederates fled within the fort, and the road to 
Nashville was open to them no longer. Furthermore, Smith held 
a position from which he could shell the fort on the inside, and 
nothing was left to the enemy but surrender or slaughter on the 
morrow. 

A council was held by Floyd, Pillow, and Buckner. Buckner, who 
was the ablest soldier of the three, declared that he could not hold his 
position for half an hour in the morning. The situation was hopeless. 
Floyd was under indictment at Washington for maladministration 
in the Buchanan Cabinet. He declared that he must not be taken, 
and that he would escape on two little boats that were to arrive 
from Nashville in the morning. He passed the command to Pillow, 
and Pillow, declaring that he too would escape, passed it on to Buck- 
ner. Floyd and Pillow with fifteen hundred men made good their 
escape ; so did Colonel Forrest, the cavalry leader. He led his 
cavalry, some eight hundred strong, along the river bank and 
reported some days later at Nashville. 

In the early morning Buckner sent a note to Grant offering to 
capitulate. The answer is well known. Grant demanded " Uncon- 
ditional surrender," and added, " I propose to move immediately on 
your works." Buckner was too good a soldier to sacrifice his men 
Surrender of ^° needless slaughter. He accepted the " ungenerous 
FortDonel- and unchivalrous terms," as he pronounced them, and 
son, February surrendered Fort Donelson and the army, consisting 

Ifi 1 8B2 1 ^70 

' ^*""'- of at least fourteen thousand men, with all its stores and 

ammunition. The Union loss was over twenty-eight hundred men. 

The loss of Donelson and this gallant army was an irreparable 
blow to the South. The way was now open for the Federal armies 
to penetrate the heart of the western South. The reproach of the 
disaster fell on the shoulders of Albert Sidney Johnston, who had 
unwisely divided his army. This was the first great victory for 
either side in the war. The North was electrified by its grandeur 
and magnitude, and the eyes of the country were turned for the 
first time upon General Grant. His laconic " Unconditional Sur- 
render" caught the public fancy. He was a graduate of West 



PREPARING FOR A GREAT BATTLE 683 

Point, and had served through the Mexican War. After that he 
was stationed at Detroit, at Sacketts Harbor, and finally on the Pacific 
Coast, leaving his family in the East. In 1854 he resigned from the 
army and settled on a little farm owned by his wife 
near St. Louis. Here he hoed potatoes and hauled cord ^' ^' ^^*'°*- 
wood, but failed to earn a living. He tried the real estate business, 
and again failed. At length, deeply in debt, he applied for assist- 
ance to his aged father, who owned a leather store at Galena, 
Illinois. His life seemed hopelessly wrecked. He accepted a posi- 
tion in his father's store at a small salary, and here we find him at 
the outbreak of the war. The governor of Illinois placed Grant at 
the head of the Illinois volunteers. Next we hear of him at Cairo, 
at Belmont, at Donelson. Up to February 16, 1862, the name of 
Ulysses S. Grant was utterly unknown to the great world. Now he 
became famous ; and his rise in the next six years is the most 
extraordinary in the history of America. 

On the minor movemefnts of the armies and the petty disputes 
among the generals that followed Donelson we have no time to dwell. 
Suffice it to say that Polk abandoned Columbus, Kentucky, and A. S. 
Johnston left Bowling Green with the few thousand troops that he 
had retained. Buell advanced from Louisville and occupied Nash- 
ville, after its vast Confederate stores had been destroyed, while 
Grant's army was moved piecemeal farther south on the Tennessee. 
By the first of April Grant had an army of forty thousand at Pitts- 
burg Landing. This was an obscure stopping place for boats in 
southern Tennessee, not far from the northern boundary of Missis- 
sippi ; but the name means more now than a mere landing for river 
craft. The army was divided into six divisions, under 
the command, respectively, of McClernand, B. M. Pren- tI^j-q-^ 
tiss, W. T. Sherman, Stephen A. Hurlburt, C. F. Smith, 
and Lew Wallace; but Smith being ill at Savannah, eight miles 
down the river, his command devolved on W. H. L. Wallace The 
President had in March limited the authority of McClellan to the 
Army of the Potomac, and Halleck was placed in superior command 
in the West, including the division of Buell, whom he now ordered 
to join Grant at Pittsburg Landing.^ 

The Confederate clans were gathering in great numbers at Corinth, 
Mississippi, some twenty miles southwest from Pittsburg Landing. 

1 The mountain department, from Knoxviile, Tennessee, to the boundary of 
McClellan's authority, was assigned to Fremont. 



684 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Here had come Polk from Columbus, General Braxton Bragg 
from the far South, Beauregard from the East, and Albert Sidney 
Johnston, commander over all, from Bowling Green. Johnston's 
army was about equal to that of Grant, some forty thousand strong ; 
and nothing was more certain than that the two would soon come 
together in a terrific contest for the possession of the region of the 
upper Tennessee. Through this region ran the Memphis and 
Charleston Railroad, from Memphis by way of Corinth to Chatta- 
nooga, where it connected with the lines to the seaboard. This 
railroad was of immense importance to the South, and to save it 
from falling into Union hands a great battle must be fought and 
won by the Confederates. Grant fully believed that the enemy 
would await an attack in his intrenchments at Corinth, and in this 
belief he left his army entirely exposed. Not an earthwork was 
thrown up, and the blunder, if such it may be called, no doubt cost 
a thousand human lives. Johnston had determined to move his 
army stealthily from Corinth and to fall upon his enemy in a sudden, 
impetuous dash at Pittsburg Landing. 

It was Saturday night, and the Union army lay shivering on the 
damp ground. Only the dull tread of the sentinel could be heard, 
and the plashing waters of the streams overflowing with recent rain. 
Only a mile away lay the army of Johnston, waiting to spring on the 
foe in the morning. At break of day magnificent battle lines 
emerged from the woods in front of the Union camps, and in a few 
minutes the roar of artillery announced the opening of the greatest 
battle ever before fought on the. western continent. Halleck, Grant, 
and the division commanders stoutly insist that they were not sur- 
prised. Be that as it may, the fact remains that no intrench- 
ments had been made, and that Grant, without the slightest 
anticipation of an engagement, had spent the night at Savannah, and 
learned of the opening of the battle only by hearing the sound of 
the heavy guns. Buell had not yet arrived from Nashville, and 
Lew Wallace and his division were at Crump's Landing, five or six 
miles from the scene of the battle. 

Grant hastened up the river, and when he arrived on the field he 
Battle of found a tremendous battle raging all along the Union 

Shiloh, first front. He spent the da.y riding from one division corn- 
day, April 6. mander to another, directing them and urging them 
to their utmost efforts. The heaviest attack of the morning fell 
upon the Union right under Sherman, and on the division of 



ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON 



McClernand which was next to that of Sherman. These divisions 
were composed for the most part of raw troops, but the superb 
bearing of the commanders inspired the men with confidence, and 
they fought like veterans. At various times during the day the 
whole Union front was pressed back, and in one of these movements 
Prentiss did not fall back with the rest, and he, with twenty-two 
hundred of his men, was captured by the enemy. On one occasion 
Hurlburt took a strong position and held it for five hours against the 
most terrific onslaughts of the enemy. The fighting raged part of 
the time around a little log church called Shiloh, which has given 
its name to the battle. Southern hopes were high that day. The 
fearful Confederate charge of the morning was sustained almost 
without cessation, and the battle raged till darkness overspread the 
valleys and the hills. 

Whatever of victory there was at the close of this first day's 
fight at Shiloh belonged to the southern army. The Union army 
had been pressed back little by little for more than a mile, and now 
occupied a few hundred acres around the landing, while the ground 
and the tents which it had occupied the night before were in posses- 
sion of the enemy ; but the end had not yet come, and the weary 
legions of both sides sank down for a few hours' rest, knowing that 
the final struggle would come on the morrow. 

The Union army had been stunned and wounded, but not disabled. 
The losses on both sides had been exceedingly heavy, especially on 
the southern side, for it had lost its noble commander, Albert Sidney 
Johnston. About the middle of the afternoon, while riding amid 
the tempest of bullets cheering his men, he was struck by a Minie 
ball, and an artery of his thigh was severed. The wound was not a 
fatal one, and his life might have been saved ; but the hero thought 
only of victory. He continued in the saddle, cheering his men above 
the din of battle, until his voice grew faint and his face grew 
deadly pale. Then he was lifted from his horse, but it was too late ; 
in a few minutes he was dead.^ The command of the Confederate 
army then passed to Beauregard. 

1 The Federal general W. H. L. Wallace was also killed in this battle, and Gen- 
eral Smith died a short time afterward at Savannah. The death of Johnston, it is 
believed by some, prevented the utter rout or capture of Grant's army on the night 
of the 6th. " Johnston's death was a tremendous catastrophe," wrote General Gibson, 
one of his subordinates. "... Sometimes the hopes of millions of people depend 
upon one head and one arm. The West perished with Albert Sidney Johnston, and 
the southern country followed." " Battles and Leaders," Vol. I, p. 568. 



686 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Had neither side been reenforced, the South would probably have 
won a signal victory on Monday. But early on Sunday night the 
thrilling news ran along the Union lines that Buell had arrived from 
Nashville. Lew Wallace was now also on the ground and ready 
for the next day's conflict. Wallace's forces and those of Buell, 
twenty-five thousand fresh troops, were to be hurled against the 
weary army of Beauregard in the morning. Beauregard looked 
longingly toward the West, hoping for the coming of General Van 
Dorn, who had an army in Arkansas and was marching with all 
speed to join him ; but Van Dorn was still far away, and a week 
must elapse before the two armies could be united. 

Before the rising of the sun on the morning of the 7th the 

two armies were again engaged in battle, but the contest was now an 

unequal one. Buell and Lew Wallace had come, but 

ShiSf ^^^ ^* ^^^ ^°^"^^ ^'^^^ ^^°*- ^®^ *^® Confederates fought with 
great valor, yielding their ground slowly, till an hour 
after noon, when Beauregard ordered a general retreat, and this was 
accomplished in good order. The army retired, battered and bleed- 
ing, to Corinth.^ The result of the battle was a Federal victory, 
but not a decisive one. The people of the North did not rejoice 
greatly over it, and General Grant, who had loomed into public 
favor so suddenly at Donelson, was now severely criticised for hav- 
ing left the army unprotected and for spending the night of the 
5th away from the field. One result of the battle was the develop- 
ment of W. T. Sherman. Nothing was plainer than that he was the 
strongest of the division commanders. Several horses were shot 
under him, twice he was wounded, but his demeanor was so cool, so 
reassuring, and so inspiring that his men were spurred to their 
utmost effort. Born in Ohio in 1820, Sherman graduated from 
West Point, and served in the war against the Indians 
Sherman ^^ ^^® South, but resigned from the army and became a 

broker in California. Next we find him in Kansas as a 
practicing lawyer, and later he was superintendent of a military 
academy in Louisiana. He resigned the position on the secession of 
that state, reentered the United States army and commanded a bri- 
gade at the battle of Bull Kun. After Shiloh, his star rose steadily 
to the end of the war, when it outshone all others at the North, save 

1 The losses as given in " Battles and Leaders "are: Union, 1754 killed, 8408 
wounded, and 2885 captured or missing; Confederate, 1728 killed, 8012 wounded, and 
959 missing. 



TWO UNION VICTORIES 687 

that of Grant ; and many believe that as a military genius he was 
superior to Grant. 

The Federal victory at Pittsburg Landing was supported by 
another, a far more decisive one, in the capture of Island No. 10, 
some forty miles below Columbus, in a great bend of the Mississippi. 
The Confederates had fortified the island, and it was held by General 
McCall with seven thousand men and large army stores. Early in 
March, General Jojm Pope was sent with a large army 
from Cairo against the Island. Flag-officer Foote was i^^^^^^^ ^l 
in command of the river squadron. After capturing 
New Madrid, Missouri, on the opposite shore, a terrible bombard- 
ment was opened in which they " threw three thousand shells and 
burned fifty tons of powder" with little effect. Next they cut a 
canal twelve miles long across the peninsula made by the bend of 
the river, so as to get the transports below the enemy's work, and 
forced the surrender of the island on the 7th of April, with its whole 
force and military stores. This loosened the grasp of the Con- 
federacy on the Mississippi from Cairo to Memphis. 

Some weeks before this great double victory at Shiloh and Island 
No. 10, another desperate battle had been fought which resulted also 
in a Union victory. This occurred among the hills Battle of Pea 
of Arkansas, and is known as the battle of Pea Kidge. Ridge, 
After the battle of Wilson's Creek the preceding March?. 
August, the operations in southern Missouri were disturbed on the 
one side by the removal of Fremont, and on the other by a dispute 
between the Confederate commanders, Price and McCulloch. At 
length General Samuel R. Curtis was put in command of the Union 
forces west of the Mississippi, and General Earl Van Dorn of the 
Confederate forces. The two armies met in northern Arkansas. The 
Confederate forces, though outnumbering the enemy, became divided 
during the battle, and this fact, together with the death of General 
McCulloch, gave the victory to the army of Curtis, whose ablest 
subordinate was General Sigel. Van Dorn then led his forces east- 
ward to join the main Confederate army at Corinth, but did not 
reach that point till after the battle of Shiloh. The status of 
Missouri on the subject of secession was settled at Pea Ridge. No 
longer was there any fear that the state would join the Confederacy. 
The battle of Pea Ridge was conspicuous in one respect — it was the 
only important battle of the war in which Indians played a part. 
In this battle some thirty-five hundred Indians under General 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



Albert Pike fought on the Confederate side ; but their methods of 
warfare differed so greatly from those of the white men that their 
aid was little felt.^ 



FARRAGUT AND NEW ORLEANS 

To these four Union victories in the West within a few months 
(Donelson, Pea Ridge, Shiloh, and Island No. ^ 10, — five, if we 

include that of Thomas at Mill Springs) another must 
David G. ^^ added, the most important of them all, the opening 

of the mouth of the Mississippi and the capture of the 
greatest seaport of the South, For the accomplishment of this great 
work, the country was indebted to David Glasgow Farragut, the 
ablest naval commander in the Civil "War. Farragut had been in 
the naval service from childhood. As a boy of twelve years he had 
witnessed the terrible sea fight between the Essex and the two 
British vessels at Valparaiso, Soiith America. He had been sent by 
Andrew Jackson to enforce the national laws at Charleston at the 
time of South Carolina's Nullification. He was a native of Tennes- 
see, and every effort was made by his fellow southrons to induce 
him to join the secession forces ; but he refused, with the well-known 
answer, " Mind what I tell you ; you fellows will catch the devil 
before you get through with this business," and they never caught 
what he said more decisively than at New Orleans and Mobile. 
Farragut was now intrusted with the most important naval expedi- 
tion of the war. 

From the spring of 1861 there had been a few Federal vessels 
along the gulf coast for the purpose of enforcing the blockade ; now 

an attempt was to be made to get control of the lower 
the^Gulf°'^ ° Mississippi, but no serious attempt to open the great 

mid-continent waterway was made till the spring of 
1862. The object was to sever the Confederacy in twain, to cut off 
the supplies to the Confederate armies from Texas, Arkansas, and 
Louisiana, and to get possession of the cannon foundries of New 
Orleans. General B. F. Butler was put in command of the land 
force, thirteen thousand strong, and the fleet of bomb vessels and 

1 The strength and losses in this hattle, as given in " Battles and Leaders " were : 
Union strength, 10,500 ; losses at Pea Ridge, 1384 killed, wounded, and missing. Con- 
federate strength, 16,200 (exclusive of Indians) ; losses about 1300 killed, wounded, 
and missing. 



FARRAGUT AT NEW ORLEANS 



frigates accompanying Favragut's squadron were commanded by 
Captain Porter. On the 16th of April, 1862, the fleet, com- 
posed of forty-seven armed vessels, eight of which were powerful 
sloops of war, had crossed the bar with the utmost difficulty at the 
mouth of the Mississippi, and was ready to begin operations. 

The Confederates had heard of the coming fleet, and had not 
been idle. Two powerful forts, Jackson and St. Philips, each 
garrisoned by about seven hundred men, guarded the ports Jackson 
river, one on either side, some seventy miles below and St. 
New Orleans. These had been greatly strengthened, Pliilips- 
and they now mounted 126 heavy guns, and were commanded 
by General Johnson K. Duncan. The Confederates had also 




built ironclad gunboats, rams, and various river craft with which 
to defend their beloved city. The naval forces were under the 
control of Commander John K. Mitchell. The bombardment of 
the two forts was begun on the morning of the 18th, and they 
answered with great fury. For five days and nights the earth 
shook with the artillery duel ; the Union fleet in that period threw 
16,800 shells. On the morning of the 24th, some hours before dawn, 
Farragut's memorable passage of the forts was accomplished.^ The 
scene of this passage of the forts has been pronounced one of inde- 
scribable grandeur by those who saw it. The burning of fire 
rafts, sent among the vessels; lit the heavens with a lurid glare, 

1 A great chain that had been stretched across the river to prevent the passage 
had been broken on the 20th. 
2t 



690 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



while the shells from the fleet, the forts, and the shore batteries, 
bursting in mid-air as they crossed each other's path, gave the ap- 
pearance of a battle in the sky.^ A fire ship with a streaming blaze 
a hundred feet in the air floated against the flagship Hartford and 
set her on fire. Farragut, standing on the deck, remained unper- 
turbed. He called on his men to do their duty, and while some put 
out the fire and saved the ship, others kept working the guns as if 
nothing had happened. Before the coming of day, the fleet had 
passed the forts ; then came the encounter with the enemy's ves- 
sels above them. These were dispatched, one by one — destroyed, 
disabled, or driven away; and the proudest city of the South lay 
at the mercy of the Federal fleet. A few days later Fort Jackson 
surrendered to Commander Porter, and Fort St. Philips to General 
Butler. 

New Orleans was under martial law, with General Mansfield 
Lovell in command. For weeks before the passing of the forts the 

city was gay, except that a minor strain ran through 
Surrender of gygj,y ?,o\\g after the news came from Shiloh. But the 

city was defiant. One newspaper expressed the fear 
that the Yankee invaders would not come for the warm reception 
prepared for them. But here they were at last; here were the 
frowning cannon at the very gates, and here was the inflexible 
Farragut. Now all was changed ; the city was seized with a panic 
of fear ; ten thousand children ran screaming through the streets ; 
the women sobbed and wailed and wrung their hands. Wild disorder 
and panic reigned everywhere. The thousands of cotton bales along 
the wharf were set on fire, and so were the boats, lest they fall into 
the hands of the enemy ; and the miles of flame set men and women 
weeping thirty miles away.^ Lovell fled with his army, leaving the 
city to its fate ; $4,000,000 in specie were carried away. The 
crowds that remained howled and yelled with rage and despair, 
as they saw the last hope of defending the city disappear. Such 
was the condition of New Orleans, when, on the first day of May, 
Butler with his army arrived up the river, took possession, and 
waved the flag of the Union over the historic city of the Creoles. 

1 See Admiral Porter's account in " Battles and Leaders," Vol. II, p. 47. 

2 See description by George W. Cable in "Battles and Leaders " Vol. II, p. 14 sq. 



THE GREAT MASTER 691 



THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN 

What we call the Publw, or Public Opinion, is a gigantic person- 
ality with his likes and dislikes, his passions, his virtues, and his 
foibles. In our great Republic he is the universal master ; he elects 
our presidents and congresses, and shapes our legislation. This vast 
personage is long-suffering, but he may become angry or excited ; 
then he is dangerous. At heart he is honest and his motives 
are sincere ; he is usually wise, but now and then his judgment is 
sadly at fault — and yet he is absolute master, and none can dispute 
his sway. He may be trained, educated, persuaded, but never co- 
erced. The strongest man cannot withstand or defy him, and no 
sane man Avould attempt it. It was this mighty giant, usually 
designated Public Opinion, that forced the battle of Bull Eun. He 
grew impatient and demanded that a battle be fought, against the 
judgment of the military leaders. The result was disastrous, as 
we have seen, and the Giant, half ashamed of what he had done, 
remained quiet for some months. Meantime he fondled his newly- 
found hero — for at times he is like a half-grown child; he must 
have his toys, his heroes, and his villains, Avhom he changes at will. 

George Brinton McClellan was then the popular hero. General 
Scott had long passed the meridian of his powers, and he failed to 
grasp the magnitude of the situation. McClellan was 
young, handsome, valiant. He was thoroughly trained ; igci"^^** 
he had been graduated at West Point and had served 
in Mexico ; he had studied war in the Crimea but a few years before, 
and above all he had just completed a bold, successful campaign in 
western Virginia. The public was thoroughly pleased when, just 
after Bull Eun, Mr. Lincoln called McClellan to take command of 
the Army of the Potomac. McClellan had his shortcomings, as 
events proved ; but in one respect he was very strong. He lacked 
the bulldog tenacity of Grant, the strategy of Sherman, the im- 
petuous dash of Stonewall Jackson ; but as a military 
oi'ganizer he was superior to them all. When he took lyrcmfiian 
control of the array it was a great disorganized mass, un- 
trained, discouraged, but possessing the one supreme virtue — patri- 
otism. In four months McClellan had made of this crude mass a 
trained, disciplined, and organized army equal to any that ever trod_ 
American soil. No such work had been done on this side of the At- 
lantic since the days of Steuben at Valley Forge. " Had there been 



692 HISTOEY OF THE UNITED STATES 

no McClellan," said General Meade in after years, " there could have 
been no Grant ; the army made no essential improvement under any 
of his successors." 

The summer of 1861 passed, and the autumn. The star of Mc- 
Clellan was still rising ; on the 1st of November the aged Scott 
was retired on full pay, and McClellan was made commander in chief 
of all the armies of the United States. This again pleased the 
public ; but it wrought some change in the plans of operation, and 
caused further delay, and at length McClellan decided that it would 
be unwise to undertake a winter campaign in the Virginia mud. 
Meantime a new disaster, known as the battle of Ball's Bluff, played 
on the feelings of the public. 

This affair took place on October 21, exactly three months after 
Bull Eun. A small Confederate force under Colonel Evans was 
posted at Leesburg, near the Potomac above Washing- 
Ball's Bluff. ^^^^^ ^^^ McClellan directed General Charles P. Stone 
to keep a lookout on Leesburg. Stone sent Colonel Devens with 
eight hundred men to destroy a camp near Leesburg. Devens was 
unexpectedly attacked near the rocky heights called Ball's Bluff. 
Colonel E. D. Baker, United States senator from Oregon, was sent 
across the Potomac to his assistance with a thousand men. The 
fight was sharp and murderous. The Unionists were beaten and driven 
down the bluff, where many were shot by the pursuing enemy, made 
prisoners, or drowned in attempting to cross the river. At least a thou- 
sand brave men were lost. Colonel Baker, who had ranked Devens, 
had charge of the battle ; his decision to fight then and there was very 
unmilitary, and he paid the penalty with his life. The public was 
shocked at this disaster. Who caused it ? The blame must be fixed 
on some one, for the Giant demanded a victim to appease his wrath. 
Colonel Baker was the chief blunderer ; but he was lying dead with 
a bullet in his brain. McClellan and Stone may have been some- 
what careless ; but McClellan was still the popular idol, too sacred 
to be assailed, and the popular wrath fell on Stone. The adminis- 
tration could not ignore the clamor for a victim, and Stone was sacri- 
ficed. He was arrested and imprisoned for six months, and then 
released without a vindication or a trial ; but history has pronounced 
him blameless. So much for the tyranny of Public Opinion. This 
great Master is sometimes a tyrant, and he makes blunders ; but we 
must overlook all that, for he always means well, and in this great 
government it would be utterly impossible to get along without him. 



McCLELLAN'S DELAY 



General McClellan was doubtless right in deciding not to under- 
take a midwinter campaign, but he erred in other respects. He 
constantly magnified the power of the enemy and 
underestimated his own. He believed that Johnston ,^.P ^ ^ 
had 150,000 men at Manassas, when in fact he had but 
little over one third of that number. At length the public became 
impatient with the long inaction; so with the administration. 
President Lincoln ordered a general advance for the 22d of Feb- 
ruary ; but the array was not ready and did not move. Then 
McClellan disclosed his latest plan, viz. : to transfer his army to the 
mouth of the James and move upon Richmond from the peninsula 
formed by the James and York rivers. The President did not 
approve of this ; but at a council of generals he was overruled, and 
he yielded the point. Now came word that Johnston had retired 
from Manassas to the banks of the Rappahannock, then to the 
Rapidan, and this caused a further change of plans and more delay. 
At about the same time McClellan was relieved of the duties of 
commander in chief, and his authority was confined again to the 
Army of the Potomac. Now he will certainly move, thought every 
one ; but he continued to organize and drill. Perhaps he was doing 
the very best thing, but he was at fault in presuming too much on 
the public patience. The people could not understand why the army 
must be held so long in idleness, and the general should not have lost 
sight of the fact that he was responsible to them. He might have 
done something to quiet public feeling, but he ignored it, and suffered 
the penalty — his popularity waned during the winter. 

But McClellan was not alone to blame. President Lincoln was at 
fault in not giving McClellan a free hand. When he approved the 
general's plan of operating from the peninsula, he waited nearly a 
month before giving the order to furnish transportation for the army. 
Mr. Lincoln's interference arose partly, as he acknowledged, from 
"pressure," that is, pressure from the politicians who knew nothing 
of military affairs. He should have given his general full control of 
the army or asked his resignation. 

The reader should remember that the change in the plan of 
operation was an important one. Manassas was but thirty miles 
across the country from Washington, while the "peninsula" was 
two hundred miles away. Fortress Monroe, near which the famous 
duel between the Monitor and the Merrimac had taken place a few 
weeks before, was at the apex, and was to be the base of the opera- 



694 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

tions. At length, on the 17th of March, the great movement was 
begun. Four hundred vessels of all sizes were employed, and in some- 
thing over three weeks the army of 121,000 men, 15,000 

Transfer to Worses and mules, with wagons and other munitions in 
the peninsula. . ' n i i i n 

like proportion, was safely landed at Fortress Monroe. 

For economy and celerity of movement the expedition was said to be 
"without a parallel on record." At last McClellan was ready to 
begin operations. The objective point was Richmond, seventy-five 
miles up the James. The army began its march up the peninsula ; 
but a Confederate army of 11,000 men under General Magruder lay 
intrenched across the peninsula from Yorktown, the town that had 
witnessed the closing scenes of the War of the Revolution. The 
Union general was about to make an attack when he received an 
order from the President detaching McDowell's corps, some 25,000 
men, to join the defenses of Washington.^ This embarrassed 
McClellan, and had Mr. Lincoln had a military training he would 
doubtless have seen that nothing would draw the Con- 
federates away from Washington so effectually as an 
advance with a large army upon their own capital. But McClellan 
still had a large army, and might easily have broken through Mag- 
ruder's thin lines, had he chosen ; but he settled down to a siege of 
Yorktown, spent a month erecting batteries and digging trenches, 
and when at last he was ready to open his guns, he found that the 
enemy had retreated toward Richmond. 

A vigorous pursuit was ordered, and the Confederates were over- 
taken near Williamsburg, twelve miles up the peninsula from York- 
town. Before the town stood Fort Magruder, which became the 
Confederate base, and here on May 5 occurred the first battle between 
Battle of ^^® enemy and the army while under McClellan, though 

Williams- he had been commander since the preceding July.^ The 
^^T^S- battle continued throughout the day, and when night 

closed the conflict the Confederates took advantage of the darkness 
to continue their retreat toward Richmond. This battle took place 

1 This corps, with the other forces left to guard the capital, under Generals Banks 
and Wadsworth, aggregated at least sixty thousand men. McClellan's army was 
divided into four corps, commanded respectively by Generals McDowell, Sumner, 
Heintzelman, and Keyes. These had not been selected by McClellan ; they had been 
appointed by the President. But McDowell, as we have seen, was retained at Manassas. 

2 A portion of the army under Banks, however, had had several skirmishes in the 
Shenandoah Valley with a detachment of Johnston's army under Stonewall Jackson. 
In one of these, on March 23, General James Shields, whom Banks left in charge, 
defeated Jackson in a sharp battle at Kernstown, near Winchester. 



McCLELLAN ON THE PENINSULA 



605 



•within five miles of the site of historic Jamestown, the first perma- 
nent white settlement on the soil of the United States. 

After this battle McClellan moved his army up to the head of 
the York River to White House, where he established his base. He 
preferred to approach Richmond up the James. But President Lin- 
coln preferred that he hold the Grand Army between Richmond and 
Washington, and promised to send him the corps of McDowell, which 
had now been swelled to forty thousand by a detachment from Banks's 



SCEKTE OF V^^AR 
Ilsr VIRGINIA. 

SCALE OF MILE8 




S^nut ^ Co-, 'f- T. 



army on the Shenandoah. McClellan was delighted with this pros- 
pect of reenforcement ; he moved across the peninsula to the banks 
of the Chickahominy, where he arrived on May 21, having sent Stone- 
man's cavalry to clear the way for the advance of McDowell ; but 
his hopes,- were suddenly dashed to the ground by a sudden turn of 
events. 

It will be remembered that Banks had a small army in the Shen- 
andoah Valley and that Fremont had another thirty miles westward 
across the mountains. President Lincoln and Mr. Edwin M. Stanton, 
who had in January succeeded Simon Cameron as secretary of war, con- 



696 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

_ < 

ceived the plan of having Banks and Fremont join to crush Jackson 
But the plan was entirely frustrated by a brilliant piece of strategy 
the author of which was Jefferson Davis. The Confederate Presi- 
dent divined the purpose of the Washington authorities, and he 
Jackson quietly sent Jackson a detacliment of Johnston's army, 

threatens raising his force to twenty thousand men. With this 
Washington, force Jackson prevented the union of Fremont apd 
Banks, defeated the latter at Winchester on May 25, and swung so 
near to Washington as to create great excitement in that city. This 
action led the President to send McDowell in pursuit of Jackson ; 
but that wonderful strategist kept the three armies of McDowell, 
Banks, and Fremont apart, and left them groping among the moun- 
tains while he returned to join the main Confederate army near 
Richmond. The movement was brilliant in the extreme, and it is 
quite possible that it prevented the capture of Richmond in the 
summer of 1862. 

Before the arrival of Jackson at Richmond, however, the battle 
of Fair Oaks, or Seven Pines, had been fought. McClellan was 
deeply dejected at the turn affairs had taken. He would have 
approached the Confederate capital by way of the James, but for 
the arrangement that McDowell should join him. It was now too 
late to change his plans, and he determined to fight with the force 
at his command. He threw his left wing, composed of the corps 
of Heintzelman and Keyes, across the Chickahominy to a place called 
Seven Pines. The keen eye of Johnston detected the weak position 
of McClellan's army, and he determined to attack the two corps that 
had crossed the river. On the morning of May 31 Johnston sent 
D. H. Hill with a strong force to make the attack. Longstreet 
supported Hill, and in a short time the battle was raging furiously 
between the village of Seven Pines and the railroad station of Fair 
Oaks. The whole Union force on that side the river, some twenty- 
five thousand men, was soon engaged with a much larger force, Johns- 
ton having joined in the battle with two thirds of his army. The 
Federals were slowly pressed back, and utter defeat seemed staring 
Battle of Fair them in the face, when Sumner, the most energetic. 
Oaks, May 31- though the oldest, of the corps commanders, suddenly 
June 1, 1862. appeared on the scene. He had pushed across the 
swollen river at great peril on a dangerous bridge of his own making, 
and now he rushed to the attack, threw Johnston's army into con- 
fusion, and drove it back with great slaughter. Johnston himself 



ROBERT E. LEE 697 



was severely wouuded, and was carried bleeding from the field. Next 
morning the fight was renewed, but the Confederates soon withdrew 
from the field. The battle of Fair Oaks, in which the Union loss 
was about five thousand and the Confederate loss exceeded six 
thousand, was a fair victory for the Grand Army of the Potomac, 
and completely retrieved the wouuded honor of ten months before 
at Bull Eun. The chief honor of the victory belonged to Sumner. 
McClellan has been severely criticised for not following up the victory 
and capturing Richmond at once. The city was but six miles away, 
and its spires could be seen from the battle ground. But the great 
swamps of the Chickahominy Valley rendered such a sudden stroke 
at this time impracticable. McClellan, however, was very much at 
fault for having his army thus divided, and but for the valiant 
Sumner the result would have been disastrous. 

THE SEVEN DAYS' FIGHT BEFORE RICHMOND 

Joseph E. Johnston was severely wounded at Fair Oaks. He 
could not again take the field for many months, and the command 
of the Army of Northern Virginia passed into the hands of his class- 
mate at West Point, his lifelong friend, Robert E. Lee. Of all the 
sons of the South brought into prominence by the Civil Wai-, Lee 
stands first. He was a son of " Light Horse Harry " of Revolution- 
ary fame. He had married a wealthy and accomplished wife, the 
daughter of the adopted son of George Washington, and at the open- 
ing of the war he lived in unostentatious affluence at 
beautiful Arlington, the ancestral inheritance of his wife, 
on the banks of the Potomac River. He was a man of the highest 
culture, of quiet, sincere life, of noble impulses, of perfect morals. 
He loved the Union and opposed secession, but he loved his state 
still more. He would have been chosen chief commander of the 
Union armies, but he could not turn his sword upon the state that 
had given him birth ; and at the secession of Virginia he resigned 
his commission and retired into private life, declaring that if the 
Union were dissolved he would share the miseries of his people, 
and, save in defense, draw the sword on none. Soon, however, he 
was chosen commander of the Virginia forces, and accepted the 
position ; next he became military adviser of President Davis. When 
Johnston was disabled at Fair Oaks, Lee was made commander of 
the chief southern army, and so he continued to the end of the war. 



698 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Lee was the ablest commander of the South, and many believe that 
he had no equal on the side of the Union. 

McClellan rested for nearly four weeks after Fair Oaks, sending 
to Washington almost daily dispatches saying that he would move 
as soon as the Chickahominy, which was overflowing its banks from 
recent rains, should subside. During this period Lee was very activ'e. 
He drew reenforcements from North Carolina, Georgia, and from 
the Shenandoah Valley, until his effective army almost reached 
ninety thousand. To aid the movement of Stonewall Jackson to 
Richmond, Lee sent the daring cavalry leader, J. E. B. Stuart, with 
fifteen hundred cavalry to make a complete circuit of the Union 
army ; and to prevent McDowell from joining McClellan he sent 
General Whiting with a division to threaten Washington. The ruse 
was successful. Lincoln and Stanton failed to see that the object of 
these threats was to prevent the reenforcement of McClellan. 

McClellan had now to fight both Lee and Jackson. His army 
numbered about a hundred thousand, and he addressed himself to 
Mechanics- ^^® great task before him with skill and vigor. The 
viile, June 26, first of the seven days' battles was at Mechanicsville on 
1862. Beaver Dam Creek, a small stream that flows into the 

Chickahominy. In this battle Lee made the blunder of dividing 
his army, and in consequence suffered a stinging defeat, losing 
about fifteen hundred men, while the Union loss was less than four 
hundred. 

The next day witnessed a still greater battle near Gaines Mills, 
and not far from the village of Cold Harbor.^ Here in a grand 
semicircle General Porter, commander of the Union right 
J^e^27 ^ ^' ^^^^S> disposed his troops. Early in the afternoon he 
was attacked by General A. P. Hill, but Hill was driven 
back with much loss. Lee now sent for Jackson to hasten to the 
scene, and Jackson arrived late in the afternoon. The Confederates 
then made a grand assault with this double force, aggregating nearly 
sixty thousand men, while Porter had less than forty thousand. The 
Union troops fought with the utmost courage, but the odds against 
them were too great ; and but for the coming of two more brigades 
from the main army Porter's corps might have suffered a most 
serious disaster. The Confederates then halted, and ere they could 
attack again it was night. The weary Union legions welcomed the 

1 It was on this same ground, two years later, that the Union army suffered a 
terrible defeat in what is known as the battle of Cc»ld Harbor. 



SEVEN DAYS' FIGHT BEFORE RICHMOND 698 



darkness, and ere the coming of the dawn of the following day they 
had joined the main army on the south bank of the Chickahominy. 
Neither side ever made an official report of the total losses at Gaines 
Mills ; but it is believed that each side lost about eight thousand 
men. 

There is no doubt that McClellan could now have captured 
Eichmond by a bold dash. He held the Grand Army but five or 
six miles from the city, which had been left in charge of Magruder 
with twenty-five thousand men, while Lee and Jackson were more 
than a full day's march to the northward. The people of the city 
were greatly alarmed, and President Davis had the public archives 
packed, ready for instant removal. But there was nothing to fear. 
McClellan had no thought of attacking the city. His genius was 
methodical and cautious, and was not equal to a bold, sudden move- 
ment of such magnitude. But in one point McClellan outwitted 
both Lee and Jackson. They believed that if he were forced to re- 
treat he would go back by the same route by which he had come, 
and all their movements for several days were made on that supposi- 
tion. McClellan quickly comprehended their mistake and skillfully 
kept them deceived for some days, meantime massing Mcciellan 
his army south of the Chickahominy. His object was moves his 
to form a new and better base of supplies on the James base to the 
River, and he made the change with great skill. But •^^°^®^- 
little fighting was done on June 28 and 29, and McClellan improved 
the time in moving his immense army train over AVhite Oak Swamp 
to his new base on the James. It was a great task ; he had four 
thousand wagons, five hundred ambulances, three hundred and fifty 
cannon, and twenty -five hvmdred live cattle. Nothing but his clever 
deception of Lee and Jackson saved his trains from capture. Not 
until the morning of the 30th did the Confederates come up with 
the retreating army, and on that day three heavy battles were fought. 

The first of these occurred between Franklin's corps and the 
army of Jackson at White Oak Swamp. Jackson, with thirty 
thousand men, attemjTting to cross the swamp, was attacked by 
Franklin with scarcely half the number. Franklin's attack was made 
with great courage, and it prevented Jackson from join- 
ing the main army. About two miles from this place yfrm^^ ^ 
occurred the battle of Glendale, or Frazier's Farm. 
Here the divisions of Longstreet and A. P. Hill, accompanied by 
Lee and Jefferson Davis, attacked two Federal divisions. The 



700 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

afternoon was marked by a succession of fierce charges by the Con- 
federates, and the battle continued till late in the night. A third 
battle of this eventful day occurred at the foot of Malvern Hill, 
and was of much smaller dimensions. General Wise made a bold 
but unsuccessful attack on Porter and Keyes.^ McClellan now had 
his army well in hand, and during the night he concentrated his 
entire force on Malvern Hill to await the fearful battle of the 
next day which was to close the campaign.^ 

Malvern Hill is a low plateau more than a mile in diameter, near 
a great bend of the James River, Here McClellan placed his army 
in a position so strong that twice the force of Lee could not have 
dislodged him. The army was arranged in " a grand semicircle, 
with tier after tier of batteries . . . rising in the form of an amphi- 
theater." The crest of the hill bristled with cannon, so placed that 
their fire could be concentrated on any point of attack. McClellan 
had the further advantage of being supported by his gunboats from 
the river. General Lee would have made no such blunder later in 
the war as he now made in attacking McClellan. For the first 
time each commander had a united army, and had the advantages 
been equal, a fight to the finish might have taken place. 

The morning was spent in an artillery duel. Lee had decided to 
attempt to carry the hill by a grand bayonet charge along his whole 
Battle of y^i^Q- But the signal was not properly given, or it was 

Malvern Hill, misunderstood, and the various divisions charged singly. 
July 1, 1862. First, D. H. Hill, then Magruder, then Huger, made a 
determined rush up the slope ; but in each case the steady hail of 
musketry and the concentrated fire of the cannon from the crest of 
Malvern drove them back, leaving thousands dead and wounded in 
their trail. The battle raged till an hour after dark, the lurid glare 
of the powder flashes pointing out to each side the location of the 
enemy. At the close of the battle every Confederate assault had been 
repelled, every battery disabled, while not a line or a column of the 
Army of the Potomac had been broken. Lee's loss exceeded five 
thousand men, McClellan's loss was not one third as great. 

McClellan then settled down at Harrison's Landing on the bank 
of the James, Lee withdrew his army to his intrenchments at Rich- 

1 The losses of this -June 30 are not known, but Longstreet and the two Hills 
reported their losses from the 27th to the 30th as 12,458. 

2 His supply train had now reached Haxall's Landing on the James, just below 
Malvern, and was under the protection of the fleet. 



RECALL OF McCLELLAN 701 

mond, and thus ended the memorable peninsular campaign. The 
losses of the Federal army during the entire campaign were officially 
given at 15,249 ; the Confederate losses were slightly above 19,000. 

McClellan now determined on a new campaign against Kichmond. 
He had chosen an admirable position from which to operate : his 
base of supplies on the James was much nearer than his former one 
on the York, and was protected by the fleet in the river. His plan 
was to cross the river to Petersburg and to operate from there; 
but this was disapproved at Washington, and McClellan yielded the 
point, reoccupied Malvern Hill, and was ready to begin the new 
campaign, when all unexpectedly he was ordered to abandon the 
peninsula and return with his army to the vicinity of Washington. 
This was certainly an unfortunate move for the Union cause, for 
with a reenforcement of twenty or thirty thousand men, wdiich had 
been promised him, McClellan could surely have captured Richmond 
within the next two or three months. He was not a very great 
commander, it is true, but he was safe. He was slow to strike; but 
when he struck, he struck with power. His movement of his base 
from the York to the James, deceiving both the great Confed- 
erate generals, was accomplished with consummate ability. The 
campaign, it must be confessed, had failed in its intended object — 
the capture of Richmond. But the army had vast obstacles to 
overcome — endless swamps and swollen rivers, with a powerful and 
ever vigilant foe in front. It suffered great losses, but it inflicted 
greater losses on the enemy. For seven days it had fought nearly 
every day and had marched through the swamps at night ; and yet 
with all this the army was not in the least demoralized. Its organiza- 
tion was as perfect after the battle of Malvern Hill as it was before 
the battle of Williamsburg, and, above all, it was intensely devoted 
to its commander. In view of these facts it is difficult to see why 
McClellan should have been recalled at this moment and his army 
scattered and merged into another. The answer to this question 
remains among the unfathomable political mysteries of Washington. 

NOTES 

Indians in the Civil War. — At the close of Buchanan's administration nearly 
all the United States Indian agents were secessionists, and they did all in their 
power to lead the Indians to favor the South. Agents were sent among the Indi- 
ans to organize them against the Federal government ; but they were not always 
successful. An aged chief of the Creeks of the Indian Territory, for example, 



702 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

took strong ground for the Union, and he had many followers. Against this 
chief, Colonel Douglas Cooper, a white man, organized a force in the autumn 
of 1861, and the Indians, after being defeated in two minor battles, fled in 
midwinter to Kansas for refuge. There were various other small engagements 
among the Indians, usually under white leaders. Many of the Indians preferred 
to occupy a neutral position, but they found this difficult to do. On the whole, 
more of them sympathized with the South than with the North ; but only at 
Pea Ridge were they engaged in battle on a large scale. The Indians made 
poor soldiers as compared with white men. They clung to their ancient methods 
of warfare, and failed wholly to grasp modern scientific methods. 

General Butler in New Orleans. — The people of New Orleans yielded with 
ill grace to the occupation of the city by the Union forces, and Butler in govern- 
ing the city found his path a thorny one. As he walked along the streets his 
ears were greeted by such calls as, " There's the old cock-eye," " Beast Butler," 

"Let me see the d rascal," " Hurrah for Jeff. Davis," and the like. The 

soldiers were repeatedly insulted in the streets by tlT,e crowds, and especially by 
women who belonged to the higher social classes. '' One day a woman passing 
two soldiers deliberately spat in their faces. Butler could bear this no longer, 
and issued his famous order declaring that if in future "any female shall, by 
word, gesture, or movement, insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier 
of tlie United States, she shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a 
woman of the town plying her avocation." This order had the desired effect, but 
it brought fierce condemnation on its author throughout the South and in parts 
of the North, and was even referred to with "deepest indignation" by Lord 
Palmerston, the British Premier, in the House of Commons. Butler hanged 
William B. Mumford for hauling down the American flag from the roof of the 
Mint. He took possession of a large district southwest of New Orleans and 
sequestered all the property for the benefit of the army and of the destitute 
slaves, and made himself unpopular in many ways. In December of the same 
year he was superseded by General N. P. Banks. Jefferson Davis then issued a 
proclamation declaring Butler an outlaw and a felon, and directing any Confed- 
erate officer to kill him on sight. To this a rich South Carolinian added an 
offer of a reward of $10,000 for the capture of Butler dead or alive. See 
Greeley's "American Conflict," Vol. II, p. 96 s^. 

Lincoln and McClellan. — An endless controversy arose after the close of 
the peninsular campaign concerning the merits of the relations between Presi- 
dent Lincoln and General McClellan. Many take the ground that McClellan 
was incompetent and should have been recalled sooner than he was, while others 
claim that the administration did not support the army properly, and actually 
desired McClellan's downfall. There was merit and blame on each side. 
McClellan was utterly in the wrong in believing that Lincoln did not wish to 
sustain him. He was wrong also in overestimating the force of the enemy ; but 
he accepted the reports of his spies, who, some have believed, were in sympathy 
with the enemy, and purpo.sely deceived him. The claim of some that Lincoln, 
believing that McClellan had aspirations to the presidency, was jealous of him 
and wished to degrade him, will seem absurd to any one who studies Lincoln's 
whole life. But Lincoln was at fault in urging McClellan to begin great opera* 



NOTES 703 

tions in midwinter. He simply reflected tlie impatience of the grtal nntrained 
public. His proclamation ordering the army to move on the 22d of February is 
pronounced by Ropes, one of our profonndest military critics, " a curious speci- 
men of puerile impatience," as war orders and proclamations "will not make 
roads passable." McClellan was quite right in deciding not to move till ,' ring, 
but he was wrong in ignoring public opinion. He should have made minor 
movements here and there, as he could easily have done, to quiet public feeling. 
Again, when he saw that there was a frantic fear that Washington would be 
captured, he should have done more than he did to allay it, though he did not 
share it. Lincoln was greatly handicapped in two ways : First, his want of 
military training, and, it may be added, his commonplace native judgment in 
military matters ; and second, his inability to extricate himself from the all- 
powerful political influence at the capital. Many of his ai^pointraents were 
based on political grounds. Here is an example : McClellan urged (see " McClel- 
lan's Own Story," p. 226) that the defenses of Washington be put into the 
hands of one of the ables men of the army ; but Lincoln appointed to this 
important post General Wadsworth, a politician wholly without military train- 
ing or experience. The secret of the appointment is shown in a letter to 
McClellan from the secretary of war. "Wadsworth," wrote Stanton, "had 
been selected because it was necessary for political reasons to conciliate the 
agricultural interests of New York," and he declared that it was useless to dis- 
cuss the matter, as in no event would the appointment be changed. No ill effects 
came of this ; but had a Confederate army attacked Washington the. result might 
have been disastrous. Lincoln was a victim of this political monster, which, 
in our government, is so strong that the strongest man cannot wholly prevail 
against it. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

THE CIVIL "WAR — WAR ON A GRAND SCALE 

A TEAR had now passed since the first great clash of arms at 
Bull Run. It was a momentous year in American history ; it had 
brought the marshaling of vast armies and a few tremendous battles. 
Neither side had yet much to boast of. The North was as deter- 
mined as ever to preserve the Union ; but the Confederacy seemed 
unshaken. Yet it had visibly lost ground — not in the East, save 
along the coast of the Carolinas, but in the valley of the great river. 
Missouri' had been saved to the Union ; so had Kentucky ; the South 
had lost Arkansas at Pea Ridge, and Tennessee at Pittsburg Landing. 
The mouth of the Mississippi had been seized, and the greatest port 
of the South had fallen before the armies from the North. But the 
year ending with July, 1862, with all its great events, was surpassed 
by the year that followed it. The whole land was now astir with 
the spirit of war. No longer did any one dream of compromise; 
the two mighty powers had grappled in mortal strife, and only 
when one had slain the other could the contest end. Which would 
win no one could yet say. Certainly the North, if Europe would 
keep quiet ; otherwise, the outcome was uncertain. 

THE CONFEDEEATE GOVERNMENT 

At this point a rapid view of the Confederate government is in 
place. We have noted the forming of the provisional government 
at Montgomery, Alabama, in February, 1861, the election of a 
provisional President and Vice President, the adoption by the 
Congress of a permanent Constitution in March, and the removal 
of the capital to Richmond, Virginia. The provisional government 
continued for one year, its Congress consisting of but one House, 
when it gave way to the " permanent " government, in which the 
Congress consisted of two houses, similar to those of the Union. 

704 



THE CONFEDERATE CONGRESS 705 

The laws of the United States in force at the time of secession 
continued to operate until repealed. 

On November 6, 1861, an election of President and Vice Presi- 
dent for the full six years was held, and Davis and Stephens were 
reelected by a unanimous electoral vote. The inauguration took 
place on February 22, 1862. 

Under the permanent Constitution two congresses were elected. 
The period of the first was from February 18, 1862, to February 18, 
1864, four sessions being held. The second Congress began at the ex- 
piration of the first and continued till it was unceremoniously broken 
up, on March 18, 1865, by the proximity of General Grant's army. 
Thomas S. Bocock of Virginia was the Speaker of both congxesses. 
In the first Congress there were delegates from the non-seceding 
states of Missouri and Kentucky, elected by rump conventions or 
by soldiers in the field. The highest number in the Confederate 
Senate was twenty-six and in the House one hundred and six. The 
Congress held most of its sessions in secret. It was not free in its 
acts ; it was dominated by President Davis, and its main business 
was to register laws prepared by him. Davis soon had quarrels with 
the leading members of Congress as well as of the army. Toward 
the close of the war the Congress began to wrest itself from the 
control of the President. As early as December, 1863, Foote of 
Tennessee stated on the floor of the House that President Davis 
"never visited the army without doing it injury — never yet, that 
it has not been followed by disaster." The only known instance, 
says Alexander Johnston,^ of entirely independent action in an 
important matter by the permanent Congress was that of 1865, 
when it voted that Davis's incompetency was the cause of Con- 
federate disaster, and made General Lee commander in chief with 
unlimited powers. Certainly the presidency of the Confederacy 
was a thorny road to travel. 

The suspending of the writ of Habeas Corpus was practiced in 
the South, as in the North; and there also it awakened much opposi- 
tion, especially in Georgia and North Carolina. In the matter of 
conscription the South dealt more drastically than the North. An 
act of the Confederate Congress, February 17, 1864, declared all 
white men in the Confederate states, between the ages of 17 and 50 
years, in the military service for the period of the war. 

Little was the opportunity of the people of the South to show 

1 Lalor's " Cyclopedia," Vol. I, p. 570. 
2s 



706 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

their capacity for self-government, which, with their many trained 
statesmen, they no doubt had in a high degree. The brief period oi 
the Confederate government was one of unceasing warfare with a 
mightier power, and its game was a losing one throughout. Little 
could its Congress do but pass war measures, dealing with the 
raising of armies and the distressing subject of finance. From 
the beginning the government relied chiefly on loans. It hoped to 
refrain from internal taxation, and the blockade prevented an income 
from foreign trade. The first issue of bonds, in February, 1861, was 
for $15,000,000, and this was realized in specie ; but the second, 
three months later, for a hundred millions, was raised partly by 
accepting farm produce, by which the government became the pos- 
sessor of vast stores of cotton. This produce loan system was con- 
tinued through the years 1862 and 1863, and even the states followed 
the example and borrowed cotton by the issue of bonds. ^ 

As the raising of money by bond issues grew more difficult, the 
government came to rely on the issue of treasury notes, or paper 
money. The issue was at first meager ; but it increased rapidly, and 
by the close of the war there was probably $1,000,000,000 of Con- 
federate money afloat. This of course decreased in value until it 
became worthless. The government at length resorted to internal 
taxation ; but as the taxes were paid in its own depreciated notes, it 
provided for produce taxation, and the farmer paid his tax with the 
products of the farm. On the whole the struggle of the Confeder- 
acy for life was one of the most heroic in history. 

POPE'S CAMPAIGN IN VIRGINIA 

The almost unbroken successes of the Union armies in the Mis- 
sissippi Valley created a feeling that their leaders were superior to 
those of the East. The latest of these western men to call attention 
to himself was General John Pope, a Kentuckian by birth, a gradu- 
ate of West Point, and a veteran of the Mexican War. Pope's 
signal victory at Island No. 10 gave him national fame, and in June 
he was called east and given command of the forces under McDowell, 
Banks, and Fremont, and the combined army, some forty thousand 
men, was named " The Army of Virginia." "^ The following month 

1 See " Cambridge Modern History," Vol. VH, p. 610. 

2 Fremont refused to serve under Pope, aud General Franz Sigel was appointed 
in his stead. 



POPE IN VIRGINIA 7(7. 



General Halleck was called east and made conimandei- in chief of 
all the armies of the United States. Soon after this, McClellan was 
recalled from the peninsula, and a large part of his army was given 
to Pope, who was directed to make an aggressive campaign in the 
vicinity of Manassas. Pope started out with a bombastic proclama- 
tion, almost as turgid as that of General Smythe before Niagara 
in 1813. 

The first serious encounter took place at Cedar Mountain, a few 
miles south of Culpeper. The corps of Banks, about eight thou- 
sand men, fought with more than twice their number B^nks at 
under Jackson. Banks rushed upon the enemy's lines Cedar Moun- 
with great fury and threw them into disorder, and had tam,August9. 
not Jackson received reenforcements he might have been routed, 
though his loss was much less than that of Banks. -^ The next few 
weeks were occupied in skirmishes, marches, and countermarches. 
On one occasion Stewart with his cavalry cut Pope off temporarily 
from his base of supplies at Manassas and captured his private 
papers ; and on the 27th of August Jackson captured the great Fed- 
eral stores at Manassas. Lee had now moved forward with most of 
his army to the aid of Jackson. Pope had also been reenforced from 
the Army of the Potomac, but his force was still inferior to that of 
Lee. 

On August 29 occurred the sanguinary battle of Groveton. Pope 
was anxious to crush Jackson before he could be reenforced by 
Longstreet, who was fast approaching. He ordered 
McDowell to fall back toward Gainesville, and from Qpoyg^o^ 
here he arranged his whole army in a semicircle, several 
miles long, to Bull Kun. But Longstreet had arrived, and the battle 
was general all along the line — a series of heavy skirmishes rather 
than a pitched battle. The fight, especially in the afternoon, went 
against the Federals. Pope blamed Fitz-John Porter for this. He 
had sent Porter word to support McDowell, but, as Porter claimed, 
the word did not reach him till night.^ Pope had been worsted on 

1 Sigel and his corps were only a few miles away, but through some misunder- 
standing he failed to go to the aid of Banks. The Union loss at Cedar Mountain, 
says Livermore, was 2353; Confederate loss, 1338. 

2 For not obeying this order Porter was court-martialed, dismissed from the 
service, and disqualified from holding any office of trust or profit in the Unite<l 
States. The matter became the subject of long controversy. In 1882 General Grant 
reviewed the case and decided that Porter was innocent. His disability was 
removed that year, and in ISSfi he was restored to the army and retired. 



708 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

this day, but he prepared for a new attack the following morning. 
Lee's whole army was now in his front. He imagined Lee to be in 
retreat, and sent McDowell to follow him ; but McDowell was driven 

back, and Porter, who charged Jackson's right repeatedly, 
of BuU rSi*^^ ^^^ driven back with great loss. The Federals were at 

length forced back over Bull Eun toward Centreville. 
This battle, in which Pope was again defeated, has been called the 
second battle of Bull Kun, as it was fought on almost the same 
ground as that on which the Army of the Potomac was defeated 
thirteen months before. 

Two days later another fierce battle occurred, known as the battle 
of Chantilly. Lee had sent Jackson around Centreville to the north, 

and the divisions of Hooker, Reno, and Kearney were 
September 1 ^®^^ against him. The Federals were at length forced 

to retire, and the brave General Kearney, who had lost 
an arm in the Mexican War and had just passed through the penin- 
sular campaign, was among the slain. Pope now led his army back 
to the defense of Washington. The campaign had cost him at least 
fifteen thousand men ; the Confederate loss was probably above ten 
thousand. If McClellan had failed on the peninsula, Pope, with all 
his glowing promises, had made a far more dismal failure. On the 
same day that he reached Washington he was relieved of command 
at his own request, and McClellan was restored to the command of 
the Army of the Potomac. 



ANTIETAM 

When, on September 2, 1862, President Lincoln called in person 
on General McClellan and requested him to resume command of the 
army, McClellan accepted the heavy burden without a murmur con- 
cerning the past, and the soldiers sent up cheer after cheer at the 
return of their old commander. The army at that moment was 
shattered and demoralized, but in a few days the magic hand of 
McClellan effected a new organization. 

Lee was elated at his recent successes, and resolved to make 
an immediate invasion of Maryland. In a few days his army was 
on its way toward Harpers Ferry. McClellan at the same time 
moved his army up the north bank of the Potomac. He was uncer- 
tain as to the intentions of the Confederates until, on the 12th of 
September, Lee's order of the campaign fell into his hands. By this 



McCLELLAN AND LEE IN MARYLAND 70» 

he learned that Jacksou had gone to Sharpsburg, between the Poto- 
mac and Antietaui Creek, that Longstreet was to halt at Boonsboro 
with the supply trains, and that IMcLaws was to occupy the heights 
above Harpers Ferry. This information was of great advantage to 
McClellan. When Lee entered Maryland he called upon the people to 
rally to his standard, to throw off the foreign yoke, and to restore the 
independence and sovereignty of their state ; but the people failed 
to respond, and the southerners found only closed doors and frown- 
ing looks. The Union army, on the other hand, was welcomed with 
open arms. 

The first encounter, a double one, took place at two passes in the 
South Mountain, a continuation of the Blue Ridge north of the Poto- 
mac. General Franklin, who had been sent to relieve B-^+ig -* 
Harpers Ferry, met a Confederate force at Crampton's South Moun- 
Gap, and defeated it in a sharp battle of three hours, tain, Septem- 
At the same time the main army under Burnside and 
Reno encountered a stronger force at Turner's Gap, seven miles farther 
up. The battle here continued many hours, till late in the night, 
and the Union troops were victorious, though General Reno was 
killed, and Lieutenant-Colonel R. B. Hayes, a future President of 
the United States, was among the wounded. These two actions are 
known as the battle of South jMountain. The Federals won a decisive 
victory in both, with a loss of twenty-one hundi-ed men,^ but they 
failed to save Harpers Ferry. On the next day Jackson on the one 
side and McLaws on the other looked down from the heights on 
Harpers Ferry, where Colonel Dixon S. Miles had twelve thousand 
men and vast stores of arms and ammunition. With in- n-vj+vi-e of 
explicable stupidity he had remained in the trap when Harpers 
he should have led his men to one of the heights and Ferry, 
held the enemy in check until the arrival of Franklin, September 15. 
whom he knew to be but a few miles away. Scarcely had the bom- 
bardment begun when he raised the white flag and surrendered 
his army and the great stores to the enemy. Miles's action arose 
probably from want of capacity, rather than of patriotism. Yet 
he would doubtless have been severely dealt with but for the fact 
that a stray Confederate bullet, after the surrender, laid him dead 
upon the ground. 

Jackson and McLaws now hastened to join the main army, which 

1 Lee's loss was nearly twenty-seven hundred, eight hundred of whom were 
prisoners. Livermore, p. 91. 



710 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

had taken a strong position on the south bank of Antietam Creek, 
a little stream that flows into the Potomac above Harpers Ferry. It 
was evident that a battle of vast magnitude was imminent, one 
that must decide the issue of Lee's campaign. If Lee won, he would 
push northward into Pennsylvania, or strike Baltimore ; if he lost, 
he must return to Virginia. After an artillery duel at intervals, and 
a sharp attack by Hooker on Lee's left wing, the two great armies 
bivouacked on the field for the night and sought a little rest and 
strength for the fearful business of the coming day. At sunrise of 
the 17th Hooker, who commanded the Union right, opened his cannon 
on the enemy's left under Jackson. Jackson answered with fury, 
Battle of ^^^ ^^ enfilading fire from Hooker's batteries pressed 

Antietam, his lines back, when he received fresh masses of troops 
September and was about to drive Hooker from his position. 
, 100,6. Hooker was painfully wounded and was borne from the 

field, and Sumner crossed the creek and threw his corps into the 
contest. Thus for hours the Union right and the enemy in its front 
surged to and fro, and human blood flowed like water. Meantime 
the left and center under Burnside and Porter remained inactive till 
afternoon, when Burnside charged upon the enemy. As evening 
approached the two armies ceased fighting as if by mutual consent. 
Both had suffered severely. More than 23,000 men lay dead or 
wounded on the field, divided almost equally between the two armies. 
This day has been pronounced the bloodiest day in American history. 
McClellan reported a loss of 12,640. For twenty-four hours the two 
armies rested, glaring at each other. McClellan meant to attack on 
the second day, but during the preceding night Lee escaped across 
the Potomac in the darkness. Antietam was a drawn battle; but 
in another sense it was a complete victory for McClellan, for it ended 
Lee's proposed invasion of the North. Lee had started north with a 
fine army of over 50,000 men just two weeks before ; now he returned 
with little over half the number, having lost greatly by straggling 
as well as in battle. Had McClellan known that on the day after 
the battle Lee was nearly out of ammunition and his army was 
greatly disorganized, he could have overwhelmed and crushed him. 
His pursuit of Lee was long delayed; it should have been immediate 
and vigorous. He alleged that his army was short in horses, short 
in wagons, rations, clothing, etc. ; but he should have remembered, 
for he certainly knew, that the retreating enemy was shorter in every- 
thing than he was. Lincoln urged an immediate pursuit of Lee; 



DISMISSAL OF McCLELLAN 711 

but McClellan waited five weeks before attempting to cross the Poto- 
mac River. At last he did move : he crossed the river late in Octo- 
ber, and the celerity of his march was unusual for him. 



McClellan 

hausted, and on November 7, as he sat in his tent with 



But the patience of the administration had been ex- ,. 

^ dismissed. 



his friend Burnside, he received a dispatch from the President re- 
lieving him of the command and giving it to Burnside. 

Why McClellan was removed at this time the historian has no 
power to determine. Some attribute the removal to the inner politi- 
cal councils at AVashington. It was known that McClellan was a 
conservative, and his friends outside the army were generally Demo- 
crats or conservative Republicans.^ Others believed that the admin- 
istration feared that McClellan, if left a few weeks longer, would 
crush Lee, annihilate his army, and end the rebellion, leaving slav- 
ery intact, and they preferred that the war continue rather than that 
it should end with the cause of it left over to disturb the country in 
future. There is no proof that this motive entered the mind of the 
President and his advisers ; but if it were so, we cannot hesitate to 
give it our approval. From a military standpoint, however, the re- 
moval of McClellan was a serious mistake. It is certain that he 
was a growing man, and that with his extreme caution and his won- 
derful powers of organization a great defeat of the army under him 
was scarcely possible. Thus closed his career as a soldier, and it 
is with sincere regret that we take leave of McClellan. He was a 
man of clean moral life and was deeply devoted to the cause of the 
Union. Much has been written concerning McClellan as a com- 
mander, and the best summing up of it all, in our opinion, was made 
by General Grant in later years. "The test applied to him," said 
Grant, " would be terrible to any man, being made a major-general 
at the beginning of the war. . , . McClellan was a young man when 
this devolved upon him, and if he did not succeed, it was because 
the conditions of success were so trying. If McClellan had gone into 
the war as Sherman, Thomas, or Meade, — had fought his way along 
and up, — I have no reason to suppose that he would not have ■won 
as high distinction as any of us." ^ 

Who should succeed McClellan? Various names were considered, 

1 Rhodes, Vol. IV, p. 190. Burgess pronounces the dismissal of McClellan "a 
dark, mysterious, uncanny thins:, which the historian does not need to touch and pre- 
fers not to touch." " The Civil War and the Constitution," Vol. II, p. 105. 

2 See Young's " Around the World with General Grant," Vol. II, p. 216- 



712 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

and the choice fell on General Burnside, who had repeatedly dis 
paraged his own ability and had aifirmed over and over again that 
McClellan was the ablest commander in the army. This was attrib- 
uted to his modesty. Had not Caesar refused the crown offered 
him by the Roman Senate ? Twice had Bm-nside been offered and 
twice he had refused the command of the Army of the Potomac, de- 
claring that he was incompetent. But George Washington had said 
the same thing to the Continental Congress. It was left, however, 
for Burnside to do what Washington never did — to prove his 
assertion to be true. His short, disastrous campaign, which we 
shall notice hereafter, left no doubt in the minds of his countrymen. 

EMANCIPATION 

The battle of xVntietara not only drove Lee back to Virginia soil 
and ended his invasion, which, "n*ith a simultaneous invasion of 
Kentucky by forty thousand Cojifederates under General Bragg, had 
caused great excitement in the Xorth; it also enabled Lincoln to 
issue the most important proclamation ever issued by a President of 
the United States. 

The war had been going on for a year and a half; it had cost 
eighty thousand men and 61,000,000,000; but it was still, as in the 
beginning, a war for the L'niou. The real cause of the strife, 
slavery, was not yet seriously molested. But a beginning had been 
made, and after Antietam the matter took such shape that hence- 
forth there could be no backward step. Emancipation, as well as 
the preservation of the Union, became the policy of the government 
From the beginning of the war there was a radical party that ceased 
not to demand that the government strike at slavery. But the 
President hesitated long, and the radicals denounced him un- 
sparingly ; yet Lincoln was right. He knew that the radicals were 
greatly in the minority ; he knew that, with all his desire to see the 
institution fall, he would alienate the border states and perhaps 
the whole Democratic party of the North if he pressed the matter 
too soon. The Democrats claimed to be fighting for the Union and 
not for the negro. Lincoln therefore, with infinite tact, waited for 
public opinion and aided in its development. 

The gradual steps toward emancipation are interesting to note. 
The first step was taken by General Butler while in command at 
Fortress ^lonroe. He refused, in May, 1861, to send three black 



STEPS TOWARD EMANCIPATION 713 



fugitives back to their master, pronouncing them contraband of war. 
The next step was an act of Congress in August of the same rear, 
confiscating all property, including slaves, employed in the service ot 
the rebellion. Xext Ciuue Fremont's confiscation order in Missouri, 
which, as we' have noticed, was overruled by the Presi- g^eps toward 
dent. In 3Iay of the next year, 1SG2, General David emancipa- 
Hunter, commanding on the coast of South Carolina, ^io^- 
issued a proclamation declaring the slaves in his department — 
South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida — free ; but the President over- 
ruled this, as in the case of Fremont. In spite of these apparent 
checks the subject continued to develop. On April 16, 1862, Congress 
abolished slavery in the District of Columbia, with compensation. 
In June it passed a law prohibiting slavery in all the territories 
of the United States, including those to be acquired. As early as 
March 6 Lincoln had urged Congress iu a special message to coop- 
erate with any state for the gradual emancipation ot its slaves, with 
compensation from the government. He figured out that the cost of 
the war for eighty-seven days would purchase all the slaves in the 
border states at the rate of $400 apiece.^ A resolution to this effect 
passed the House on March 11 and the Senate on April 2. Lincoln 
in July called the senators and representatives from the border 
states to the ^Miite House for a heart to heart talk on the subject. 
He begged them to accept his policy, pointing out to them that the 
opportunity might never come again, that the signs of the times 
pointed to the ultimate extinction of slavery ; but he pleaded in vain.^ 

The second and most sweeping Confiscation Act was passed on 
July 17, 1862. This act in substance pronounced all slaves free 
who shoidd come within the protection of the government, if their 
owners were in rebellion against the government, or had given or 
should give aid or comfort to the rebellion. 

On July 22 at a Cabinet meeting Mr. Lincoln declared his pur- 
pose to issue an emancipation edict to take effect January 1, 1863, and 
he read the document he had prepared. Two of the members, Seward 
and "Welles, had been taken into the President's confidence and knew 
what was coming. The others were astonished at the announcement. 

1 The war at that time cost $2,000,000 a day. and the cost of eighty-seV«in days 
would be §174,000,000. 

2 The next winter a bill came np in Congress to offer Jlissouri SlO.OOO.OOO for her 
slaves ; but it was defeated by the efforts of the border state members, aided by the 
Democrats of most of the northern states. 



714 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

« 

But all approved it except Blair, who feared that it would throw the 
fall elections against the administration. At Seward's advice Lin- 
coln decided to wait for some signal Union victory in the field, and 
the document was pocketed and the secret kept for two months. 
Meantime the radical party continued to denounce the President 
for moving so slowly. Horace Greeley, representing this party, 
addressed an open letter, " The Prayer of Twenty Millions," to the 
President through the New York Tribune, urging him to take imme- 
diate action, to " execute the laws," meaning specially the confiscation 
laws. To this Mr. Lincoln replied that while his personal wish was 
that all men should be free, his paramount official duty was to save 
the Union with or without slavery.^ 

Then came Antietam and the retreat of Bragg from Kentucky. 
Now the proclamation could be issued and seem a child of strength. 
On the 22d of September, therefore, Mr. Lincoln issued his prelimi- 
nary Emancipation Proclamation, which has been pronounced the 
most important document ever issued by a civil ruler. In this proc- 
lamation he declared that the slaves in all the states or designated 
parts of states that should be in rebellion against the government on 
the first of January, 1863, should be forever free. This gave a hun- 
dred days' notice to the rebellious states, but none of them heeded 
the warning, nor were they expected to heed it. Accordingly, on the 
first day of January the President issued his proclamation, of which 
the former had been but a warning, declaring the freedom of all 
slaves in the seceding states, except in certain parts of Louisiana 
and Virginia, then held by the Union armies.^ 

This proclamation had no immediate effect in emancipating the 
slaves, no more than had the Declaration of Independence in bring- 
ing independence. This could not have been expected. But the 
proclamation set forth the policy of the government on this most 
important question that ever arose in American poli- 
meant ^^^^ since the Revolution, except that occasioned by 

secession; it placed the war on a new basis without 
abandoning the old, namely, that henceforth it should be a war 
against slavery as well as against disunion ; it announced to the world 
that if the North were successful in the great war, slavery must 

1 This letter to Greeley was written on August 22, precisely a month after the 
famous Cabinet meeting, and precisely a month before the .more famous proclamation 
was issued to the world. 

2 It will be remembered that slavery in the border states was not affected by this 
proclamation. 



LINCOLN'S MOTIVES 715 



perish. The proclamation had a salutary effect on Europe, and won 
the Kortli many friends. Europe cared little about preserving our 
Union, but as soon as the North proclaimed to the world that it 
was battling against human slavery, as well as against disunion, the 
sympathies of mankind were turned in its favor.^ 

Lincoln had at heart belonged to the radical party all along, in 
that he desired the overthrow of slavery ; but he was too wise to 
be rash. He waited for the development of public opinion, and he 
waited none too long. The proclamation made the administration 
many enemies, as well as friends, and it doubtless had much to do 
in bringing about an alarming political reaction in the fall elections. 
A new Congress was elected about six weeks after the preliminary 
proclamation, and the Democrats showed great gains. The Repub- 
licans lost nine members from New York, six from Pennsylvania, 
eight from Ohio ; and but for New England and the border states 
they would have lost control of the House, while New York and New 
Jersey chose Democratic governors. But the Emancipation Procla- 
mation was not the sole cause of the reaction. Many voted against 
the administration because of arbitrary arrests, of the suspension of 
tlie writ of Habeas Corpus, of want of success in the field, of the 
dismissal of McClellan ; and thousands of strong friends of the 
Union voted the Democratic ticket simply because they had always 
done so. The result, however, fell heavily on the burdened heart of 
Lincoln. He feared that it meant a want of confidence in himself, 
but he bore the burden silently and took no backward step. 

Often has the constitutional right of the President to issue this 
proclamation been questioned. The President ordinarily has no 
power to interfere with private property. Not even the general 
government had the constitutional right to touch slavery in any 
state. How then could Lincoln by his mere fiat set free four mil- 
lion slaves ? The answer is that the measure was a war measure. 
It is the right and duty of the President to suppress rebellion by 
any means necessary to success. Here was a vast xhePresi- 
rebellion against the government, and it was the slaves dent's right 
that raised the crops that fed the armies that fought to issue the 
against the government. Why not then strike at ^^°^ am i n. 
slavery ? Here was the legal, technical ground on which Lincoln 

1 The governing classes in England, however, still favored the Soutb . See Lecky's 
"Democracy and Liberty," Vol. I aud the second volume of McCarthy's "History 
of Our Own Times." 



716 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

could do what he did, and he made use of it. He issued the procla- 
mation ostensibly to weaken the southern armies, knowing, at the 
same time, that he would not weaken them thereby.^ This then, could 
not have been his real object, but it was the only ground on which he 
had any legal right to act. Must we, then, pronounce his act but a 
lawyer's trick after all ? However that may be, the real object of the 
proclamation was to compass the downfall of slavery, to prepare the 
way for a constitutional amendment, to secure to the future immunity 
from the curse of slavery. The end accomplished was so unselfish 
and so vast as a factor in modern civilization that the world has long 
forgotten the technicality in admiration of its author. 

BUELL, BRAGG, AND ROSECRANS 

We must now change the scene again to the Mississippi Valley. 
A year has passed since we left the two great armies stunned and 
bleeding at Pittsburg Landing, and it was a year of great activity in 
the West. Halleck had taken command after Shiloh. He moved 
to Corinth, which the Confederates abandoned on his approach. In 
midsummer he was called to Washington, and left Grant at the 
head of the Army of the Tennessee. The star of General Grant, 
which had burst out so brilliantly at Donelson, had waned after 
Shiloh, and nothing but another victory could again attract to it the 
public gaze. For a year the army under Grant lay in west Tennes- 
see and did little, while the Army of the Ohio, under Buell, became 
the chief object of the nation's attention, next to the Army of the 
Potomac. Early in the summer of 1862 Halleck sent Buell to capture 
Chattanooga, in southern Tennessee, an important railroad center 
and the key to east Tennessee. But Buell was delayed in repair- 
ing railroads, and the Confederate army, now commanded by General 
Braxton Bragg, who had succeeded Beauregard, reached the place 
before him and held it. Bragg was a stern, exacting man of much 
energy and moderate ability. His name had long been familiar to 
American readers through the historic expression of Zachary Taylor 
at Buena Vista, " A little more grape, Captain Bragg." 

President Davis determined to retrieve, if possible, the losses of 
Donelson and Shiloh, and he sent Bragg to invade Tennessee and 

^ It is true that as the war neared its end many of the slaves were practically free, 
but this condition was brought about more by the exigencies of war, the ruin of the 
South, than by the proclamation. 



THE FIGHT FOR KENTUCKY 717 

Kentucky. A sweeping conscription law had passed the Confed- 
erate Congress, and this brought many new recruits to the western 
armies. Bragg's army moved northward in two divi- Bragg starts 
sions, one commanded by himself and the other by Kirby north across 
Smith. Smith moved northward from Knoxville late Kentucky, 
in August, and captured Lexington. The people of Cincinnati 
became greatly frightened ; but Smith made no attempt on that 
city. He waited for Bragg, who, with the main army and a wagon 
train forty miles long, was racing across the state with Buell. Both 
were headed for Louisville, and Bragg, who had the shorter line of 
march, might have won, but he hesitated at the magnitude of the 
undertaking, and Buell entered the city in the last days of Septem- 
ber. There his army was swelled by new recruits to sixty thousand, 
while Bragg had fifty thousand, nearly all seasoned veterans. Bragg 
now went through the farce of setting up a Confederate state govern- 
ment in Kentucky. Buell moved out from Louisville, determined 
to drive Bragg out of the state. The latter slowly retreated before 
the advancing army, but was overtaken at Perryville, where, on the 
8th of October, was fought a bloody battle. The Union left wing 
under General McCook was assailed with great fury by g^ttig ^f 
General Polk. Buell, who had not expected a battle Perryville, 
till the next day, was a few miles distant, and did October 8, 
not know of the fighting till late in the afternoon, when 
too late to make disposition for a general battle. He fully expected 
a great battle on the morrow, but during the night the enemy de- 
camped and took up his march to the southland.^ 

Buell was severely censured for his bad management at Perry- 
ville and for his subsequent dilatory pursuit of the retreating 
enemy. He drove Bragg out of Kentucky, and that was a victory, 
but his permitting Bragg to escape with all the plunder he had 

1 The Union loss at Perryville was nearly four thousand ; the Confederate loss 
was about one thousand less. A curious incident occurred to the Confederate general, 
Leonidas Polk, near the close of the battle. It was growing dark, and he unwittingly 
rode into the Union lines, thinkiiig them his own men firing on their friends. He 
angrily demanded why they were shooting their friends. The colonel, greatly aston- 
ished, answered, " I don't think there can be any mistake about it. I am sure they 
are the enemy." "Enemy!" rejoined Polk, " why, I have just left them myself. 

Cease firing, sir. What is your name?" "lam Colonel of the Indiana. Pray, 

sir, who are you? " Polk now saw his blunder, and saw that his only hope of escape 
was to brazen it out. "I will show you who I am," he shouted; "cease firing.' 
Then he called to the men to cease firing, and cantering down the line, reached a 
copse, put spurs to his horse, and was soon back in his own lines. " Battles and 
Leaders," Vol. Ill, p. 602. 



718 mSTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

gathered was not relished at the North. Lincoln's pet project had 
long been to throw an army into east Tennessee, and soon aftei 
Perryville he informed Buell, through Halleck, that he must lead 
his army into that region before winter and live off the country. 
Buell knew this to be impossible, as east Tennessee .had already 
been partially stripped by the Confederates ; and he knew it to be 
bad policy, as any army subsisting off the country will become 
demoralized by foraging and theft. He therefore suggested to the 
President that if it were the intention to change the command, now 
would be a suitable time to do it.^ Mr. Lincoln thereupon relieved 
Buell and appointed General William S. Rosecrans commander of 
the Army of the Ohio. 

The parallel between Bragg's invasion of Kentucky and Lee's 
invasion of Maryland is striking. Both occurred in the early 
autumn of 1862 ; both failed to awaken much border-state enthusiasm 
for the southern cause. Both ended in failure, the one at the great 
battle of Antietam, the other at the moderate battle of Perryville 
three weeks later. In each case the Confederate commander with- 
drew after the battle, at night, and abandoned the expedition. The 
parallel is notable also between the two Union commanders — - 
McClellan and Buell. Both were good disciplinarians, but lacking 
in the fire and dash necessary to an offensive campaign. Both were 
sincerely devoted to the Union, but were conservative on the slavery 
question. Both were Democrats in politics. Both were successful, 
without a great victory, in driving the Confederates from border- 
state soil. Both were removed by the President at the close of 
their respective campaigns, ostensibly because they were too slow to 
satisfy the great impatient public of the North. 

Now we turn to Rosecrans. His laurels had been recently won 
— at Inka and Corinth in Mississippi. When Bragg moved into 
Kentucky he left Generals Van Dorn and Price with a 
ber*i9^1862' ^^^S^ army in northern Mississippi. Price seized luka 
in September, and Grant sent Rosecrans against him. 
A sharp battle ensued, with a loss of some eight hundred on each 
side. Two weeks later Van Dorn, now joined by Price, with twenty- 
two thousand troops, made a desperate assault on Corinth, in which 

1 Buell had been threatened with removal for some weeks. Before he left Louis- 
ville an order was sent to displace him and to put General Thomas in his place ; but it 
was recalled. Military critics pronounce Buell one of tlie ablest commanders of the 
war, and agree that the administration was wholly at fault in removing him. 



CORINTH AND STONE RIVER 719 

an enormous amount of supplies were stored under the guardianship 
of Rosecvans with twenty-three thousand men. Here Rosecrans 
displayed remarkable powers. The first attack was made on the 
afternoon of October 3; but the real contest came the next day. 
About the middle of the forenoon a vast column of gleaming 
bayonets flashed out from the woods and made directly for the 
heart of the town. It came in the form of a monstrous wedge, 
which presently spread out in two great wings. On battle of 
these Rosecrans opened his artillery, which mowed down Corinth, Octo- 
the men with merciless slaughter. As the column ad- 1)614,1862. 
vanced the whole line of Federal infantry opened on it from their 
intrenchments ; but the Confederates with desperate valor came on, 
averting their heads like men striving to protect themselves against 
a storm of hail.^ When the Federal line at length gave way at one 
point, Eosecrans rode between the lines in the midst of the fire of 
both sides, rallied his men, brought in his reserves, and won a com- 
plete victory. Corinth, with all its stores, was saved. The victory 
was regarded by the North as the most important of the season, 
next to Antietam. The Confederate loss was forty-two hundred, 
while the Federals lost but twenty-five hundred. Van Dorn was 
soon replaced by General John C. Pemberton ; Rosecrans was made 
a major-general and was promoted to the chief command of the 
Army of the Ohio, thenceforth called the Army of the Cumber- 
land. 

Rosecrans displayed his independent spirit by refusing to attempt 
the impossible task of marching into east Tennessee, and the ad- 
ministration ax was soon swinging over his head. On December 4 
Halleck telegraphed him, " If you remain one more week at Nash- 
ville, I cannot prevent your removal ; " to which Rosecrans made the 
manly reply, that he was trying to do his whole duty, and that he 
was insensible to threats of removal. Halleck rejoined apologetically 
that no threat was meant, and Rosecrans remained three weeks longer 
at Nashville, waiting for supplies. 

On the day after Christmas Rosecrans moved his army, forty- 
seven thousand strong, in three divisions under Thomas, Ba,ttle of 
McCook, and Crittenden, to Murfreesborough, a town Murfrees- 
f orty miles from Nashville, in which Bragg had taken borough or 
up his winter quarters. Bragg's army of thirty- Stone Kiver. 
eight thousand men was divided into three corps under Hardee, 
1 See Greeley, Vol. II, p. 227* 



720 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Polk, and Kirby Smith. On December 30 the two armies lay 
on the banks of Stone River near Murfreesborough, within can- 
non shot of each other. Eosecrans's plan of battle for the next 
day was perfect; but it was frustrated by Bragg, who took the 
initiative. McCook, who held the Uiuon right, was assaulted 
with terrific force by Hardee, and long before noon his division 
was driven back and almost crumbled to pieces. He would have 
been utterly defeated but for the heroic stand made by Thomas. 
By noon the Union forces seemed on the verge of defeat ; but the 
great skill and the prodigious efforts of Rosecrans during the after- 
noon — galloping from one division to another and rearranging his 
lines — saved the day, and the honors at nightfall were about even 
between the two armies. Next day, the first of the year, 1863, both 
armies rested, except that each prepared for the struggle that was 
to follow on the second. In the afternoon of the second John C. 
Breckenridge was sent with a large force, the best soldiers of Bragg's 
army, to take a hill near the bank of the river. He succeeded, but 
in doing so he came in range of the Federal batteries across the 
stream. These opened such a murderous fire that two thousand 
of Breckenridge's men fell in twenty minutes. When darkness 
settled over the field of carnage the Union army had advanced far 
enough to throw shells into Murfreesborough. Bragg then abandoned 
all thought of victory, and sought only to save his army ; and before 
the morning of the 4th he had stolen away with his array, leav- 
ing his dead and wounded to his enemy. Stone River, 
ret^eat^ or Murfreesborough, was one of the most fiercely fought 

battles of the war. It was a clear victory for Rosecrans, 
for although he had lost more heavily than the enemy ,^ he drove 
Bragg from his winter quarters and opened the way to a large por- 
tion of central Tennessee. Coming within a few weeks after the 
disaster at Fredericksburg, this battle infused new courage into the 
dispirited North and gave a new meaning to the Emancipation Proc- 
lamation, which had just gone into operation. It made Rosecrans, 
for a season, the most conspicuous figure in the field ; and it brought 
also into prominence a superb young commander from Ohio — Philip 
Henry Sheridan. 

The battle cost Rosecrans about 13,000 meu and Bragg nearly 12,000. 



BURNSIDE'S BLUNDER 721 



FREDERICKSBURG AND CHANCELLORSVILLE 

Again our scene must be shifted to the East. Ambrose E. Burn- 
side, like many of our commanders, was a graduate of West Point, 
and had seen service in Mexico. Personally he was an admirable 
character, but he was quite right in believing that he was not com- 
petent to command a great army. He divided the army, now 
swelled by reenforcements to 120,000 men, into three grand divi- 
sions, to be commanded respectively by Sumner, Hooker, and Frank- 
lin. By the end of November he confronted Lee near Fredericksburg, 
a town on the Eappahannock River, about halfway between Wash- 
ington and Richmond. Lee had placed his whole army, now almost 
80,000 men, in a strong position on the heights just south of the 
town. Here Burnside determined to make an attack. After 
infinite trouble he succeeded in crossing the river by December 12, 
and next day came the dreadful slaughter of Fredericksburg. Burn- 
side seemed bewildered, and he would listen to no advice of his sub- 
ordinates. He decided to attack Lee's center, occupying Maryes 
Heights, at the base of which there was a stone wall and a trench. 
The hill was crowned with lines of cannon, the sides were covered 
with rifle pits filled with sharpshooters, and several regiments of 
Confederate infantry crouched behind the stone wall. In the face 
of all this the foolhardy attack was to be made. Sumner's grand 
division was put to the awful work. General French made the first 
assault, but he was driven back with great slaughter. Then went 
General Hancock with 5000 men ; but in a few minutes he, too, fell 
back leaving 2000 men stretched upon the fatal field. Battle of 
Three other divisions were then successively sent for- Fredericks- 
ward, but the result was the same — dreadful slaughter, burg, Decem- 
with no impression on the enemy's works. " Oh, great ®^ 
God ! " cried General Couch, " see how our men, our poor fellows, 
are falling ; it is only murder now." ^ Burnside now became frantic. 
He called upon Hooker to lead his men to the assault. Hooker 
protested that it was useless, that the works could not be carried. 
Burnside would listen to nothing; he sternly declared that his 
orders must be obeyed. Hooker then sent 4500 men with fixed 
bayonets into the death trap. As they came within range of the 
muskets the top of the stone wall became a sheet of flame. The 

1 " Battles and Leaders," Vol. Ill, p. 173. 
3 a 



722 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

brave men fell by hundreds, and in a few minutes the division fell 
back, leaving a third of its number on the ground. Now it waa 
night, and the battle of Fredericksburg was over. 

Great was the carnage at Fredericksburg, and it brought mourn- 
ing to many a fireside in the North. The sadder it seemed from the 
fact that it might have been prevented. The Union loss exceeded 
12,000 men, the Confederate loss was slightly more than 5000. Burn- 
side was wild with anguish at what he had done. " Oh, those men, 
those men over there, I am thinking of them all the time," he wailed, 
pointing to his army of dead and dying across the river. In his 
desperation he decided to storm the heights next day and to lead the 
assault in person, but he yielded to the dissuasion of his generals. 

Seldom during the war were Confederate hopes so high as in 
the days that followed Fredericksburg.^ The correspondent of the 
London Times wrote from Lee's headquarters that December 13 
would be a memorable day to the historian of the Decline and Fall 
of the American Republic. He might have written that no braver 
army ever wielded the sword than the Union army, whose legions 
dashed six times, in the face of that murderous fire, against Maryes 
Heights at Fredericksburg. Burnside decided on another general 
engagement a few days later, but he was overruled by the President. 
The morale of the army was destroyed ; officers and men lost confi- 
dence in their leader. Burnside offered his resignation, which was 
at length accepted by the President, who then appointed Hooker to 
the command of the army. In the same order he also relieved Sum- 
ner at his own request, on account of advancing age, and Franklin, 
because he was accused of not properly supporting Meade against 
Jackson at Fredericksburg. 

General Joseph Hooker, known among the soldiers as " Fighting 
Joe Hooker," took control of the Army of the Potomac late in 
January, 1863. He found it greatly disorganized and 
command discouraged ; but he was a good organizer, and in two 
months the army was restored to an excellent condi- 
tion for active service. The entire army numbered at least 125,000, 
and a better army never trod American soil. It spent the win- 
ter at Falmouth, across the Rappahannock from Fredericksburg, 
while the army of Lee, now reduced to 60,000 by the detachment of 

1 This feeling was heightened by the capture of Grant's immense stores at Holly 
Springs, Mississippi, by General Van Dorn, just a week after the battle of Fredericks- 
burg, and by Sherman's bloody repulse before Vicksburg a little later. 



HOOKER'S BLUNDER /23 



Longstreet's corps, occupied the heights beyond the river whence 
it had dealt such fearful blows to Burnside in December. 

There were various cavalry skirmishes during the winter, but 
nothing serious was attempted till the middle of April. Hooker 
then broke camp, moved up the river with the main army, crossed it 
and the Rapidan, and marched to Chancellorsville, a country tavern 
bearing the name of a town, about ten miles west of Fredericksburg. 
Hooker boasted that the enemy must now ingloriously fly or come 
out from his defenses and give battle " where certain destruction 
awaits him." Lee chose the latter alternative ; he came out from 
his defenses to give battle — but not to meet certain destruction. 

On the first day of May, 1863, the two armies lay near Chancel- 
lorsville, on the edge of the Wilderness which became the scene of 
a great battle a year later, and the series of battles Battle of 
of the next few days are known collectively as the chancellors- 
battle of Chancellorsville. Hooker enjoyed every ad- ville. 
vantage — a strong position, the larger army, and the eager confi- 
dence of his troops. But at this moment Hooker seems to have lost 
his judgment. To the astonishment of the enemy and of his subor- 
dinates he ordered his army to fall back from its elevated position 
to a lower one nearer the Wilderness. " My God ! " exclaimed 
Meade, " if we cannot hold the top of a hill, we certainly cannot 
hold the bottom of it." Little fighting was done on that day, but 
on the 2d the storm broke forth with fury. Stonewall Jackson 
now made one (and this was his last) of the rapid, stealthy, flanking 
marches of which he was such a master. With a force of thirty 
thousand he marched fifteen miles around the Union right to attack 
the corps under Howard. Hooker and Howard believed that the 
enemy was in retreat ; but they were soon undeceived. At six in 
the evening, while Howard's men were resting, preparing supper, 
or playing cards — all unconscious of danger — a sudden rush into 
camp of wild animals, deer and rabbits, from the near-by forest, 
apprised them of the coming enemy. They seized their arms and 
attempted to form in battle line — but it was too late. In a few 
minutes the Confederates were upon them. Howard's men fought 
nobly, but they had no chance of success. In an hour the corps was 
cut to pieces and almost annihilated, the survivors fleeing like mad- 
men. As night fell the corps of Sickles and the cavalry of Pleas- 
anton planted themselves in the way of the on-rushing Confederates 
and stopped their advance. In this wild desperate charge on the 



724 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

evening of May 2 the Confederates had slain thousands, and had 
won a brilliant victory. But it was a dear victory for the South: 
it cost the life of Stonewall Jackson. It was after nightfall, when 
the hush after the battle was broken only by the wails of the dying 
and by a stray shot here and there, that Jackson rode out with his 
staff to view the ground in front of his lines. On their return the 
Confederates mistook them for Union horsemen and fired on them. 
Jackson received a mortal wound. 

Sickles renewed the battle by night, and the firing did not cease 
till midnight. Next morning the conflict was renewed at an early 
hour. Lee had brought his own immediate command to the aid of 
the corps of Jackson. Hooker became bewildered and knew not 
what to do. Nothing was plainer than that he, like Burnside, 
was not competent to command a great army in battle. The Con- 
federates dashed upon Sickles again and again, and were driven 
back. Sickles might have gaiued a great victory but for the fact 
that Hooker held back in idleness probably thirty thousand men. 
All was confusion in the Union ranks, and the enemy soon gained 
the high ground for which it fought, the Federals being pressed back 
to the river bank. 

Thus ended Sunday, the 3d of May, with another Confederate 
victory. Next day another engagement took place between General 
Sedgwick, who had been left at Fredericksburg with twenty thousand 
men, and a portion of Lee's army under Early. All day the fight 
continued, and at night Sedgwick recrossed the Rappahannock. Two 
days later Hooker did the same, and the battles at Chancellorsville 
were ended, both armies now occupying the respective positions they 
had held during the winter. The campaign had cost Hooker more 
than seventeen thousand men. The southern loss was over twelve 
thousand — and Stonewall Jackson. 

In some respects this man was the most remarkable character 
brought into prominence by the Civil War. There is a glamour of 
romance around the name of Jackson. As a schoolboy 
Jackson ^® dragged far behind his class. He was a graduate 

of West Point ; but, disliking warfare, he resigned from 
the army and became a college professor and a teacher in a squalid 
negro Sunday School. He was rather slow-moving, silent, distant, 
had few friends, and was not generally popular. There was some- 
thing unfathomable in his nature, but no one dreamed that he was a 
genius. The war brought out his powers and proved him one of the 



THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS 728 

greatest commanders of modern times. The popular notion that his 
attacks were impulsive and only accidentally successful was erro- 
neous. His plans were well laid and almost faultless. Jackson was 
excessively religious, and his men said that when he remained long 
on his knees in his tent they knew that a great battle was impend- 
ing. Lee's estimate of Jackson is shown in a note sent him as he 
lay wounded. In this note Lee stated that he would have chosen 
for the good of the country to be disabled in Jackson's stead. Jack- 
son died on May 10, and there was none to fill his place. During 
his last hours he seemed to have forgotten the great war. He lived 
now with his God and with his family, who could never forget the 
tender beauty of his final words, "■ Let us cross over the river and 
lie down amid the shade of the trees." 

DEMOCRATIC OPPOSITION — VALLANDIGHAM 

As we have noticed in a former chapter, the firing on Fort Sum- 
ter welded the North into a unit for the saving of the Union. The 
voice of the politician was hushed in the presence of the national 
danger. But this condition could not continue. The old party that 
had ruled the country for half a century, that had been defeated by 
the new-born Republican party and was now in a state of eclipse, 
could not long remain in quiet. It might agree with its great rival 
in military matters, but in the field of politics new issues must be 
found, the administration must be attacked, as usual, by the party 
out of power. The Democrats soon found a plausible issue in the sus- 
pending of the writ of Habeas Corpus and the arbitrary arrests that 
followed it. As early as April, 1861, Mr. Lincoln authorized General 
Scott to suspend the writ between Philadelphia and Washington. 
Congress afterward gave the President full power in the matter, and 
he extended the suspension from time to time till it covered the 
entire country for the period of the war.^ 

This was a dangerous reach of power. To the President's con- 
stitutional power as commander of the army and navy of the United 
States it added the power of a dictator, of an absolute monarch, 
the control of the whole fabric of civil government. He could 

1 On September 24, 1862, the suspension was made general as affecting arrests by 
military authority for disloyal practices. In March, 1863, Congi-ess sustained the 
President and again authorized the suspension, and on September 15, 1863, the Presi- 
dent issued another proclamation limiting the suspension to prisoners of war, 
deserters, abettors of the enemy, etc. 



726 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

arrest any man in civil life, from a Cabinet officer or the governoi 
of a state to the common laborer, throw him into prison and retain 
him indefinitely without giving him a trial or informing him why he 
was arrested. What a power for evil this would have been in the 
hands of a tyrant ! But Mr. Lincoln was not a tyrant. Neverthe- 
less he caused thousands of men to be arrested and cast into prison 

on such charges as " disloyal practice," " discouraging 
Arbitrary enlistments," and the like.^ Justice of the United 

States Supreme Court Benjamin R. Curtis, who had 
given the opinion adverse to Chief Justice Taney in the Dred Scott 
case, came out in a pamphlet againsi the President. He stated that 
to the rights of the President as commander were added the powers 
of a usurper, and this he pronounced military despotism. Other 
prominent Republicans, as, for instance. Governor Curtin of Pennsyl- 
vania, protested loudly against the arbitrary acts of the government. 
Above all, these acts became a powerful weapon in the hands of the 
Democrats, who were unsparing in their criticisms. Some of the 
more rabid Democratic journals were suppressed by the government; 
but this action only awakened a louder demand for freedom of speech 
and the liberty of the press, and there is little doubt that the result was 
a weakening of the administration party. The same may be said of 
the arbitrary arrests. In some cases the result was doubtless benefi- 
cial ; in others great injustice was done. On the whole it may be 
safely asserted that more harm than good came of the suspending of 
the writ of Habeas Corpus, especially in the states not occupied by the 
armies, and that it weakened rather than strengthened the Union party. 
The civil authorities should not have been superseded by the military, 
except in the armies and the territory occupied by them. The only 
reason that the people did not rise against the government for its 
usurpations was the same that prevents a sick man from rising 
against the surgeon that operates on him with the knife. Every 
man. Democrat or Republican, knew in his heart, whether he acknowl- 
edged it or not, that the administration did not mean to abolish our 
free institutions or to overturn our form of government, but that it 
meant simply to put down the rebellion. The people, regardless of 
party, also knew that Abraham Lincoln, from the rugged honesty of 
his soul and the breadth of his human sympathy, was not and could 

1 Alexander Johnston in Lalor's " Cyclopedia " gives thirty-eight thousand as the 
whole number of military arrests ; but this number is no doubt too large. See dis« 
cussion in Rhodes, Vol. IV, pp. 231, 232. 



CONSCRIPTION 727 



not be atyrant; that whatever he did, and however many his mistakes, 
his ultimate aim was to save the country and to serve the people.^ 

But the Democrats must oppose the administration. Why not ? 
Such is the chief business of the party out of power in the United 
States, and a good, wholesome business for the country it is. The 
Civil War period was no exception. There was much to criticise 
aside from what has been mentioned — corruption in 
the giving out of government contracts, extravagant J^^^ocratic 
expenditure of money, political favoritism in military 
appointments, and the like. The Democrats certainly made a pro- 
found impression on the country, as shown by their carrying so many 
of the great states of the North in the autumn elections of 1862. 
To the end of the war there was a strong, fearless Democratic mi- 
nority in Congress. Many of its issues were well chosen. Its influ- 
ence was often wholesome, and it had far more weight in shaping 
legislation than is generally believed. There were other issues, 
however, concerning which we have less sympathy with the Demo- 
crats. They — many of them, not the party as a whole — opposed 
emancipation, and, still worse, they opposed the draft. They had 
at first heartily joined the administration to save the Union ; but 
they were set against making the war a war for abolition also. 

At the opening of the war there were more volunteers than could 
be used. But the enthusiasm subsided. The reports of the fright- 
ful slaughter on the battlefield, of the hard life and small pay of the 
soldier, contrasted with the good times and opportunities to make 
money at home, led men to prefer staying at home. Volunteering 
abnost ceased, and the government followed the example of the 
Confederacy and resorted to conscription. In March, 1863, Congress 
passed an act authorizing the President to make drafts on the nar 
tional forces at his discretion, after the first of the ensuing July. 
By this act he could replenish the armies by force. „ , . 
Men between the ages of eighteen and forty -five years 
were subject to the draft ; - they were to be chosen by lot, and any one 
drafted who did not report was to be treated as a deserter. One might, 
however, hire a substitute, or be excused on the payment of $300. 

1 This thought is brought out by Rhodes ; see Vol. IV, p. 171. 

2 There were many exemptions from the draft. Certain high officials of the 
government or of the state, the only son of a widow or of an aged father dependent 
on that son, the father of motherless children under twelve years of age, the residue 
of a family which had two members in the service, and others, were exempt from the 
draft. 



728 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

This practice raised an outcry from many, chiefly, but not exclusively 
Democrats. The supreme courts of New York and Pennsylvania 
pronounced the draft unconstitutional and void.^ The opposition 
broke into open rebellion in the city of New York. Most of the 
newspapers of that city denounced the draft as an outrage on 
individual liberty and state rights. When the enrollment began in 
that city (at 46th Street and Third Avenue), a mob broke into the 
enrollment office, drove the officials out and set the building on fire. 
For three days thereafter the streets of the city were filled with a 
drunken, furious, bellowing mob numbering many thousands. The 
rioters, many of them foreign born, attacked the Trib- 
Draft riots in ^^^^^ office, fell upon negroes on the streets, killing sev- 
eral, burned the colored orphan asylum on Fifth Avenue, 
and indeed held the city wholly in their grasp for several days.^ 
Meantime the newly elected Democratic governor, Horatio Seymour, 
addressed the crowd, begging them to return to their homes and to keep 
the peace until he heard from Washington, as he had sent his adju- 
tant-general thither to have the draft suspended. A body of troops 
soon arrived in the city, fired on the mob, killing several, and at length 
restored order. Similar outbreaks on a smaller scale took place in 
Jersey City, Boston, and other places. In the end, however, the 
people submitted to the government, and the depleted armies were 
replenished by means of the draft. 

Let us once more advert to the subject of arbitrary arrests and 
note the most conspicuous case in the history of the war — that of 
Clement Laird Vallandigham, a member of Congress from Ohio until 
defeated for reelection in 1862 by Robert C. Schenck. He was the 
leader of the radical element of the Democrats in the West, often 
called " Butternuts " or '' Copperheads," and he lost no occasion to 
denounce the administration. Referring to arbitrary arrests, he 
declared that Lincoln, Stanton, and Halleck should be arrested. 
Ohio was to elect a governor in 1863, and Vallandigham was an 
aspirant for the Democratic nomination. He went about over the 
state making speeches bitterly denouncing the conduct of the war. 
He was a strong and able leader, a successful orator, a dashing poli- 
tician of the Douglas type, but, there is reason to believe, without 
the deep sincerity of soul that characterized Douglas. The last and 

1 This was afterward reversed by circuit and district courts, but the matter never 
came before the Supreme Court of the United States. 
a See Neio York Tribune, July, 1863. 



BANISHMENT OF VALLANDIGHAM 729 

most violent of his speeches in this canvass was made at a great 
Democratic meeting at Mt. Vernon. 

General A. E. Burnside, after his disaster at Fredericksburg, was 
assigned to the Department of Ohio, with headquarters at Cincinnati. 
Soon after he was installed in the new position he is- 
sued a war order stating that declaring sympathy for ^'^^^st of Val- 
the enemy would not be allowed. Burnside soon had 
his eye on Vallandigham, and sent agents in citizen's clothes to hear 
his speeches. These agents declared the speech at Mt. Vernon in- 
cendiary, and Burnside determined to arrest Mr. Vallandigham. On 
May 5, at two o'clock in the morning, a band of soldiers beat upon 
the door of Vallandigham's home in Dayton, and, being refused 
admittance, they burst in the door, seized Mr. Vallandigham in his 
bedchamber, and carried him to Cincinnati. 

In a few days the distinguished prisoner was tried by a military 
court, before which he refused to plead and Avhose jurisdiction he denied. 
But the trial went on, and Mr. Vallandigham was found guilty of 
" declaring disloyal sentiments," and was sentenced to close confinement 
during the remainder of the war. Burnside approved the decision, 
but Mr. Lincoln commuted the sentence to banishment to the southern 
Confederacy, the sentence of the court to be carried out only in case of 
his return. The banishment was duly executed by General Eosecrans. 

There was a vigorous Democratic protest from all sides against 
the summary dealing with Vallandigham. A great meeting at Albany, 
New York, strongly condemned the proceedings, and sent a set of 
resolutions to the President requesting, almost demanding, a reversal 
in the case of the Ohio statesman. Mr. Lincoln answered in a long 
argument for the necessity and the constitutional warrant for the 
system of arbitrary arrests. He touched a popular chord when, in 
speaking of the universal rule of inflicting the death penalty for 
army desertions, he said, " Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy 
who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of the wily agitator who 
induces him to desert ? " 

Vallandigham did not remain long in the South. He escaped in 
a blockade runner and repaired to Canada. While there he was 
nominated by the Democrats for governor of Ohio, and 
the convention that made the nomination appointed a canadT^*^ 
committee of eminent citizens to address the President 
in favor of a revocation of the order of banishment. Lincoln made 
a most ingenious, if not a very dignified, answer. He offered to 



730 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

revoke the order if they, the members of the committee, would sign 
a paper promising to do all in their power to aid and encourage the 
army and navy in suppressing the rebellion. The committee replied 
that they would not enter into any bargains or contracts with the 
President for the return of Mr. Vallandigham, that they asked it as 
a right and not as a favor. 

The Ohio canvass went on, and the Democrats declared that if 
their candidate were elected they would meet him at the state line and 
conduct him to the capital in such numbers as to protect him from 
attack. But the news from Gettysburg, from Vicksburg, aud from 
Port Hudson was so favorable to the Union cause that the war party 
took new courage and swept the state, electing their candidate, John 
Brough, over Vallandigham by a majority exceeding a hundred 
thousand.* 

DOINGS OF CONGRESS 

During the war period Congress attracted less attention than 
usual, for the reason that the eyes of tlie country were directed to 
the armies in the field and to the President, whose " war powers " 
led him to trench greatly on the power of Congress.^ To the ordinary 
legislation necessary to support the war it is needless to devote our 
space ; but a few of the extraordinary acts must be noted. We have 
referred to the scheme for internal taxation and to the Confiscation 
Act, and also to the action of Congress concerning the writ of Habeas 
Corpus. In May, 1862, the Homestead Act was passed, which has 
proved a wonderful boon to the settlement of the great West. By 
this law any citizen was given the right to settle on one hundred 
and sixty acres of public land, and at the end of five years to own it 
by paying $1.25 an acre. An act of July, 1862, provided for a rail- 
way to the Pacific Coast, but some years were yet to pass before this 
great work could be completed. 

No legislation during the war was of greater importance than 

1 Burnside soon after this affair suppressed the Chicago Times for disloyal utter- 
ances. But the people rose in great numbers, Republicans as well as Democrats, and 
demanded that the right of a free press should not be infringed, and President Lincoln 
revoked the order of Burnside. By a decision of tlie Supreme Court of the United 
States (The Milligan Case, 1866, 4 Wallace 128) such proceedings as that against 
Vallandigham, as also the suspending the writ of Habeas Corpus away from the seat 
of war, were virtually pronounced unconstitutional. Vallandigham returned to Ohio 
in June, 1864, and went about unmolested by the government. He died in 1871 by a 
pistol shot fired by himself accidentally, while explaining a murder case to a jury. 

2 See Rhodes, Vol. IV, p. 57. 



NATIONAL FINANCES 781 

that which concerned the national finances. The public debt, less 
than $70,000,000 at the opening of the war, shot upward with sur- 
prising rapidity, and within two years it had reached $500,000,000 
In December, 1861, the government and the banks agreed to suspend 
specie payments. To meet the new conditions Congress passed the 
Legal Tender Act, which became a law on February 25, 
1862. By this law an issue of $150,000,000 in treasury J;^|*^ "^^^^^^ 
notes was made legal tender for all private debts and 
public dues, except duties on imports and interest on the public 
debt. The issues were afterward increased till they reached $450,- 
000,000, popularly known as " greenbacks " because of their color. 
The act authorizing the first issue of greenbacks provided also for 
funding them in six per cent bonds, payable in coin, and known as 
"five-twenties."^ The great problem was, how to keep the legal 
tender notes from depreciating in value. The fact that they could 
be used in the purchase of government bonds while the interest on 
these bonds was payable in coin was a tower of strength. But the 
government preferred to sell its bonds for coin, as coin had the 
greater purchasing power. And yet, if the government refused its 
own notes in the sale of bonds, the value of the notes would fall in 
an alarming degree. How to prevent this was the question ; and 
its solution in part was found in the establishing of the National 
Banking system. 

The act creating the National Bank was passed in February, 
1863,^ and was based on the state bank system of New York. Under 
this law a company of five or more persons might found National 
a bank with a capital not to fall below a certain amount. Bank Act, 
The company was then obliged to deposit with the February 25. 
United States treasurer government bonds to the ^^°^- 
amount of one third of its capital stock paid in. These bonds were 
then held to secure the notes issued by the banking company, and 
such notes were not to exceed ninety per cent of the bonds held by 
the government. The government thus became responsible for the 
bank's notes, made them legal tender, and secured the holder from 
loss by the bank's failure. In March, 1865, Congress passed a law 
taxing state banks so heavily that they had to go out of business or 
become national banks. This admirable system relieves the people 

1 Because payable after five years and due in twenty years from date. This 
loan became a very popular onf'. 

* This act was amended and improved by act of June 3, 1864, 



732 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

from keeping track of the standing of any bank of issue, as the 
nation is security for its notes. Some object to the national banking 
system because it precludes the full payment of a national debt; 
but, as I have stated elsewhere, a moderate national debt is not a 
burden, and it may be a benefit, to any country. This system 
inspired confidence on all sides ; it became a power in drawing from 
the people the necessary support of the war, and in later years it 
aided the government greatly in resuming specie payments. The 
banking system was the crowning achievement of Secretary Chase. 
It has grown in public favor to this day, and it promises to be a 
fixture in our government. 

It will be observed that congressional legislation during the war 
encroached seriously upon the powers granted by the Constitution. 
This was especially true in the case of the suspension of the writ of 
Habeas Corpus, as we have noticed, of the Revenue Act, and of the 
restriction of the press. The Constitution expressly provides for 
liberty of speech and of the press. In spite of this, many news- 
papers were suppressed, issues of others were seized by United States 
officials, and the use of the mail service was denied them ; and many 
men were seized and imprisoned merely for criticising the govern- 
ment's conduct of the war. In time of peace such a procedure would 
be alarming to a free people. But a state of war changes the whole 
aspect of the government. The nation was struggling for its life. 
Why should it not use every means necessary to preserve that life ? 
The government made many mistakes; but there is no reason to 
believe that there was any intention to encroach permanently on 
American personal liberty. Nor did it so result ; for now, after the 
space of forty years, personal liberty and local self-government are 
as sacred and as fully enjoyed by the people as before the war. 

VICKSBURG 

At the close of the year 1862 the military situation was not very 
favorable to the Union cause. In the East the mistake had been 
made of withdrawing McClellan from the peninsula, and, after Antie- 
tam, of superseding him with a much weaker man. This had resulted 
in the great disaster of Fredericksburg, and, the following spring, in 
that of Chancellorsville. In the West, Corinth had been saved, 
Bragg had been driven from Kentucky and defeated in early Janu- 
ary at Murfreesborough, but he had not been disabled — only put on 



HALLECK IN THE SOUTHWEST 733 

the defensive. Meantime the Federals had lost a grand opportunity 
to seize Vicksburg before it was fortified by the Confederates. 

We have stated that Grant did little for a year after the battle 
of Shiloh, but the fault lay far more with Halleck than with him. 
After Shiloh Halleck had assumed command of the Army of Ten- 
nessee, which had swelled to a hundred thousand men. He moved 
southward and occupied Corinth the last of May, the Confederates 
having abandoned the place without a battle. 

A week later the Federal fleet on the Mississippi captured Mem- 
phis, after a fierce fight of the gunboats. Farragut, after the capture 
of New Orleans in April, had proceeded up the river, had passed 
Vicksburg, and had joined with Commodore Davis, the successor of 
Commodore Foote whose wound had obliged him to retire. Farragut 
repeatedly asked Halleck for a portion of his army to occupy Vicks- 
burg, and thus to secure the whole course of the great river. Vicks- 
burg, situated on a bluff opposite a sharp bend in the river halfway 
between Memphis and New Orleans, was the greatest stronghold, 
and, next to Kichmond, the most strategic point, in the South. Its 
occupation by the Federals at this time would have been easy ; and 
its possession would have given them control of the whole course of 
the Mississippi and would have severed Arkansas, Louisiana, and 
Texas from the rest of the Confederacy. But Halleck's mind was not 
large enough to grasp so great a subject;^ he refused to send Far- 
ragut any aid, and meantime Van Dorn hastened to Vicksburg with 
a few thousand men and worked them day and night yg^Q j)qj.^ 
till the place was well fortified and mounted with can- occupies 
non. Farragut returned to New Orleans, and Van Vicksburg. 
Dorn went down the river to Port Hudson, two hundred miles below 
Vicksburg, fortified it, and held the river between the two points. 
At any time before the middle of July 1862, Halleck, cooperating 
with Farragut and Davis, could have secvired Vicksburg with a small 
portion of his army ; but the opportunity was lost, and the blunder 
cost a year of weary warfare and thousands of human lives. 

Again, Halleck might have seized Chattanooga, the key to eastern 
Tennessee and the chief railroad center between Virginia and the 
Southwest. But he failed also to do this. In the midst of this series 
of blunders by this opinionated western commander. President Lin- 
coln committed a still more serious blunder — he appointed Halleci 
commander in chief of all the armies of the United States. 
1 See Flake's " Mississippi Valley in the Civil War," p. 141. 



V34 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

This promotion of Halleck left Grant in superior command in 
the West, and he immediately began planning the capture of the 
great Confederate stronghold, Vicksburg. The Mississippi River in 
its lower course winds like a mighty serpent from side to side of an 
alluvial bottom averaging forty miles in width. On the eastern side 
these great coils here and there sweep up to the bluffs of the high- 
lands of Tennessee and Mississippi. On such bluffs are situated 
Vicksburg, Memphis, and Port Hudson, and these strategic points 
were necessary to the military occupation of the river. Memphis 
had fallen from the Confederate grasp, and Grant saw that the 
capture of Vicksburg would occasion the fall of Port Hudson and 
would sever the three trans-Mississippi states from the Confederacy, 
which drew from that section much of its food supply, thousands of 
its soldiers, and even munitions of war from Europe through the 
ports of Mexico. But Vicksburg was almost impregnable. Situ- 
ated two hundred feet above the waves that break upon the base of 
the cliff, its cannon could destroy any hostile fleet that might 
approach from above or from below, while the obstacles in the way 
of a land approach were almost equally insurmountable. The capture 
of Vicksburg was therefore a work of unknown peril to an army, and 
few generals could have accomplished it. 

Grant, with an army of fifty thousand men, made several unsuc- 
cessful attempts in the autumn of 1862, and the northern public 
grew impatient at his failure and clamored loudly for 
onVicks^bm-ff* ^^^ removal. Halleck, Stanton, Chase, and others 
joined in the general demand that Grant be superseded ; 
but President Lincoln determined to '* try him a little longer," and 
thus in some degree he counteracted his mistake in making Halleck 
commander in chief. Grant's first attempt consisted in moving his 
army down into the interior of Mississippi in the hope of forcing 
the evacuation of Vicksburg without attacking it. In this way — 
by his great flanking movement up the Tennessee by way of 
Donelson to Shiloli — he had caused the evacuation of Columbus, 
Fort Pillow, and Memphis ; but in the case of Vicksburg he had to 
leave his base of supplies so far behind that the plan was found im- 
practicable, and it was abandoned. 

The next plan was to divide the army : Grant was to remain in 
Mississippi with a portion, while Sherman was to return with the 
rest to Memphis and embark on the fleet of Admiral Porter, who 
had succeeded Davis, for a point just north of Vicksburg, and thence 



MOVEMENTS ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI 738 

to cooperate with Grant. This plan was carried out in December, 

and might have promised success but for the fearful ravages of the 

Confederate cavalry. On the same day that Sherman _ _ 

1 T , ^r 1 • TT T^ -,1 ,1 • , n 1 vanDorncap 

embarked at Memphis, Van Dorn with thirty-nve hun- t^res Holly 

dred cavalry swooped down like an eagle upon Holly Springs, 
Springs, where Grant had stored a million and a half December 20, 
dollars' worth of supplies, destroyed the stores, and 
captured the garrison. At the same time General Nathan Forrest 
made a cavalry raid across Tennessee, destroyed the telegraph and 
sixty miles of railroad, cutting Grant off for nearly two weeks from 
all communication with the rest of the world. With his stores 
destroyed and no railroad left by which to secure more. Grant could 
only retreat and live off the country while doing so.^ While Grant 
was making this retreat of eighty miles, Sherman with thirty- 
two thousand men was floating down the river. Reaching the 
mouth of the Yazoo just above Vicksburg, he ascended 
that river for a few miles, made a desperate attack ♦hf^^oo'^ 
on the enemy's works at Chickasaw Bayou, and suffered 
a stinging defeat, losing eighteen hundred men to two hundred by 
the enemy. Sherman's command was then turned over to General 
John A. McClernand, who had come down the river with an inde- 
pendent command. McClernand, after fighting in Grant's army at 
Donelson and Shiloh, had raised an army in the West, boasting that he 
was tired furnishing brains for Grant, and had persuaded the Presi- 
dent to send him down the river on his own account. He and Sher- 
man then made a raid up the Arkansas River, captured Arkansas 
Post (January 11, 1863), and were about to make an expedition far 
into the Red River country when Grant made serious complaint 
against taking so large a force from the main object of the campaign ; 
whereupon Grant was given the command over McClernand, with the 
option of giving that general the conduct of the movement against 
Vicksburg, or of assuming it himself; and he chose the latter. 

Grant now went down the river, collected his army in four corps 
under Sherman, McClernand, Hurlburt, and McPherson, and spent 
the winter in making various unsuccessful experiments. First he 
tried to dig a canal across the narrow peninsula opposite Vicksburg, 

1 Some southern ladies tauntingly asked Grant from what source he could now 
feed his army, and he quietly remarked that their barns seemed to be well stocked. 
"What," they exclaimed in alarm, " you surely would not lay hands on private 
property! " Grant regretted the necessity, but informed them that they could not 
expect him to starve his army. Fiske, p. 200. 



736 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

SO as to bring liis supplies from Memphis without coming within 
range of the guns of the city. But after six weeks of arduous toil 
the great river rose beyond its banks, submerged the work, drowned 
Plans to many horses, and forced the men to flee for their lives. 

capture Another plan was to follow the labyrinth of bayous west 

Vicksburg. of the Mississippi; but this too had to be given up. 
Grant next attempted to approach Vicksburg by way of the Yazoo 
Pass and the Tallahatchie and Yazoo rivers ; but his vessels were 
unable to pass the guns of Fort Pemberton on the Yazoo, and the 
plan was abandoned. An attempt was then made to reach the Yazoo 
by means of a stream that empties into it below Port Pemberton, but 
after eleven days of perilous toil this too was given up. March had 
passed, and Grant had made no progress whatever toward invest- 
ing Vicksburg. It was at this time that the cry in the North became 
loudest that Grant should be dismissed, and that Lincoln decided to 
try him a little longer. 

General Grant now at last conceived the plan that was destined 
to succeed ; namely, to send the army to a point below Vicksburg by 
an overland route west of the river and to run the batteries at 
Vicksburg with the supply boats under the protection of Porter's 
Runninsthe ii'onclads. Silently in the darkness a fleet floated 
batteries, down the river. For an hour the darkness and silence 
April 16. were unbroken, and the crcAvs began to believe they 

would pass unnoticed, when suddenly the heavens were lighted by 
burning powder, and the roar of artillery burst forth from the tiers 
of batteries that crowned the bluff in front of the city. *' The sight 
was magnificent, but terrible," said Grant. Porter opened his guns 
from the fleet and threw many shells into the streets of the city. 
All the vessels were struck, but all escaped destruction save one of 
the steamers, which, being set on fire, burned to the water's edge. 
A week later another fleet of supply boats ran the batteries in safety, 
and on the last day of April the fleet met the army, which had been 
struggling for a month through the swamps west of the river.^ The 
army was now on the west side of the river opposite Grand Gulf, 
another bluff in the hands of the Confederates and twenty-five miles 
below Vicksburg. A crossing was effected some miles below, and on 
the 3d of May Grand Gulf was captured after a sharp battle with 
eight thousand of the enemy. 

1 Sherman's corps was still above Vicksburg, but came down and joined the main 
army early in May. Hurlburt was still at Memphis. 



INVESTING VICKSBURG 



787 



The Federal army had secured a footing below Vicksburg, but 
its tenure was uncertain. It was in the midst of a hostile country, 
far from any base of supplies, and every day would increase its 
perils. Grant knew that he must strike without delay. He came 
to a resolution that would have done credit to the great Napoleon 
for its audacity. Grant had about forty -five thousand men. Be- 
fore Vicksburg sat Pemberton with an army of about the same 
size. Near Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, fifty miles from 
Vicksburg, was another Confederate army, fifteen thousand strong, 
soon to be commanded 
by Joseph E. Johnston, 
who was hastening from 
Chattanooga. Grant de- 
termined to cut himself 
off from his base at 
Grand Gulf, to march 
against Johnston's army 
and destroy it, then to 
turn upon Pemberton, 
beat him in battle and 
drive him within the de- 
fenses of Vicksburg. 
The daring campaign 
was begun on the 7th of 
May.^ On the 12th the 
battle of Raymond was 
fought between McPher- 
son and five thousand 
Confederates. Two days 
later Johnston's army 
was again routed, and the city of Jackson was captured. Leaving 
a body of troops to burn the arsenals and military factories at 
Jackson and to tear up the railroad for twenty miles around. Grant 
turned his face toward Vicksburg. Pemberton had come out to 
meet him, and they came face to face at a place called Champion 
Hill. Here a terrific battle of eight hours was fought, in which 
Pemberton lost all his artillery and four thousand men, including 

1 The Confederates of central Mississippi had been demoralized by a daring raid, 
April 17-May 2, around Jackson by one thousand cavalrymen under Colonel Grierson. 
This was a great aid to Grant. 

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738 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

prisoners, while four thousand others became detached from his army 
and fled into the interior of Mississippi. The remainder hastenad 
toward Vicksburg, but on the next day they were overtaken at 
the Big Black River, and were again defeated.^ The Confederates 
then took refuge in the defenses of Vicksburg ; and Haines Bluff, a 
stronghold on the Yazoo a few miles above, was abandoned to the 
Union army with its stores and guns, for the enemy had left in too 
great haste to destroy them. On the 18th of May Grant's army 
was safely lodged on the heights around Vicksburg, and the fall of 
Haines Bluff had opened its communications with the North. 
This was without exception the most brilliant campaign of the Civil 
War, It is true that Grant fought against inferior numbers in every 
battle; but this was largely because of his skill in preventing the two 
armies of the enemy from uniting. In eleven days from the time he 

left Grand Gulf, Grant had marched about one hundred 
V'^^k V^^^ and fifty miles in the enemy's country without a base of 

supplies, had fought and won four battles, had destroyed 
or captured twelve thousand of the enemy with a loss of less than 
five thousand, and had captured a state capital. He had moved with 
a celerity never surpassed by Stonewall Jackson in his palmiest 
days ; and he was now ready to invest this great Gibraltar of the 
South. On the morning of the 19th, as Grant and Sherman rode 
out on the bluff, the latter burst forth in praise and admiration of 
his chief and of the great campaign that he had planned and carried 
through. Grant lighted a fresh cigar, smiled, and said never a word.^ 
The Union army was flushed with victory, and the troops 
believed they could carry the works of the city by storm. On the 
Grand 19th an assault was made upon the works, and the result 

assault, was a moving of the base of the besiegers nearer the 

May 22. besieged, a tightening of the coil of the encircling army 

about the doomed city. A grand assault was then made by the 
Avhole Union army. But the enemy fought like a wild beast at 
bay, and the Federals lost three thousand men and won nothing. 
Grant has been censured for this waste of men ; but he believed that 
his army would be impatient of a long siege unless first convinced 
that to carry the works by storm was impossible. After the assault 
the army was content to settle down to a regular siege. 

1 But the enemy succeeded in burning the bridge over the Big Black. Otherwisa 
Grant would doubtless have beaten him in reaching Vicksburg. 

2 Fiske, "The Mississippi Valley," p. 241. 



FALL OF VICKSBURG /39 

Johnston was raising a large army to attempt the rescue of 
Pemberton. Grant saw the danger, and called for reenforcements 
from the North. The response was prompt, and within 
a few weeks his army was almost doubled. He placed y-^C^v^ 
nearly half the army under Sherman some miles in 
the interior to watch Johnston, who hung in the rear like a gath- 
ering cloud. The siege went on for six weeks. The men worked 
like marmots in the trenches, approaching nearer and nearer the 
breastworks of the enemy. Porter's fleet lay in the river, from 
which the bombardment was incessant day and night. The shriek- 
ing shells rose in grand parabolic curves, bursting in midair, or on 
the streets of the city, spreading havoc in all directions. The people 
of the city found safety by burrowing in the ground. Whole families 
lived for weeks in safety in these dismal homes, with their walls of 
clay shaken at intervals by the roar of battle that raged above them. 

Vicksburg was shut out from the world. Food soon began to run 
low. At length almost nothing could be had except mule meat and 
a mixture of dried peas and cornmeal, and these Avere becoming ex- 
hausted. Many had perished, both of the garrison and the residents, 
from the bursting of shells, from sickness and exhaustion ; and at 
length starvation stalked among the remnant like a devouring mon- 
ster. Such was Vicksburg at the opening of July, 1863. Further 
resistance was suicidal. Nothing was left but to surrender, and at 
ten o'clock on the morning of the 3d, white flags were seen waving 
above the parapet. The cannon instantly ceased to roar, and that 
afternoon Grant met Pemberton to arrange terms of surrender. 
Next day, the glorious 4th, the surrender was accomplished, and this 
powerful citadel of the South fell into the possession of the Union army. 

With Vicksburg were surrendered 37,000 prisoners of war, 172 
cannon, and 60,000 muskets. Port Hudson could not stand 
after the fall of Vicksburg; on the 9th of July it surrendered to 
General Banks/ and the whole course of the Mississippi was in 
the hands of the Union armies. In the vigorous language of Mr. 
Lincoln, " The Father of Waters rolled unvexed to the sea." 

GETTYSBURG 

During the last days of the siege of Vicksburg still greater events 
were taking place in the East. Here was fought at this time the 

1 Grant paroled his prisoners. Port Hudson was surrendered by General Gardner 
with over 6000 men and 7500 muskets. It could not have withstood the siege much 
longer, eren if Vicksburg had not surrendered. 



740 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



greatest battle of the Civil War — the battle of Gettysburg. Most 
of the fighting in the war took place south of Mason and Dixon's 
line, but this terrific clash of arms occurred on the soil of the old 
Keystone state, which had given birth to the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence and to the Constitution of the United States. We left 
Lee's army flushed with victory at Chancellorsville and strength- 
ened by the memory of Fredericksburg. Southern hopes were high 
after Chancellorsville, and public opinion was unanimous in demand- 
ing an invasion of northern soil. On the other hand, the Army of 
the Potomac, under its many masters, had met with one discourage- 
ment after another, and, with all its patriotism and valor, its two 
years' warfare showed but few bright pages to cheer the heart of 
the war-broken soldier, and to inspire the hopes of an anxious public. 

Leaving General Stewart with ten thousand cavalry and a part of 
Hill's corps to prevent Hooker from pursuing, Lee crossed the 
Potomac early in June, concentrated his army at 
the Potomac Hagerston, Maryland, and prepared for a campaign in 
Pennsylvania, with Harrisburg as the objective point. 
His army was divided into three corps under the respective com- 
mands of Longstreet, Ewell, and A. P. Hill. Lee had divided his 
army so as to approach Harrisburg by different routes and to assess 
the towns along the way for large sums of money, when, late in 
June, he received the startling intelligence that Stewart and Hill 
had failed to detain Hooker, that the Federal army had crossed the 
Potomac and was in hot pursuit. 

Lee was quick to see that his programme must be changed. He 
knew that to continue his march he must keep his army together to 
watch his pursuing antagonist, and that such a course in this hostile 
country would mean starvation, while the willing hands of the sur- 
rounding populace would minister to the wants of his enemy. Again, 
if he should scatter his forces that they might secure the necessary 
supplies, the parts would be attacked singly and destroyed. Lee 
saw, therefore, that he must abandon his invasion of the North or 
turn upon his pursuing foe and smite and disable him, in order to 
continue his march. But that foe was a giant of strength and courage 
equal to his own; and the coming together of two such forces in a 
final, mighty death struggle meant that a great battle must be fought 
— a greater battle than this western world had hitherto known. 

The Army of the Potomac had again changed hands, and George 
Gordon Meade was now its master. Hooker, after a dispute with 



GATHERING AT GETTYSBURG 741 

Halleck, had resigned the leadership, aud Meade, the strongest of 
the corps commanders, was appointed in his place. The two great 
armies were scattered over portions of Maryland and southern 
Pennsylvania, moving each toward the other, and it was plain that 
they must soon come together in a contest more terrific than they 
had yet experienced in their two years' struggle ; but just where the 
shock of battle would take place was yet unknown. Meade had 
ordered a general movement toward Harrisburg, and he sent Gen- 
eral Buford with four thousand cavalry to intercept the advance guard 
of the enemy. On the night of June 30 Buford encamped on a low 
hill a mile west of Gettysburg, and here on the following morning 
the famous battle had its beginning. 

Gettysburg was a quiet hamlet of fifteen hundred people, in Adams 
County, Pennsylvania, and some twelve miles east of the South 
Mountain range. West of the village is situated on a ridge running 
north and south a Lutheran Theological Seminary, and this ridge is 
called Seminary Ridge. Just south of the town, about a mile from 
Seminary Eidge and parallel to it, is Cemetery Ridge, which, curv- 
ing eastward at the village, culminates in Gulp's Hill on the bank 
of Rock Creek. 

On the morning of July 1 the two armies were still scattered, 
the extremes being forty miles apart. But General Reynolds, with 
three corps of the Union army, was but a few miles 
away, and was hastening to Gettysburg, while Longstreet *he battle 
and Hill were approaching the town from the west. 
Buford had opened the battle with Hill's corps. Reynolds soon 
joined Buford, Longstreet joined Hill, and three hours before noon 
the battle was on in full force on Seminary Ridge. Reynolds rode 
out to his fighting lines on the ridge, and here, about ten o'clock, he 
received a sharpshooter's bullet in the brain, and fell dead. John 
F. Reynolds, who had been promoted for gallantry at Buena Vista, 
was one of the bravest and ablest generals of the army. No casualty 
of the war brought more widespread mourning in the North than 
the death of Reynolds. 

But even this calamity could not stay the fury of the battle. 
By one o'clock both sides had been greatly reenforced, and the 
battle line extended north of the town from Seminary Ridge to the 
bank of Rock Creek, Here for hours the roar of the battle was 
unceasing. About the middle of the afternoon a breeze lifted the 
smoke that had enveloped the whole battle line in darkness, and 



V42 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



revealed the fact that the Federals were being pressed back toward 
Gettysburg. General Carl Schurz, who commanded the right wing 




MAP OF THE BATTLEFIELD 
OF 

GETTYSBURG 



SCALE OF 1 MILE, 



near Rock Creek, leaving nearly half his men dead or wounded on 
the field, retreated into the town, where the enemy pursued him and 



BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG 743 

captured five thousand of the remainder. The left wing was also 
forced back, and it took refuge on Cemetery Ridge, which had been 
selected by General 0. 0. Howard ; and the first day's fight was over. 
It was some hours yet till night, and had the enemy known of the 
disorganized condition of the Union troops, he might have pursued 
and captured a large part of the army. Meade, who was still some 
miles from the field, hearing of the death of Reynolds, sent Hancock 
to take general charge until he himself should arrive. 

Hancock rode at full speed and arrived on the field at four 
o'clock. His presence soon brought order out of chaos. His superb 
bearing, his air of confidence, his promise of heavy reenforcements 
during the night, all tended to inspire confidence and to renew hope 
in the defeated army. Had this day ended the affair at Gettysburg, 
the usual story of the defeat of the Army of the Potomac would 
have gone forth to the world. Only the advance portions of both 
armies had been engaged ; and yet the battle had been a formidable 
one. The Union loss was severe. A great commander had fallen, and 
the rank and file had suffered the enormous loss of ten thousand 
men. 

Meade reached the field late in the night, and chose to make this 
field, on which the advance of both armies had accidentally met, the 
place of a general engagement. Lee had come to the same decision, 
and both called on their outlying legions to make all possible speed 
to Gettysburg. Before morning nearly all the troops of both armies 
had reached the field. The Union army rested with its center on 
Cemetery Ridge, with its right thrown round to Gulp's Hill and its 
left extending southward to a rocky peak called Round Top. The Con- 
federate army with its center on Seminary Ridge, extending its great 
wings from Rock Creek on the north to a point opposite Round Top 
on the south, lay in a grand semicircle half surrounding the Army of 
the Potomac. But Lee was at a disadvantage. First, Stonewall 
Jackson was gone, and second, Stewart was absent with his ten 
thousand cavalry. And further, Meade was on the defensive, 
and had the advantage of occupying the inner ring of the huge 
half-circle. Thus lay the two mighty armies — each nearly a 
hundred thousand strong — awaiting the morning and the dread- 
ful carnage that the day was to bring.* It seemed that the fate of 
the Republic was here to be decided, and the people of the North 

1 Livermore gives the fighting strength of Meade's army at 88,289 and of Lee's 
at 76,000. 



744 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

and of the South awaited with breathless eagerness the decision no-W 
about to be made at Gettysburg. 

The sky was clear on Jul^ 2, and the dawn betokened a beau 
tiful day in southern Pennsylvania. The two armies hesitated, as 
they were loth to begin the fearful work of slaughter 
The second ^^^ bloodshed. The hours passed, with a stray shot here 
and there, till four in the afternoon. General Sickles 
held the Union left wing at the base of Round Top, and opposite him 
was Longstreet. At this point occurred the chief fighting of the day. 
Sickles moved forward half a mile without orders, and found hin:self 
face to face with nearly half the Confederate army. Longstreet 
advanced in a magnificent battle line and opened fire with his bat- 
teries. Sickles answered, and presently the musketry was opened, at 
first a few shots, then more and faster, till there was a continuous 
roll, and no ear could distinguish one shot from another. Sickles 
was pressed slowly back to the position he had occupied in the morn- 
ing, and might have been routed but for the arrival of Sykes to his 
rescue. His lines were still in good order; but of his brave men, 
thousands lay in the fateful valley, and among them lay the Confed- 
erate dead and wounded in almost equal numbers. This valley has 
been called the Valley of Death. 

Meantime General Early made a desperate attack on the Union 
center from the north, and was repulsed only after a hand-to-hand 
encounter in which clubs and stones, as well as muskets and bayonets, 
were used. An attack on Gulp's Hill was more successful. Ewell 
in a fierc? encounter of half an hour gained possession of the hill and 
held it during the night. On this second day of the battle the Con- 
federates had gained an apparent advantage in forcing Sickles back 
and a real advantage in gaining possession of Gulp's Hill. Otherwise 
the situation was not greatly changed — except that each army had 
lost about ten thousand men. 

On the morning of the third day the people of Gettysburg, which 
lay between the two armies, were awakened from sleep by the roar 
of artillery. At daybreak the Union guns were opened on Gulp's 
Hill, and after a bombardment of four hours the hill was carried and 
the Union lines were reestablished where they haa been the da}?- 
before. But the most famous onset of the three days' battle was yet 
to come — Pickett's Charge on Cemetery Ridge — preceded by the 
heaviest cannonading ever known on the American continent. 

After the contest at Gulp's Hill and a cavalry fight east of Rock 



PICKETT'S CHARGE AT GETTYSBURG 745 



Creek, there was a lull, almost a deep silence, over the whole field. 
It was the calm that precedes the storm. Lee had been massing 
artillery on Seminary Eidge, and for two miles the hill bristled with 
cannon. Lee had determined on a great final charge on the Union 
center. Longstreet strongly opposed it, believing that it could not 
succeed ; but he protested in vain. 

At one o'clock the silence was broken by a terrific outburst from 
one hundred and fifty guns, and the whole crest of Seminary Kidge 
was a line of fire. The Union guns were soon in operation, and 
cannon answered cannon until the hills shook to their foundations.^ 
After an hour and a half the firing gradually slackened and ceased, 
and the Union army prepared for the more deadly charge of infantry 
that was sure to follow. 

They had not long to wait. Fifteen thousand of Longstreet's 
corps, the flower of the Confederate army, emerged in a grand 
double column from the wooded crest of Seminary Ridge under the 
command of General Pickett. Jjongstreet foresaw the fate of his 
brave men ; he had opposed their going, but Lee overruled him, and 
when he was asked for final permission, he could not speak, he only 
nodded his head and burst into tears. 

The charge was one of the most daring in the history of warfare. 
The distance to the Federal lines was a mile. For half the 
distance the troops marched gayly, with flying banners and glitter- 
ing bayonets. Then came the burst of Federal cannon, and their 
ranks were torn with exploding shells ; but the lines reformed and 
swept on. When they came within musket range Hancock's 
infantry opened a terrific fire, but Pickett's valiant band only 
quickened their pace and returned the fire with volley after volley. 
They rushed to the very mouths of the cannon. The Union line fell 
back from the shelter of a stone wall, and it seemed for a moment 
that the Confederates would reach their goal — would capture the 
works on Cemetery Ridge and split the Army of the Potomac in 
twain. General Armistead leaped upon the stone wall and waved 
the Confederate banner in frenzied, momentary triumph. Next 
instant he fell mortally wounded, and with him fell the hopes of the 
southern cause — not yet slain, but mortally wounded. 

This was the supreme moment of the war. The tide of war 
could rise no higher ; from this point the ebb niust begin. Not only 

1 See my " Side Lights," Series II, Chap. V. I have drawn freely on that chapter 
in this account. 



746 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

here, but in the West the southern cause took a downward turn ; fol 
at this very hour of Pickett's Charge, Grant and Pemberton, a thousand 
miles away, stood under an oak tree on the heights above the rolling 
tide of the Mississippi and arranged for the surrender of Vicksburg. 

Pickett had entered a death trap. Thousands of musket shots 
at close range were poured into his ranks every minute. The tem- 
pest of lead was beyond human endurance. Great numbers fell 
on the gory field, many surrendered, and the remnant fled, blood- 
stained and weary, to the waiting lines on Seminary Ridge. The 
battle of Gettysburg was over. The cost in inen was frightful. 
The losses of the two armies reached fifty thousand, about half 
perhaps on either side. More than seven thousand men had fallen 
dead on the field of battle.^ 

Lee could do nothing but lead his army back to Virginia. The 
Federals pursued but feebly. The Union victory was not a very 
decisive one, but being powerfully supported by the fall of Vicks- 
burg, the moral effect on the nation and the world was great. The 
period of uncertainty was ended. It required but little prophetic 
vision now to foresee that the Republic would survive the dreadful 
shock of arms, and that secession and slavery must perish. 

NOTES 

Negro Soldiery. — During tlie early period of the war while the ranks were 
kept filled by volunteers, there was little disposition to enlist black men in the 
service. In July, 1862, however, Congress passed an act for the employment of 
negroes in camp service, on intrenchment constructing and the like, and another a 
year later for their enlistment as volunteers. In February, 1864, an act was passed 
to include the blacks in the national enrollment, and if a slave was drafted, his 
master received a bounty from the government. Negro soldiery awakened 
some race prejudice at the North, and much more at the South ; but as the war 
progressed this was largely overcome even at the South. Toward the close of 
the war many black regiments were raised for the northern armies, and they 
were conspicuous in the fighting at Fort Wagner, Port Hudson, Mobile, and 
other places. The South also accepted military service from negroes. The 
legislature of Tennessee authorized the governor (June 28, 1861) to enlist blacks 
in the service. The legislature of Virginia discussed a similar bill in February, 
1862. In November, 1862, a regiment of fourteen hundred free black troops 
entered the Confederate service, while in March, 1865, the Confederate Congress 
passed an act for arming the slaves. See Greeley's "American Conflict," 
Vol. II, p. 522. 

1 Livermore gives these figures: Federals killed, 3155, wounded, 14,529, missing 
53S5; Confederates killed, 3903, wounded, 18,735, missing, 5425; total, 51,112. 



NOTES 747 

Morgan's Raid. — Of tlie many cavalry raids during the war the most famous 
and daring was that of John II. Moi-gan with four thousand men, in July, 18(5:i 
He crossed the Ohio River into Indiana below Louisville. The Indiana militia, 
called out by the governor, swarmed after Morgan in such numbers that he left the 
state and entered Ohio. Sweeping past Cincinnati he traversed the southern part 
of the state, burning bridges and buildings, stealing horses, and plundering the 
towns and farms. But there was a band of men in hot pursuit, and the farmers 
obstructed Morgan's path with felled trees. Attempting to cross the Ohio near 
Pomeroy, his way was obstructed by gunboats and militia. A sharp battle 
ensued ; Morgan was defeated and fled up the river, leaving six hundred of his 
men, wounded and prisoners, behind. A few miles further up the raiders again 
attempted to cross, but here were the pursuers and the gunboats. Morgan 
lost a thousand of his men and all his heavy guns. Many of his men had 
perished in attempting to swim the river. Again Morgan, with the remnant, 
struck the river above Marietta, but he was again prevented from crossing. At 
length (July 20) he was captured near New Lisbon. Only about four hundred 
of his band escaped death or capture. Morgan was taken to Columbus and con- 
fined in the penitentiary, whence he escaped in November by burrowing under 
the walls, and found his way back to the South. The following year he was 
killed in Tennessee. In one of the fights with Morgan the venerable Daniel 
McCook lost his life. He had given eight sons to the Union armies, four of 
whom became generals. They were known as "The Fighting McCooks." 

The Sanitary and Christian Commissions. — These voluntary organizations 
did in war times the same kind of noble work as has been done in later years 
by the Red Cross Society. The Sanitary Commission was organized in the 
spring of 1861, and the Rev. Dr. H. W. Bellows of New York became its presi- 
dent. More than 7000 women's auxiliary societies were afterward organized. 
The people were called on by them to contribute money and articles of useful- 
ness for the soldiers in the field, and especially for those in hospitals. In the 
course of the war $15,000,000 worth of articles and $4,000,000 in money were 
contributed. The commission followed the armies with its supplies and helpers. 
For example, after the battle of Antietam the 10,000 wounded lying on the 
field were for four days in the hands of this commission ; and on this one occa- 
sion it furnished 28,000 shirts, towels, etc., 30 barrels of lint, bandages, etc., 
2000 pounds of condensed milk, and other things in proportion. In the course 
of the war it furnished 4,500,000 meals to hungry and wounded soldiers. 

The Christian Commission was organized later in the year 1861. George H. 
Stewart of Philadelphia was its chairman. It sent out over 6000 delegates without 
pay. Its work was confined chiefly to supplying religious reading matter and medi- 
cal supplies. It sent out hundreds of thousands of Bibles, hymn books, magazines, 
and over 10,000,000 religious tracts. In addition to these organized societies, 
there were many women who volunteered as nurses, the leader of whom was 
Miss Dorothea L. Dix. Others of note were Miss Amy Bradley, Mrs. Barlow, 
and Miss Clara Barton, who in the Spanish War, thirty-five years later, became 
the head of the Red Cross Society. The women of the South were also devoted 
to the cause in which they believed, and wpre even more self-sacrificing than 
their sisters of the North. 



CHAPTER XXX 

THE CIVIL WAR — THE GREAT FINAL DOUBLE MOVEMENT 

The grand twofold movement wliich ended the war was that 
carried on by Grant in Virginia and by Sherman farther south; but 
before treating this we must notice the military movements at 

CHICKAMAUGA AND CHATTANOOGA 

After the battle of Stone River at the beginning of January, 1863, 
Rosecrans and Bragg lay for many months near Murfreesborough, 
each sending out bands of cavalry on destructive raids, but both 
avoiding a general engagement. Meantime Grant was preparing to 
invest Vicksburg, as we have seen, and Hooker was battling with 
Lee in Virginia. Rosecrans's immediate object was to prevent Bragg 
from joining the forces against Grant near Vicksburg. Near mid- 
summer he began to move his army toward the vicinity of Chat- 
tanooga. Bragg's army was also soon in motion. Chattanooga is 
situated on the east bank of the Tennessee River in the midst of 
a vast amphitheater of mountains. Rosecrans passed throtigh the 
mountain passes south of the town, as if to invade Georgia. Bragg 
followed him, and here on the banks of a mountain stream, whose 
Indian name, Chickamauga, is said to signify " River of Death," 
was fought the most destructive battle of the war thus far, except 
Gettysburg. The Federal army held two passes through Missionary 
Ridge, which lay between the combatants and Chattanooga. Bragg's 
aim was to defeat Rosecrans, seize these passes, and beat the Feder- 
als back to Chattanooga. And he had every hope of success, for 
Longstreet arrived from Virginia on the evening of the 18th with 
two of the best divisions of Lee's army. Buckner had come from 
KnoxviUe, and Bragg had now nearly seventy thousand men, while 
Rosecrans had but sixty thousand. 

The first day began with heavy skirmishing that grew into a 
battle, which continued till nightfall. The battle was renewed next 

748 



CHICKAMAUGA 749 



morning. The Federals might have held their own but for a sad 
blunder, Rosecrans sent an order to General Wood which was mis- 
understood, and in consequence Wood moved his divi- ^ ^^, . 
sion in such a way as to leave a wide gap in the center chickamauga, 
of the Union lines. Longstreet, quickly seeing this, September 
poured an overwhelming mass of Confederate troops ^^"^^' 1863. 
into the opening. By this movement the entire Union right wing 
was torn from the rest of the army and swept from the field, and 
Eosecrans and two of his corps commanders, McCook and Crittenden, 
were carried away in the mad rush. 

But this did not end the day's work. The Union left, some 
twenty -five thousand men, was commanded by one of the ablest 
generals of the war, George H. Thomas. On a curving 

ridge called the Horseshoe he planted his guns and I^ockof CMck- 

° . -. ^ ° amauga. 

formed his lines. The Confederates, now sure of win- 
ing a great victory, swarmed up the slope in great numbers; but 
Thomas hurled them back with fearful slaughter. Again and again 
they came, almost the whole Confederate army ; but Thomas stood 
like a wall, and against him the surging enemy dashed in vain. 
For six long hours the assaults continued, but the Union forces 
stood their ground till night, at the cost of ten thousand of their 
number. The spectacle was one of the grandest in the annals of 
warfare.^ Thomas was afterward known as " The Rock of Chicka- 
mauga." He withdrew to the mountains during the night, and soon 
joined Rosecrans in Chattanooga. In this battle the Union army 
lost about sixteen thousand men and the Confederates above eigh- 
teen thousand. It is usually considered a Confederate victory; but 
Bragg lost the greater number, and failed to gain the passes to 
Chattanooga. 

South of Chattanooga lies Missionary Ridge, a few hundred feet 
high, extending north and south, while just west of this ridge rises 
Lookout Mountain, a bold spur three thousand feet above the sea, 
extending to a great bend of the river.^ These heights were soon 
occupied by Bragg, and Rosecrans found himself cooped up in 
Chattanooga with but one rough mountain road over which to bring 
his supplies. The situation was growing critical ; ten thousand 
mules and horses died within a few weeks from want of food. 
The government saw that Rosecrans must be rescued or his army 
would perish. General Grant was now placed in command of all the 
1 See Fiske, p. 275. 2 gee map on p. 759. 



750 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

forces between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi. He chose to go 
to Chattanooga and take personal charge, while, at his suggestion, 
Grant arrives General Thomas succeeded Rosecrans. Grant arrived be- 
at Chatta- fore the close of October ; but before he reached his new 
nooga. command Thomas had begun to act on a new plan which 

proved in the end to be a brilliant conception.^ This was to seize a 
low range of hills on the peninsula, made by the bend of the river, 
opposite Lookout Mountain, and thus to establish a wagon road to a 
point farther down the river to which supplies could be brought by 
boat. This line was soon secured, and henceforth the army received 
all the supplies it needed. But not only supplies; by this same 
route came General Sherman with the army that had captured 
Vicksburg, and joined the army under Grant. At the same time 
Bragg made the unpardonable blunder of weakening his army by 
sending Longstreet with twenty thousand men to attack Burnside, 
who had come out from Cincinnati with twenty-five thousand men, 
and who was then at Kuoxville. 

Grant now had some eighty thousand men. He sent Sherman 
with the left wing to make an attack on Missionary Ridge, while 
Thomas held the center and " Fighting Jo Hooker," who had come 
from the east, with the Union right approached Lookout Mountain. 
Sherman encountered unexpected obstacles in the nature of the 
ground, and his success was not what he had expected ; Thomas 
pressed forward upon Bragg's center and captured Orchard Knob, 
between Chattanooga and Missionary Bidge, and this became Grant's 
headquarters next day ; while Hooker did the most famous day's 
work of all. 

Hooker had been sent to the base of Lookout Mountain ; and he 
led his men up the rugged slopes, attacked the enemy on the summit, 
Battle of ^^^ ^*^^ ^ complete victory. During the action the 

Lookout mountain was enveloped in a dense mist and was invisi- 

Mountain, ble from the valley below. It has been called "The 
November 24. ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^le Clouds." The roar of the battle roll- 
ing from the invisible summit of the mountain seemed literally to 
indicate a battle in the sky. Nobly here did Hooker retrieve the 
prestige he had lost at Chancellorsville. 

Next day witnessed the battle of Missionary Ridge. The whole 
Union army centered its attention upon this last Confederate strong- 

1 Thomas was indebted for this plau to his chief engineer, General W. F. Smith, 
who first suggested it. 



CHATTANOOGA 751 



hold. Hooker hastened from Lookout Mountain to the support of 
Sherman, and for some hours the fighting was heavy, but the Union 
troops made little headway. Then Thomas's corps of twenty-five 
thousand moved against the Confederate center on the ridge over- 
looking Orchard Knob. The task of carrying the place seemed an 
impossible one. Along the crest of the ridge stood fifteen thou- 
sand veteran soldiers with fifty cannon. But the Union troops ran 
across the plain and up the slope with a courage equal to that of 
Pickett's men at Gettysburg — and with a different result. In the face 
of a galling fire — grape and canister and shell — they rushed on 
and on, without orders, it is said, leaving hundreds of their number 
dead and dying on the hillside. But they reached the goal, and a 
few minutes later the Confederates fled in wild disorder, and the guns 
they had left behind were turned against them. 

Thus ended the campaign of Chattanooga. Bragg's army had 
been wholly defeated, and, after being pursued for some days by 
Hooker, it found a resting place at Dalton among the mountains of 
Georgia.^ It is a notable fact that this was the only battle in which 
the four greatest Union generals of the war were engaged, — Grant, 
Sherman, Sheridan, and Thomas.- 

Grant then dispatched Sherman to Knoxville to aid Burnside. 
Longstreet, hearing of his approach, attempted to carry the works 
by storm ; but after a desperate effort in which he lost eight hundred 
men in half an hour, he gave up the siege, and, unwilling to meet 
Sherman, marched his army eastward into Virginia. 

The Chattanooga campaign secured to the Union the entire 
Mississippi Valley. Of the four chief strongholds of the South — 
Kichmond, New Orleans, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga — three were 
now in possession of the Union armies 

GRANT IN THE WILDERNESS 

During the winter that followed the defeat of Bragg at Chatta- 
nooga, the country was comparatively quiet. The armies lay in 
winter quarters ready for active operations in the spring. That the 
Confederacy would collapse within the coming year was the general 
belief, and this feeling was strengthened by the further belief that 

1 Grant lost about six thousand in killed and wounded. The Confederate loss 
was over seven thousand, more than half of whom were prisoners, 
a Fiske, p. 315. 



762 HISTOEY OF THE UNITED STATES 

the " coming man," the " great general," had at last been discovered. 
The hopes of the country were first centered in McClellan, then in 
Halleck ; but now the steady gaze of the great public turned upon 
the hero of Douelson and Vicksburg. In February, 1864, Congress 
revived the grade of lieutenant general, hitherto held only by 
George Washington and W infield Scott.^ As every one knew, it 
was meant for Grant ; and the President promptly sent his name to 
the Senate, and it was confirmed. Grant came east to re-^eive his 
new commission, and early in March he was made commander in 
chief of all the armies of the United States. This would insure 
the concerted action of the western with the eastern armies. Hal- 
leck was nominal commander in chief up to this time ; but he 
was weak and incompetent, and his orders often prevented the 
armies from winning victories. This was now changed, and the 
armies were henceforth to move at the dictation of one master 
mind. 

Grant was now by far the most popular man in the country, not 
excepting the President. Crowds followed him about the streets of 
Washington wherever he went. He is described by one ^ who saw him 
at the time as a " short, round-shouldered man in a very tarnished 
major-general's uniform. . . . He had no gait, no station, no man- 
ner, rough, light-brown whiskers, a blue eye, and a rather scrubby 
look withal ... a rather seedy appearance . . . but he had ... a 
look of resolution, as if he could not be trifled with, and an entire 
indifference to the crowd about him." 

Grant soon decided on the great twofold movement, — the campaign 
against Lee in Virginia, led by himself, with Richmond as his goal; 
and a simultaneous campaign against Johnston, who had succeeded 
Bragg, led by Sherman, with Atlanta as his goal. Should either or 
both of these be successful, the downfall of the Confederacy was 
assured. First we turn our attention to Virginia. 

The Army of the Potomac, now almost one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand strong, ^ was divided into three corps under Hancock, Warren, and 
Sedgwick, with Meade in immediate command, and Grant in superior 
command. Sheridan was at the head of the cavalry. Lee's army, in 

1 Scott, however, held it only by hrevet. The still higher grade of "general" 
was conferred on Grant in 1866, and later on Sherman, then Sheridan. These three 
alone have held this highest military grade in the United States. 

2 Richard H. Dana. See Adams's " Dana," Vol. II, p. 271. 

3 This included a division of thirty thousand under Butler on the James River, 
and Burnside's command, which had been brought from Knoxville. ^ 



k 



GRANT AND LEE IN THE WILDERNESS 753 

three corps under Longstreet, Ewell, and A. P. Hill, with Stewart 
as cavalry leader, is said to have numbered sixty thousand. These 
were the actual bearers of arms ; but by the method of counting em- 
ployed by the Union side (which included teamsters, cooks, musi- 
cians, etc., as well as soldiers), these figures must be increased to 
about seventy-five thousand. These two great armies now entered 
upon a month's campaign, — the bloodiest and most murderous cam- 
paign of the war, — which brought no apparent advantage to either side. 

On the 4th of May, 1864, Grant's army crossed the Eapidan, 
and entered that dreary region of tangled underbrush near Chan- 
cellorsville known as the Wilderness.^ The battle of the Wilderness 
proper, as generally understood, continued but two days, the 5th 
and 6th of May. Grant had no thought of offering battle in this 
jungle ; but Lee considered this his opportunity, and moved his army 
upon the Federals. Ewell attacked Warren's corps on the morning 
of the 5th and pressed it back; but it made a stand and joined 
the Federal left wing under Hancock, and thus-, with almost the 
whole of both armies in action the fight continued Ba,ttle of the 
till night. Next morning the battle was renewed at an wilderness, 
early hour, as both Grant and Lee had determined to take May 5 and 6, 
the offensive. Hancock attacked Hill with great fury. ^^"*- 
Hill was driven back, but Longstreet, who had not been present 
on the 5th, came to his rescue, and the Federals in turn were 
driven back. At this point General Wadsworth was killed and 
Longstreet was dangerously wounded.^ All along the line the bat- 
tle raged during the day. Saplings by thousands were cut down, 
and even large trees were felled by the flying missiles. The Federal 
loss in the two days' battle was more than seventeen thousand, the 
Confederate loss, not accurately known, was much less, probably 
twelve thousand. 

Four days after the close of this fight in the Wilderness the great 
battle of Spottsylvania was fought. Grant began his movement 
toward Spottsylvania Court House, between the enemy and Rich- 
mond, on the night of the 6th. It is said that the soldiers, not 
knowing whether they had suffered defeat or won a victory, as is often 
true of the rank and file, feared that the movement was to be a retreat 

1 See map on p. 695. 

3 Longstreet' s wound is said to have been received from his own men. It was 
similar in character to that received by Stonewall Jackson near the same spot a yeal 
and three days before. 
3c 



754 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

back across the Eapidan ; but when tliey found that they were march- 
ing toward Richmond, they sent up cheer after cheer. Under 
McClellan, Pope, Burnside, and Hooker, respectively, this army had 
made an attempt on Richmond; but in each case it had retreated 
after encountering the Army of Northern Virginia. Lee believed 
that Grant also was now in retreat, but he was soon undeceived. On 
learning of Grant's destination he made a forced march and reached 
Spottsylvania before him. Every day there was heavy skirmishing, 
and on the 9th the brave General Sedgwick, one of the ablest of the 
corps commanders, was struck in the face by a sharpshooter's bullet 
and fell dead. Sheridan on the 8th began a cavalry raid around the 
Confederate army, and in a terrific fight within seven miles of Rich- 
mond the ablest cavalry leader of the South, General J. E. B, Stewart, 
was killed. 

The battle of Spottsylvania was fought on the 10th and the 12th of 
May, both armies resting on the intervening day ; and it was on this 
day that Grant sent his famous dispatch to Washington, declaring 
his purpose to "fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." 
The chief feature of the action on the 12th was the attack by Han- 
cock on a weak position of the enemy called a " salient." He suc- 
ceeded, and captured four thousand men after great slaughter on each 
side. Five desperate, fruitless efforts the Confederates made to re- 
take the position. One of these General Lee started to lead in per- 
son, but his men refused to advance till he went back beyond the 
Spottsyl- danger line. At a point known as the " death angle " 

vania,MaylO the hand-to-hand fighting, which continued till mid- 
and 12. night, was equal to any ever known in war. Men fought 

from the top of heaps of dead men till their own bodies were added 
to the pile and others came to take their places. Not a tree or a 
sapling was left alive and standing. One tree nearly two feet in 
diameter was literally cut in two by musket balls. 

The battle of Spottsylvania was one of the most tremendous of 
modern times. Had it continued another day, it would have sur- 
passed Gettysburg. Neither side won. The losses, about the same 
on each side, footed up the frightful total of thirty-six thousand men.' 

For a week now the two armies remained inactive. On the 19th 

the Confederates under Ewell made a fierce assault on the Union 

right, but were repulsed. Lee then took up a strong position on the 

North Anna River ; but Grant refrained from an attack, moved toward 

1 •' Battles and Leaders," Vol. IV, p. 182 ; Burgess, Vol. U, p. 252. 



COLD HARBOR AND PETERSBURG 756 

Richmond, and crossed the Pamunkey but twenty miles from that 
city. Lee followed and there was heavy fighting nearly every day, 
but no general engagement. At length they reached the old battle- 
ground where McClellan had fought two years before. Lee, on the 
first days of June, took up a very strong position at Gold Harbor. 
The only chance to attack him was in front. Grant determined to 
make an assault. His troops knew that it would be Battle of Cold 
hopeless, that it would mean wholesale murder, and Harbor, 
many of them tacked labels to their clothes, giving J^^® 3, 1864. 
their names and addresses that their friends at home might learn 
where and when they died. The result was as expected: the 
Union men were mowed down in thousands. Not even at Spottsyl- 
vania or at Gettysburg was the slaughter more terrible than here. 
The main assault lasted but half an hour, and it was the bloodiest 
half hour in American history. About twelve thousand Union men 
lay dead or writhing on the ground.^ Ordering this charge was the 
greatest military error in the life of General Grant, and he frankly 
acknowledges in his " Memoirs " that he never ceased to regret it. 

Grant now determined on a change of base. He decided to cross 
the Rappahannock and the James to a point below Petersburg, and 
to approach Richmond from the south. It was exactly 
this move that Halleck had prevented McClellan from f^e^jame?^*^ 
making two years before. Grant made the transfer 
with consummate skill, but he suffered great losses in attempting to 
carry Petersburg by storm. By the 20th of June his army was joined 
by that of Butler on the James. 

The Union loss in this campaign, from the Wilderness to Cold 
Harbor, reached the appalling total of nearly sixty thousand men. 
The Confederate loss was something less than forty thousand.^ Why 
this wide difference in numbers ? The fact that Lee knew the 
ground well and Grant did not, may account for it in part, but not in 
full. Indeed, this may be balanced by the further facts that Grant's 
generals, if not himself, were familiar with the country and that 
while his army was well fed the Confederates were in a half-starved 



1 Livermore gives this number as an estimate (p. 114) . Swinton says that Grant's 
loss was twenty times greater than Lee's in this engagement. " Campaigns of the 
Army of the Potomac," p. 494. 

2 These figures represent the men rendered hors de combat, many of whom were 
captives and were eventually restored to their homes. Neither army had decreased 
greatly, as both were reenforced from time to time. 



756 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

condition.^ If we can rise above all sectional or partisan bias, we 
must agree with the military critics that Grant was no match for Lee 
as a strategist. Grant himself practically admits this in his state- 
ment that his plan was to keep hammering away and to reduce the 
enemy's force by mere attrition. Grant, however, grasped the great 
purpose of the campaign — to destroy the Confederate army and 
bring the war to a close,^ If this could not be done by strategy, by 
outwitting the enemy, there was just one way left — to pound him 
to death by superior numbers ; and this Grant proceeded to do. 
We deplore the costly mistake at Cold Harbor;^ we deplore the 
making desolate of so many thousand homes ; but we must not over- 
look the main object of the war — to save the country even at the 
sacrifice of the armies. This campaign, however, with all its vast 
sacrifice of men, had thus far failed. The country was much dis- 
satisfied with Grant, and some urged that McClellan be recalled ; but 
there is no evidence that Mr. Lincoln contemplated doing this. 
During the long period of inaction that followed, Grant's dispatches 
did not bear the air of confidence that marked them before he entered 
the Wilderness. Soon after crossing the James the army made at- 
tempts to carry Petersburg by storm. One of these was* by means 
of a mine which exploded with great violence. But the enemy was 
on the alert, and every attempt to carry their works was fruitless. 
Grant then settled down to a long siege, and his army did little active 
field work till the following spring. 

Closely associated with this campaign, or rather, a continuation 
of it, was that of Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. In the hope 
Earlv ^^ relieving Richmond and Petersburg, Lee sent Jubal 

threatens A. Early with fifteen thousand veterans to threaten 
Washington. Washington. Early drove Sigel out of Martinsburg, 
occupied Hagerstown, and then turned toward Washington. On 
July 10 and 11 he was but a few miles from the city and in sight 
of the Capitol dome. The excitement in the city was great. The 
President was composed, and made no provision for his personal 
safety; but a vessel lay waiting in the river, without his knowledge, 

1 Major Eggleston (Confederate) relates in " Battles and Leaders " (Vol. IV, p. 
231) that his men marched fifty hours from the North Anna without food, when they 
received each three hard hiscuits and a very small slice of fat pork. Two days latez 
they received each a single cracker without meat. 

2 Rhodes, Vol. IV, p. 447. 

8 Though it was scarcely a greater mistake than that of Lee in sending Pickett to 
Cemeteiy Ridge at Gettysburg. 



SHERIDAN IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY 757 

to take him away in case the enemy should capture the city. Wash- 
ington was then garrisoned by some twenty thousand raw troops, and 
there is little doubt that Early could have defeated them and cap- 
tured the city on the lltli. But for some unknown cause he hesitated, 
and before night of that day his great opportunity was gone ; for in 
the afternoon two corps sent by Grant had arrived, and the Capitol 
was safe. Early then turned up the valley and sent General 
McCausland into Pennsylvania. McCausland occupied Chambers- 
burg, July 30, 1864, and demanded a large sum of money on pain of 
burning the town. The money was not forthcoming, and he carried 
out his threat. Grant at length appointed Sheridan in command in 
the Shenandoah Valley. That the Confederate raids along the 
Shenandoah be prevented in future, Sheridan was instructed to 
lay waste the valley and destroy everything that would support 
an army. Sheridan had shown the mettle of which he was made at 
Murfreesborough, at Chickamauga, and at Missionary Eidge ; and no 
one doubted that he would do the work assigned him. With nearly 
forty thousand men he entered the valley, and first met Early at 
Opequan Creek near Winchester, and a sharp battle ensued. Some 
weeks then passed with little action, when Lee recalled some of 
Early's troops, leaving his army scarcely half the size of Sheridan's, 
and Sheridan saw his chance. The two armies met again on nearly 
the same spot, and a terrific battle ensued. Sheridan won a clear 
victory, driving the enemy through the streets of Win- Ba^t^jg of 
Chester.^ Three days later the two armies met again at Opequan, or 
Fisher's Hill, and Early was again defeated, with a loss Winchester, 
of twelve hundred men, while Sheridan lost but five ®^ ®™ " ' 
hundred. These battles saved Maryland and Pennsylvania from 
further invasion. 

Sheridan's famous raid down the valley began on October 5. 
He destroyed everything that an enemy might use. He spared the 
dwellings, but he burned two thousand well-filled barns and seventy 
mills filled with wheat and flour, and drove before him four thousand 
head of cattle. Early had meantime been reenforced and was follow- 
ing the Federals, who had encamped at Cedar Creek. The troops 
were not expecting an attack when, in the misty dawn of the morning, 
the enemy crept by stealth upon the sleeping army. The Federals 
sprang to arms, but they had little time to form in line, and in a 

1 Sheridan's loss was about five thousand, exceeding that of the enemy by about 
one thousand. 



758 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

short time they Avere defeated. Sheridan had gone to Washington 
B ttl of ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^* Winchester, some miles away. Hear- 

Cedar Creek, i^ig the cannonade, he galloped to the battle field. 
October 19, Meeting his men in flight, he stopped them, saying, 
1864. a j^g^^jg ^j^g other way, boys ; we will go and recover our 

camps ! " ^ With marvelous skill Sheridan went about re-forming 
his lines and infusing his own spirit into the army. From the 
moment of Sheridan's arrival the whole current of the movement 
was changed. The men threw up their hats and leaped and danced 
for joy.- In a few hours Sheridan had the troops again in fighting 
trim, and in the afternoon he led them against the enemy. Early 
was not only defeated, but thoroughly routed, and his army was 
practically destroyed ; and thus ended the war in the Shenandoah 
Valley. 

THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN — MOBILE 

General Grant, on assuming command in the east, had planned 
for Sherman a campaign against Atlanta, Georgia, an important 
railroad center and base of military supplies. To carry out this 
plan Sherman had to penetrate the heart of the Confederacy and 
cope with the army of J. E. Johnston, which had spent the winter at 
Dalton. Preliminary to this great move, a portion of Sherman's army 
joined with that of Banks and with the fleet of Admiral Porter in an 
expedition up the Ked Eiver. Several severe battles were fought 
on this expedition, but in the end it played only a small part in the 
general plan. 

The direct line from Chattanooga to Atlanta is only a hundred 
miles, but the country is rugged, and Johnston was a vigilant, able 
commander and had sixty-five thousand men in his army. Sherman's 
army numbered over one hundred thousand, and was in three parts 
under Thomas, J. B. McPherson, and John M. Schofield.^ Of this 
force Sherman, as he progressed, had to leave many to guard his line 
of supplies to Nashville. Johnston, on the other hand, could keep 
his entire army with him and use the whole when needed in battle. 
Sherman began this great march from Chattanooga on the day after 
Grant entered the Wilderness. Johnston came out of Dalton and 

1 Sheridan's "Memoirs," Vol. II, p. 81. 

2 Davies's " Life of Sheridan," p. 185. 

8 It was the three armies of the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Ohio 
combined. 



SHERilAN MOVES TOWARD ATLANTA 



76S 



iatrenched his army at Eesaca. Here Sherman stood before him. 
on the 13th of ^lay. For two days there Avas heavy fighting, but 
Sherman refrained from a direct attack. His maneuvers, however, 
were such as to force Johnston to abandon his position and retreat 
southward. Sherman followed, and the two armies, both moving 
toward Dallas, met at a little church called Xew Hope, w^here a 
considerable battle was fought, 
neither army gaining great ad- 




vantage. 

By the end of May each 
army had lost about ten thou- 
sand men. Sherman was near- 
ing his goal ; but he found in 
Johnston a master strategist. 
There was now heavy skir- 
mishing and artillery firing 
nearly every day. On the 14th 
of June General Polk was killed. 
A'Miile standing with Generals 
Johnston and Hardee on the 
crest of Pine Mountain, viewing 
the field through a glass, he 
was struck squarely in the 
breast by a cannon ball, and 
his body was torn to pieces. 
As a youth, Polk had gradu- 
ated at West Point; he then 
studied theology, and for twenty 
years before the war he was Episcopal bishop of Louisiana. 

The last week of June found Johnston strongly intrenched on 
Kenesaw ^Mountain, and here, for the first time in the campaign, 
Sherman decided to make a front attack on his works. Kenesaw 
The attempt was a foolish one and must be classed with Mountain. 
Pickett's charge at Gettysburg and Grant's at Cold June 27. 1864. 
Harbor. And the result was the same : Sherman lost over two 
thousand men and won nothing. General Daniel McCook was 
among the killed. Sherman made no more such blunders. He 
again resorted to his flanking tactics. On the 17th of July he 
led his army across the Chattalioochee River within a few miles 
of Atlanta, and on the same day Jefferson Davis made the great 



760 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

___^ — ___ — « 

mistake of dismissing Johnston because he had " failed to check the 
advance of the enemy," and placing General John B. Hood in com- 
vqqa mand. The change was a happy one for the Union 

succeeds army; for Hood, though a bold and fearless fighter, 

Johnston. ■\\ras no match as a tactician to the masterly Johnston. 
Three days after receiving the command Hood left his intrench- 
ments and offered battle in the open field at Peachtree Creek. 
He was driven back by Hooker with heavy loss. On the 22d Hood 
again made an attack, and on this day the battle became general 
all along the lines. Hood was thoroughly defeated, losing probably 
eight thousand men, while Sherman lost less than half that number. 
But the Union loss was very great, nevertheless, for 
Att*^^"^*'^ General McPherson was killed. He was riding through 
a wood almost alone when a sharpshooter's bullet 
pierced his brain and his horse galloped back riderless. McPherson 
was one of the ablest commanders in the army. He was the only 
man whom Grant on going east placed in the same class with Sherman. 

Another battle, known as the battle of Ezra Church, took place 
on the 28th of July, and Hood was again defeated, with a loss six 
times as great as that of Sherman. A month more was spent in 
maneuvering, in raiding with cavalry, and in tightening the coils 
about Atlanta, where Hood had taken refuge. Finding that he could 
hold the city no longer. Hood escaped with his army on the night of 
September 1, and next day Sherman entered and took possession. 
The campaign had been four months in duration, and the Federal 
loss in killed, wounded, and missing was about thirty-two thousand. 
The Confederate loss was probably thirty-five thousand. 

While Sherman was maneuvering around Atlanta, Farragut won 
his famous naval victory in Mobile Bay. This was the most impor- 
tant harbor on the gulf coast, and next to Charleston,^ the most impor- 
tant on the entire Confederate coast. Here the Confederate blockade 
runners found a retreat when nearly all other ports were closed to 
them. The closing of this port was determined on, and Admiral 
Farragut was intrusted with the perilous task. For months he was 
preparing and waiting for a land force to cooperate with him. At 
length the land force arrived under General Gordon Granger, and was 

1 The summer before had witnessed a determined but unsuccessful effort to cap- 
ture Charleston, South Carolina, guarded by General Beauregard. General Gilmore 
and Admiral Dahlgren led the expedition. They captured Fort Wagner on Morris 
Island, after a long and terrific siege, and reduced Fort Sumter to ruins, but they 
failed to capture Charleston. 



FARRAGUT AT MOBILE 761 

landed on Dauphin Island in the mouth of Mobile Bay. The naval 
battle took place on August 5. Two forts, Gaines and Morgan, 
guarded the main entrance of the bay, while within the bay lay a 
line of sunken torpedoes and beyond these a Confederate 
fleet of gunboats and the powerful ram Tennessee, com- ^°^^^\'^i*o^4 
manded by Admiral Buchanan. Farragut had a fleet oi 
four ironclads and some other vessels. That he might not fall to the 
deck, if shot, Farragut had himself tied to the mast of his flagship, the 
Hartford, and the fleet steamed into the harbor amid a storm of shot 
and shell from the two forts and the opposing fleet. One of the 
Union vessels, the TecumseJi, was wrecked by a torpedo, and sank 
with one hundred and thirteen men on board.^ The forts were 
soon silenced, and the battle with the Confederate fleet was short 
and furious. Two of the Confederate gunboats were soon destroyed, 
a third fled into shallow water and escaped. The Tennessee made a 
brave fight against the whole Union fleet, but at last a fifteen-inch 
solid shot pierced her armor, and she surrendered. The two forts 
soon afterward surrendered to Granger ; and thus ended the career 
of the blockade runners in Mobile Bay. The city of Mobile at the 
head of the bay, however, with its guarding forts, remained in the 
hands of the Confederates for many months longer. It was sur- 
rendered to a Union army of forty thousand men under General 
Canby in April, 1865. 

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 

Politics, like the poor, is always with us. In the midst of the 
great war came a presidential election. The risk of changing the 
whole policy of the government at such a time, when ultimate 
military victory seemed in sight, was not relished by the friends of 
the Union and the enemies of slavery. But the civic campaign had its 
compensations ; it was some relief for the great public for a season 
to take its eyes from the dreadful scenes of carnage, and to witness 
the familiar scene of the battle of the ballots. In view of the 

1 A remarkable incident occurred at the sinking of tlie Tecumseh. There was a 
narrow ladder, the only possible means of escape. When the vessel was about to 
sink, Captain Craven, her commander, and his pilot met at the foot of this ladder. 
The pilot stepped aside that the captain might go up first ; but the captain said, 
"After you, pilot," and stepped back. The pilot then ran up the ladder to the deck, 
and was saved. But he was the last; the ship sank, and the chivalrous Captain 
Craven went down with his crew and was lost. 



762 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

world's present estimate of Abraliam Lincoln it seems strange that 
within his own party there was a powerful opposition to his renomi- 
nation to the presidency in 18G4. But such was the case. Among 
Lincoln's opposers were such leaders as Horace Greeley, William 
CuUen Bryant, Henry Ward Beecher, Thaddeus Stevens, and no 
doubt a majority of the senators and representatives in Congress. 
The choice of the opposing faction was Mr. Chase, the secretary of 
the treasury. Chase was an all-round leader and had proved himself 
a great financier. In January, 18G4, a committee of prominent 
Eepublicans issued a circular, known as the '•' Bomero}' Circular," 
named from the chairman, Senator Pomeroy of Kansas, attempting 
to show that it were better for the country if Chase instead of Lin- 
coln be chosen President. The ground of objection to Lincoln was 
that he was too slow and too conservative in dealing with the rebel- 
lion and with the slavery questiou, nor was his plan of reconstruction, 
to be noticed later, pleasing to the leaders in Congress. Xo doubt 
the President was disturbed by this movement, but his outward 
calm was unbroken. With admirable magnanimity he said concern- 
ing the Chase movement : " I have determined to shut my eyes, so 
far as possible, to everything of the sort. ... If he (Chase) be- 
comes President, all right. I hope we may never have a worse 
man." ^ Lincoln's strength lay with the masses of the people, who 
had learned to trust him and to recognize his great ability in 
managing the war. Chase was anxious for the nomination, and, 
with well-feigned reluctance and with the usual coyness, gave his name 
to the movement. When, however, the Eepublicans of the legislature 
of his own state, Ohio, held a caucus and declared for Lincoln, Chase 
thought it wise to withdraw from the canvass, and did so. Other 
states followed the example of Ohio, and long before the convention 
it was a foregone conclusion that Lincoln would be renominated. 

But there was in the Eepublican party an extremely radical 
faction that refused to abandon its hostility to Lincoln, and when 
his nomination was seen to be assured, this faction called a conven- 
tion to meet at Cleveland, Ohio, to name its own candidate. It 
nominated John C. Premont, who a few days later came out with his 
letter of acceptance, in which he denounced the administration, 
and hinted that he woidd retire from the contest if the coming Ee- 
publican convention would select any candidate other than Lincoln. 

The Eepublican convention met in Baltimore on the 7th of 
1 Nicolay aaid Hay, Vol. VHI, p. 316. 



COMMOTION OF THE RErUBLICANS 703 

June, and the name " Union " was substituted for " Republican " to 
acconiniodate the war Democrats that were acting with 
the party. The platform pronounced in favor of putting nf'rlJJioi^'^ 
down the rebellion without com j)romise, and of an amend- 
ment to the Constitution abolishing slavery forever in the United 
States. It also approved the administration of Lincoln in vigorous 
terms, and pledged the national faith for the payment of the public 
debt. Lincoln was nominated on the first ballot amid great en- 
thusiasm. He received the votes of all the delegates except those 
from ]\rissouri, who voted for General Grant. 

The choosing of a candidate for the vice presidency brought a 
contest. It was generally conceded that a war Democrat should be 
selected, and Andrew Johnson of Tennessee was chosen, for two 
reasons : First, the choice would " nationalize " the Republican party, 
which had hitherto been considered sectional, and second, it would 
have a salutary effect on the nations of Europe. By thus choosing 
the second highest official in the land from the heart of the Confed- 
eracy, an impression Avovdd be made on foreigners that the country 
was simply dealing with a rebellion and was not in reality divided. 
The choice of Johnson as his running mate was favored by Lincoln, as 
was disclosed many years later.^ He made his wishes known to a few 
friends, who had much influence in shaping the action of the convention. 

The weeks that followed the Republican convention were marked 
by great discontent throughout the country. Tlie people were wear}^ 
of the long war, which seemed less hopeful now than the year before 
after the victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Two attempts at 
reconciliation had been made, without success. President Davis, 
approached on the subject, declared that he would listen to no over 
tures for peace except on the ground of southern indepeiulence. 
Lincoln had said with equal decision that the war could end only on 
the ground of a restored Union and the abolition of slavery. The 
gloom of the northern people was great. The public mind dwelt 
on the failure of Grant's campaign before Richmond, the awful 
slaughter at Spottsylvania and Cold Harbor, the defeat at Kenesaw 
Mountain, the death of the noble McPherson, and the threatening of 
Washington by the army of Early. 

There was, furthermore, great dissatisfaction with Lincoln. 
Nearly all the leaders of the party believed that the convention had 

1 See McClu re's " LiiU'olii and Men of W,ir Times," Appeudix. Yioe President 
Hamlin received 150 votes ou the lirst ballot. 



764 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

made a serious mistake in renominating him, and there was a loud 
cry for a new convention and a new ticket. " Mr. Lincoln is already 
oeaten. . . . He cannot be elected," wrote Greeley. Thurlow Weed 
wrote Seward that the election of Lincoln was impossible. The 
chairman of the Eepublican national committee, Henry J. Raymond, 
informed the President that there was but one voice from all sides, 
■'the tide is setting strongly against us." Lincoln fully believed 
that he would be defeated, and his unselfish soul was shown by a 
private memorandum stating that it would be his '' duty to so co- 
operate with the President elect to save the Union between the elec- 
tion and the inauguration." ^ 

All this convulsion took place in Republican ranks before the 

meeting of the Democratic convention. This convention met in 

Chicago on August 29. Governor Seymour of New York 

f M^cfn^'^ was its permanent chairman, and Vallandigham one of 

its leading spirits and the writer of its platform. The 

platform in substance pronounced the war a failure and demanded 

that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, that a 

convention of all the states be held, to the end that peace be restored 

on the basis of a restoration of the Union. On the first ballot 

General McClellan was nominated for President, and George H. 

Pendleton of Ohio was nominated for Vice President. 

The Democratic platform was very weak in its two main points : 
its pronouncing the war a failure,^ and its call for a conference with 
the Southern states to treat for peace on the basis of a restored Union. 
The first did not take account of the sentiment of the vast number 
of northern families from which a father, a husband, or a brother 
was serving in the ranks or had filled a soldier's grave. How could 
these admit that the war had been a failure and that their loved 
ones had fought and died in vain ? The second did not take ac- 
count of the fact that the South was still defiant and hostile, that 
it had recently declared through its President that it would treat for 
peace on no ground except that of separation. And yet, on these 
two points the Democrats had laid down the gauge of battle, and on 
these the people must decide the election. 

Scarcely had the Chicago convention completed its work when a 
reaction set in in favor of Lincoln. Premont withdrew from the con- 

1 See Nicolay and Hay, Vol. IX, p. 251. 

* This item of the platform McClellan practically set aside in his letter of accept' 
ance; but the letter had little effect on the campaign. 



SHERMAN STARTS FOR THE SEA 761 

test in his favor, and the leaders were inspired to renewed efforts. The 
pithy phrase of Lincoln that it was " not best to swap horses when 
crossing a stream " touched a popular chord. But this was not all. 
The news from the front was suddenly changed in complexion. 
First came the report of Farragut's great victory in Mobile Bay ; 
this was followed early in September by the news of Sherman's 
capture of Atlanta, and a few weeks later came the thrilling account 
of Sheridan's terrible devastation in the Shenandoah Valley, which 
insured henceforth the safety of the capital. " Is the war a failure ? " 
tauntingly asked the Kepublicans ; and the Democrats could make 
no satisfactory answer. The autumn state elections added another to 
the unerring signs that pointed to a victory for Lincoln. The elec- 
tion was held on November 8, and Lincoln electors were chosen in 
all the states except three, New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky, 
he receiving 212 electoral votes to 21 for McClellan. The meaning 
of this voice of the people was twofold, — that the Union must be 
restored at all hazards, and that slavery in the United States must be 
no longer. 

THE FINAL WORK OF THE ARMIES 

We left Sherman at Atlanta, where he remained for six weeks, 
sending the residents out of the city and making it a purely military 
center. Hood hovered around with his army for some weeks, fight- 
ing several small engagements, and then determined to move north- 
ward into Tennessee. By this move he expected to draw Sherman 
after him and thus to force him to abandon all he had gained in the 
campaign against Atlanta ; or, in case Sherman did not follow, Hood 
felt that he would defeat any force that he might encounter, after 
which he would march into Kentucky and then deflect eastward and 
join Lee against Grant in Virginia.^ But Sherman, after pursuing 
Hood as far as Gaylesville, Alabama, left Thomas with an army to 
take care of him, and returned and prepared for his great march from 
Atlanta to the sea. 

Receiving permission from General Grant to do as he thought 
best, Sherman, after destroying the machine shops and other public 
property in Atlanta, set out, November 15, on his historic march. 
The army was sixty-two thousand strong, with General 0. 0. Howard 
in command of the right wing and General Henry W. Slocum of the 
left, while Judson Kilpatrick was at the head of the cavalry. There 

» Bee "Battles and Leaders," Vol. IV, p. 426. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



were sixty-five heavy guns, six hundred ambulances, and twenty-five 
hundred wagons, each drawm by six mules. The army was instructed 
to march by four roads as nearly parallel as could be found, to begin 
marching at seven o'clock each morning, and to cover fifteen miles each 
day. The soldiers were permitted to forage freely, but not to enter 
private houses. All railroads and public property that might 




SHERMAN' 



aid the Confederate armies were to be destroyed. The distance to 
Sherman's *^^® ^®^ ^^^ about three hundred miles ; the swath cut 
march to the by the army was from forty to sixty miles wide. But 
sea, 1 864. little opposition was encountered in the march, and it was 
play compared with the campaign of the past summer against Atlanta. 
By the middle of December the army came in sight of the sea, re- 
duced Fort McAllister, opened communication with Admiral Dahl- 
gren's fleet, and made ready to besiege Savannah. General Hardee, 
who held the city, evacuated it by night, and Sherman entered it on 
the 21st of December. He then sent President Lincoln the well- 
known dispatch, " I beg to present to you, as a Christmas gift, the 
city of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and pleoty 



THOMAS AT NASHVILLE 767 

of ammunition, and also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton.'' 
Thus after nearly four years in the possession of the Confederates, 
this old historic city of the Revolution, where Pulaski had fallen, 
came again into the hands of the Federal government. 

General Thomas, as we have noticed, had been sent to Tennessee 
to deal with Hood. Sherman left Thomas but twenty-seven thousand 
men, retaining to himself more than twice that number for the easier 
task of marching to the sea. Hood's force consisted of forty thousand 
infantry and ten thousand cavalry under Forrest. Had Thomas been 
beaten by Hood the blame would have fallen on Sherman, and the 
country would have severely condemned him for leaving Thomas 
with an insufficient force. Thus the status of Sherman's name in 
history rested with Thomas. With many a commander the risk 
would have been greater, but Thomas was the Rock of Chickamauga. 
He occupied Nashville, where he was joined the last of November 
by General A. J, Smith with fourteen thousand men from Missouri, 
and by some nine thousand stragglers and colored troops, raising 
his army to over fifty thousand men. But this did not excuse 
Sherman, for if Hood had not been delayed three weeks in Ala- 
bama, waiting for supplies, he would have struck the Union army 
before it had been reenf orced. Hood was now moving rapidlj^ toward 
Nashville, where Thomas held the main army, Scho- 
field, however, had been sent with two corps to retard T'!^ankrn 
the enemy, and he retreated before him to Franklin, Ten- 
nessee, where he took a strong position and stood for battle. Here 
Hood made an attack on the afternoon of November 30. With the 
valor of desperation the Confederates assaulted again and again, 
continuing till midnight. They lost several generals and six thou- 
sand men ; but they failed to dislodge Schofield's army or to inflict 
upon it half the loss they had themselves sustained. Soon after mid- 
night the Union army continued its march and by noon of the next day 
it had joined the main army at Nashville. Hood was soon in front 
of Nashville with his challenge to battle. Thomas waited, and two 
weeks passed. Lincoln and Grant became very impatient lest Hood 
escape, and they threatened to remove Thomas if he did not strike. 
Strange that they did not know the man better. Thomas replied 
that he could not get ready sooner, and, if relieved, he would " submit 
without a murmur." On December 9 he was ready ; but then came 
a freezing rain and he decided to wait for a thaw. Grant now lost 
patience and determined to go to Nashville in person. Arriving at 



768 HISTOKY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Washington, he received a dispatch from Thomas stating that he 
would attack tlie next day, 

Thomas's tactics at Nashville were perfect. The city, situated 
within a great double curve of the Cumberland River, is inclosed on 
the south by a chain of low hill§. On these Thomas held his army 
facing the enemy. His plan was to threaten and hold the enemy's 
right, and swing his own right, as on a pivot, and overwhelm the ene- 
my's entire left wing. The plan was eminently successful. Hood was 
Battle of pressed back with heavy losses. The next day the bat- 

Nashville, tie was renewed, and before nightfall the Confederate 
December 15 army was utterly demoralized, routed, and in full flight, 
and 16. Hood escaped across the Tennessee with scarcely half 

his force. He could not rally ; his army was practically destroyed. 
The defeat was the most decisive one suffered by any army in a 
general engagement in the whole war. And it is said that the plan 
of Thomas is the only one of the Civil War that is now studied as a 
model in the military schools of Europe.^ The power of the Con- 
federacy was now destroyed west of the Alleghany Mountains. 

The opening of the year 1865 found General Grant in the 
trenches before Petersburg and Sherman at Savannah. The next 
Sherman P^^-"^ ^^^ ^^^^^ Sherman should move northward through 

leaves the Carolinas to the aid of Grant in crushing Lee and 

Savannah. ending the rebellion. He had already marched four 
hundred miles from Chattanooga, and a greater distance yet lay 
before him. Since leaving Atlanta his army had diminished but 
little, and it was fully sixty thousand strong when he left Savannah 
on the 1st of February. 

Before this march began, however, and preliminary to it, the 
capture of Wilmington, North Carolina, was decided on. This was 
the last opening the Confederacy had to the outside world, and it 
was guarded by Fort Fisher. About the middle of December, 1864, 
Admiral Porter approached this fort with a strong fleet, and soon 
Capture of reduced it to ruins ; but the garrison was overpowered 
Fort Fisher, only after a desperate assault by a land force under 
January 15, General Terry, whom Grant had sent to the aid of 
Porter. This closed the mouth of the Cape Fear River, 
shut the Southern states out from the world, and thus completed the 
blockade proclaimed by Lincoln in April, 1861. 

1 McClure's " Lincoln and Men of War Times." 



INVESTMENT OF KICHMOND 76» 

Sherman's march from Savannah was far more difficult than his 
more famous march from Atlanta to the sea ; for now he had to cross 
the rivers instead of following their courses, and most of the bridges 
were destroyed. There were also vast swamps and marshes to be 
crossed, and above all, a vigilant foe to be encountered. General 
Wade Hampton with a small army met the invading enemy, first at 
Orangeburg, where a slight battle was fought. Another battle was 
fought before Columbia; but the city could not be successfully de* 
fended. Hampton escaped with his army and the Federal hosts took 
possession on February 17. From some cause unknown the city of 
Columbia caught fire and the flames spread until a large part of the 
city was! in ashes. Sherman at first accused Hampton of burning 
the city ; but Hampton stoutly denied that he had done so, and the 
long controversy as to who was responsible for the burning of 
Columbia is still unsettled. Charleston was also aban- 
doned by the Confederates, who, on leaving, set fire to pj?"^"! °^ 
the great stores of cotton. The flames spread until the 
greater part of the city was laid in ashes. Sherman moved on, 
without touching Charleston, toward Goldsboro. The opposing 
forces were again in command of Johnston,^ who was defeated in a 
sharp |battle at Bentonville. On the 23d of March Sherman oc- 
cupied Goldsboro, where he was joined by Schofield, who had been 
sent with a force from Thomas's army at Nashville, and Terry, 
who had captured Fort Fisher. Sherman was then in a position 
to cooperate with Grant. Meanwhile Stoueman was sent with his 
cavalry to destroy the railroad from Virginia to Tennessee, and thus 
cut off from Lee an important source of supplies. 

Another attempt had been made to bring about peace. A. H, 
Stephens and others met Mr. Lincoln and Secretary Seward at Fortress 
Monroe, February 3, in a long conference. But as Lincoln refused 
all overtures except on the basis of a restored Union and the abo- 
lition of slavery, the conference came to nothing. He declined 
absolutely to treat with the Confederacy as a government, and the 
Southerners went back and did everything in their power to " fire 
the southern heart." ^ 



1 Lee had been made commander in chief by act of the Confederate Congress 
(January 19), and it was he that reappointed Johnston, against the wishes of Presi- 
dent Davis, who greatly dislilced Jolinston. 

2 Mr. Stepliens, in trying to induce Lineohi to treat with the Confederacy, cited 
the case of Charles I of England treating with his rebellious subjects. Lincoln 
answered: " I am not strong on history. I depend mainly on Secretary Seward for 
ttiat. All I remember about Charles is that he lost his head." 



770 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

The days of the Confederacy were almost run. Atropos was 
ready to cut the thread. The coils of the Union army were tighten- 
ing around Petersburg and Richmond. Lee had been empowered to 
treat for peace, and on March 3 he made overtures to Grant. But 
Grant, after receiving instructions from Washington, answered that 
this power belonged to the President alone. Lee then informed 
Fort Sted- Davis that Richmond could hold out but a little time, 
man, and it was decided that Lee should lead his army 

March 25. toward Danville and make a junction with Johnston. 
But first Lee decided to make an assault on Grant's lines. He sent 
General J. B. Gordon to attack Fort Stedman, and the attack was 
made with great vigor. But Grant had expected just such an attack, 
and had prepared for it. His artillery opened on Gordon's men, 
and half of them were cut down, many were made prisoners, and the 
rest fled in disorder. 

Grant's object was to prevent the escape of Lee southward. 

He sent Sheridan with his cavalry to Five Forks, a few miles 

from Petersburg, to try to gain the Confederate rear. 

ive or s, jjere Sheridan met a strong force, which was soon 

increased by Pickett with seven thousand men, and 

Sheridan was pressed back to Dinwiddle Court House. But Grant 

sent Warren to his aid, and a desperate battle followed, resulting in the 

utter rout of the Confederates, five thousand of whom were captured. 

]SI"ever did Sheridan display his powers better than at Five Forks. 

It is sad to relate that the war continued another day after Five 
Forks. Why should another life have been sacrificed when the out- 
come was so easy to foresee ? It is no credit to Lee ^ and Davis that 
they again pitted this faithful, obedient army against an antagonist 
now three times its size. Grant had ordered a general assault at 
Petersburg all along the line, to begin at daybreak on Sunday, 
April 2. The Confederates met it as only brave men could. Hun- 
dreds were slain on each side. Long before night the battle was 
over and Grant had taken twelve thousand prisoners. 

On that Sunday morning, as Jefferson Davis sat in his pew at 
church, an officer walked up the aisle and handed him a telegram 
from Lee. Davis opened it and read, " Richmond must be evacuated 
this evening." Concealing his feelings, he rose and left the church. 

1 And yet the calm letter that Lee wrote Davis on April 2, discussing the methods 
of recruiting the army, etc., would indicate that he had no thought that the end was 
near. See Nicolay and Hay, Vol. X, p. 183. 



END OF THE WAR 771 



Calling Ills Cabinet together, he hastened to pack the archives ot 
the government and to board a train for the southward. The fatal 
news spread through the city and the scene during that after- 
noon, the coming night, and the next day was such as 
no pen can describe. All social order was destroyed to Z^ . ° , 
its foundations. Many left the city, but the great 
majority could not do so. The nine ships building in the river were 
set on lire, and so were the bridges and the great tobacco and cotton 
Avarehouses. The arsenal was also fired, and the thousands of burst- 
ing shells sounded like an artillery battle. Barrels of liquor were 
emptied into the streets, and hundreds of the rabble became intoxi- 
cated ; and these, joined by the convicts fromthe penitentiary, ran howl- 
ing like demons through the streets. The fire spread to the city, and 
seven hundred buildings were soon in flames, and the crash of falling 
walls was added to the general pandemonium. The people rushed from 
their homes to the streets and to Capitol Square with the few effects 
they could carry. Such was the condition of Richmond on the 2d and 
3d of April, 1865, — -the proud city on the James that had defied the 
Union armies for four years. On the 3d the Union troops entered the 
city, and within a few days order was in some degree restored.^ 

Lee thought only of escape with his army, but at every turn he 
found Grant's troops planted in the way. Grant denied himself the 
pleasure of entering the conquered city. He determined to capture 
Lee's army then and there. Lee reached Amelia Court House, some 
thirty miles from Richmond ; but here he found that his expected 
train of supplies had gone on to Richmond; and his starving army 
had to stop a day to forage. This enabled Sheridan to pass around 
him and gain his front. Lee then attempted to march around the 
Federal left toward Lynchburg. Grant divided his army into 
three parts, placing one part north of Lee, another south, a third in 
direct pursuit, while Sheridan with the cavalry was sent to his 
front. Ewell's corps and Pickett's division were soon cut off and 
forced to surrender. Lee's army, now cut down to thirty-five 
thousand men, was in a deplorable condition ; but it fought a fierce 
battle to gain the bridge across the Appomattox, succeeded, and 
hurried on toward Lynchburg. But Sheridan's cavalry and Ord's 
infantry were again planted in the way. Tliere was nothing left 
but surrender, and the despairing Confederates raised the white 
flag. This was the 9th of April. Grant had demanded a surren- 
1 President Lincoln visited Richmond on April 4, while the fires were yet burning. 



772 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

der on the 7th. Lee offered to treat for peace, but Grant had 
no authority to do this. The great commanders met at the house 
of a Mr. McLean at Appomattox Court House, and Grant wrote 
out the terms of surrender : the army, officers and men, were to be 
s d of released on parole, not to take up arms against the 
Lee at Appo- United States until properly exchanged ; the officers 
mattox, April were to retain their side arms, baggage, and horses. 
9, 1865. rpQ ^j^-g "Lgg agreed, and Grant then generously added 

that the private soldiers might also retain their horses, as " they 
would need them in their spring plowing." Grant refused to per- 
mit his army to fire a salute in honor of their victory. Lee informed 
Grant that his men were in a starving condition, and the latter 
ordered that they be fed from his supplies. The number of men 
surrendered was 28,231, not counting the thousands who had 
deserted or had been captured during the preceding weeks. 

When Johnston learned that Lee had surrendered, he saw that 
his hour had come. He therefore sought Sherman, and the two 
agreed on terms of surrender ; but Sherman exceeded his authority 
in attempting to arrange the future relations between the seceded 
states and the national government.^ His action was disapproved 
at Washington ; he so informed Johnston, and prepared for further 
hostilities. But Johnston was willing to accept the terms granted 
Surrender of -^^® ^^ Appomattox. The two generals met again on 
Johnston, April 26, and the surrender was effected.^ A week later 
April 26. all the remaining Confederate forces east of the Missis- 

sippi were surrendered by General Richard Taylor, and on May 26, 
E. Kirby Smith surrendered the last Confederate army west of the 
Mississippi — and the great tragedy of the Civil War was at an end. 

A grand review of the Union armies took place in Washington on 
May 24 and 25, when sixty-five thousand men marched through the 
streets. The parade was viewed by the highest civil and military 
officials of the nation. But the one on whom, above all men, the march- 
ing veterans would have loved to cast their eyes, — the one who, more 
than any of the commanders in the field or on the sea, had attracted 
the world's notice and the nation's love, — this one was not there. 

1 Grant had also exceeded his authority in granting full amnesty to all of Lee's 
army. But in the general rejoicing this was overlooked. Sherman, acted in perfect 
good faith, nor did he deserve the ahuse heaped upon him hy Stanton and others on 
account of his mistake. 

2 Johnston's surrender, made at Durham's Station, Virginia, included all his 
military department, some thirty-seven thousand men. 



ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN 773 



DEATH AND CHARACTER OF LINCOLN 

The most atrocious murder in American annals was committed on 
the night of April 14, 1865, in the city of Washington, when the 
great war President suffered death at the hands of an assassin. The 
day had been one of rejoicing throughout the land over the pros- 
pects of early peace. It was the fourth anniversary of the fall of 
Fort Sumter. A great celebration had taken place at Charleston, 
and General Robert Anderson had raised over the ruined walls 
of the fort the identical flag that he had been forced to haul 
down four years before. The country was settling down to the 
serene happiness of peace, and none was happier than the President, 
who looked forward to four years of comparative rest in his great 
office. But his duties were still arduous, and on the 14th, after 
a long session of the Cabinet, after meeting many officials and 
doing much business, he sought diversion by attending the theater. 
He was a little late, and the play had begun, but when the President 
entered a private box, the acting stopped for the moment and the 
audience rose and cheered. The play was then resumed, and it con- 
tinued till a few minutes after ten o'clock, when the audience was 
startled by the sharp report of a pistol. The President was shot by 
an assassin, who then leaped from the private box to the stage, 
dramatically brandished a dagger before the audience, cried, "Sic 
Semper Tyrmmis," ^ ran down the back stairway, leaped upon a horse 
held in waiting, and galloped away in the darkness. The assassin 
was John Wilkes Booth, an actor, who was at the head of a plot to 
murder the chief officials of the government. At the moment he 
entered the theater one of his accomplices, Lewis Payne, entered 
the chamber of Secretary Seward, who had been seriously hurt by 
being thrown from his carriage, and, after a desperate fight with 
Mr. Seward's son and other attendants, stabbed the secretary several 
times and then made his escape, after having inflicted terrible 
wounds on five persons.^ 

Mr. Lincoln was shot through the brain. His head fell forward 
and his eyes closed, but he uttered no sound. The audience was 
stupefied with horror at the appalling tragedy, and few thought of 

1 The state motto of Virginia. 

2 All recovered. Mr. Seward's son, Frederick, did not recover consciousness 
for several weeka. 



^74 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

attempting to apprehend the murderer till he had made his escape.' 
The President was carried to a house across the street, and physi 
cians were summoned. He continued to breathe through the night, 
but he did not recover consciousness. At a few minutes past seven 
o'clock on the morning of the 15th, as the physicians and members 
of the Cabinet were standing about the bed, the breathing ceased and 
the great life was over. Stanton first broke the silence by saying, 
" Now he belongs to the ages." ^ The people mourned their great dead 
as never before in American history. The funeral train passed through 
the chief cities of the East, taking nearly the same route by which Mr, 
Lincoln had come to Washington in 1861. At every stopping place 
the remains were viewed by silent, mourning thousands, many of whom 
had come hundreds of miles to pay their last respects to their beloved 
President. The body was carried to Springfield, Illinois, the Presi- 
dent's home, and there on the 4th of May it was laid to rest. 

Prom the time of Lincoln's death until the present his fame has 
been rising. He is at this day considered, not only America's ablest 
President, but also one of the most powerful world figures in 
history. His name alone stands coordinate with that of Washing- 
ton in the history of his country. His achievements were two, — 
either of which would embalm his name forever in history, — the 
destruction of slavery and the preservation of the Union. His 
motives in striking at the evil of slavery were the same as those 
held by millions of his countrymen, — the belief that no man has a 
right to enslave his fellow-man, and that slavery was a political evil 
and a drawback to civilization. But his motives in saving the Union 
were higher than those of most men. Others of the North rushed to 
arms in 1861 because they loved the Union and would not have it 
divided. Lincoln grasped the subject in its larger sense. He saw 
that the principle of democracy, of self-government, was at stake, 
that the welfare of the " whole family of man " was wrapped up in 
the issue. These two great ends could not have been achieved by 
Lincoln but for the powerful and loyal nation at his back, and millions 
must share the honors of the victory ; but as he was at the helm 
of the ship when the breakers came, as it was his masterly skill that 
guided the vessel and kept his subordinates employed, each in his 



1 Colonel Rathbone, who sat by the President's side, leaped to catch the assassin, 
and was tei-ribly slashed in the arm with the dagger. 

2 Nicolay and Hay, Vol. X, p. 302. 



CHARACTER OF LINCOLN 778 

proper place, it is only just that the chief glory of weathering the 
storm should fall to him. 

No one now questions that Lincoln was a very great man ; but it 
is not easy to point out the qualities in which he was great. Cer- 
tainly he did not generally impress his immediate associates with 
his powers, and it is a strange fact that his own Cabinet was longer 
in discovering those powers than were the masses of the people. 
Many did not realize what a vast man he was until 
after he was gone; then the consummate skill with Character of 
which he had managed affairs in that critical period 
began to appear, and to this day the deeper one studies into the 
words and acts of Lincoln the greater he seems. His greatest quality 
was perhaps his ability to read public opinion, and few public men 
have ever enjoyed a fuller confidence of the masses. He not only 
led the people to believe in his sincerity of purpose and his wisdom, 
but he had a profound belief in the correctness of his own judgment.^ 
He was a man of infinite tact and patience, and his great kindliness 
of heart impressed itself upon all who were about him.^ 

No one attempts to explain the origin of the genius of Lincoln. 
No character in history has proved a greater surprise to the world. 
" Only America has produced his like," says a British historian.* 
Born among the lowliest of the lowly, trained in the merciless 
school of adversity and penury, he rose in public life and became 
the leading American of his time. Entering upon his great office 
at the moment when the forces of freedom and of slavery were 
ready to grapple in deadly conflict, he grasped the reins of govern- 
ment with a master hand; and but for his consummate ability, many 
believe the Union could not have been saved. 

In the life of Lincoln we find a neries of contradictions. He was 
untrained in the art of oratory, yet an audience would listen un- 
wearied as long as he chose to speak. He never studied logic nor the 
arts of casuistry, yet his speeches on the slavery question were the 
most concise, logical, and unanswerable produced by that generation 
of eloquence. In literature he was unversed, yet in his Gettysburg 
speech and his second inaugural address are literary gems that will 
live as long as the language in which he spoke or the nation that he 

1 Blaine, Vol. I, p. 547. 

2 While not devoted to any particular creed, Lincoln was deeply religious at heart, 
and his reverence for God is shown in almost every state paper that he wrote. 

3 Goldwin Smith. 



776 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

served. Apparently confiding with his friends, his inmost soul was 
fathomless and was veiled from every eye. Awkward and ungainly in 
appearance, there was something so deeply impressive in his face that 
none who ever saw him could forget it. Always ready with a witty 
answer or a droll story, there was yet a strange vein of sadness that 
pervaded his whole life, and was always visible in his countenance. 

Lincoln was the Providential instrument in guiding the nation 
through the wilderness of threatened disunion, and it seemed sad 
that when the wanderings were at an end, and, like Moses, he 
could ascend the mountain and view the promised land, he was not 
permitted to enter. But Lincoln's work was done. He was prob- 
ably less fitted for the arduous work of reconstruction than for the 
great work that was assigned him. Many who are not in sympathy 
with the harsh measures of Congress that characterized the recon- 
struction period, believe that Lincoln would have swung too far in 
the opposite direction ; that he was too great-hearted, that his soul was 
too generous and forgiving, for him to have been the proper one to 
adjust the legal relations between the emancipated slave and his 
former taskmaster, and that in the death of the great President, as 
well as in his life, we can see the hand of God.^ 

FOREIGN UBLATIO'NS — TRE ALABAMA 

Aside from the Trent Affair and the recognition with undue 
haste of the belligerency of the South by the European nations, 
there were two items in our foreign relations during the war that 
became serious. One was the building in British waters of Con- 
federate cruisers to prey on United States shipping ; the other was 
the attempt of France to set up a monarchy in Mexico. The one was 
a palpable violation of neutrality, the other a violation of the Monroe 
Doctrine. 

The English Foreign Enlistment Act, passed in the reign of 
George III, forbade the equipping, furnishing, fitting out, or arming 
within the British dominions of any vessel to be used against any 
state with whom his Majesty should then be at peace. This was con- 
strued to mean that a vessel could be built for such a purpose in 
British waters if fitted out elsewhere. Mr. J. D. Bullock, the Con- 
federate naval agent in England, soon found therefore that the 

1 Others believe that Lincoln, with his tact, his firmness, and his great popularity, 
would have won Congress to his plan of reconstruction, and would have thereby left 
far less bitterness between the sections than was actually the case. See next chapter. 



THE ALABAMA AND THE KEABSABGE 777 

English shipyards were open to him. The first vessel to be so built 
was the Florida; but the most notorious was the Alabama, to which, 
as an example of all, we give more particular attention. The Alahnma 
was built on the Mersey, by Laird and Sons, the senior menilu'r of 
the firm being a member of Parliament. The ship, known while 
building as " 290," was a vessel of about a thousand tons, hep 
engines representing three hundred horse power. It was generally 
understood that she was intended for the Confederate service, and 
our minister at London, Mr. Adams, procured the necessary evidence, 
and called on the British government to detain her. But the matter 
was delayed, owing to the illness of the chief advocate, and the " 290," 
under pretext of making her " trial trip," escaped. She steamed to 
the Azores, where she was equipped by two British vessels, and was 
placed in command of Raphael Semmes. She then unfurled the 
Confederate banner, and on August 24, came out in her true colors 
as a privateer, and took the name Alabama. 

After capturing a few American vessels near the British coast, 
the Alabama started on her wonderful tour of the oceans. She 
swept across the Atlantic to within two hundred miles im^ ., ^ 
of New York, thence turning southward to the West 
Indies. By the 1st of November she had captured twenty-two Federal 
vessels. In the early spring of 1862 the Alabama made another 
grand detour, touching the coast of Brazil, and proceeding thence east- 
ward to South Africa and to the Bay of Bengal, where she spent the 
following winter, making prize of every American vessel that came 
within her reach. In June, 1864, we find her in the harbor of Cher- 
bourg, France. Here also was the United States war vessel, the 
Kearsarge, commanded by Captain John A. Winslow. 

Semmes had been twitted with being a pirate, and to prove the 
Alabama a legitimate war vessel, and to revive, if possible, the expir- 
ing question of the recognition of his new-born nation by the 
European powers, he challenged Captain Winslow to a naval duel. 
The challenge was accepted; and the two vessels, about the same in 
size and force steamed out to neutral waters and began their death duel. 

People gathered in thousands on the shore to witness the strange, 
unnatural spectacle — the mortal strife between the estranged breth- 
ren of the same household. The two vessels began 
circling round and round, lessening the distance between j„q-^ 
them and pouring in their broadsides. One shell from 
the Kearsarge exploded on the Alabama and killed or wounded 



778 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

eighteen men. The Alabama was soon disabled, and after an houi 
of conflict she raised the white flag ; but before her crew could all be 
rescued she sank beneath the waves. For two years she had plowed 
the main unhindered on her mission of destruction. She had de- 
stroyed sixty-nine vessels,^ ten million dollars' worth of property. 
But at last her meteoric course was ended, and, with many of her 
devoted crew, she found a final home on the bottom of the ocean, 
on whose bosom she had reigned, a queen without a rival, until her 
too-sanguine master made this hapless challenge to fight a duel with 
the Kearsarge.^ 

Nearly a score of Confederate vessels, built in English waters, 
preyed on American vessels. The most destructive, next to the 
Alabama, was the Shenandoah, which made thirty-six captures ; the 
Florida made thirty-seven and the Tallahassee twenty-nine. The 
subject gave rise to a serious international dispute, to be noticed on 
a later page. 

The occupation of Mexico by France also came near bringing in- 
ternational trouble. Mexico had suffered a revolution almost every 
year, and sometimes oftener, from the time she had won her inde- 
pendence in 1824, to 1858. The country was usually in a state of 
anarchy, and was unable to protect the lives and property of foreign 
residents and sojourners within her bounds. In 1861 the foreign 
debt amounted to nearly $100,000,000, but the treasury was bank- 
rupt, and the Mexican Congress decided that no foreign obligation 
should be paid for two years. This was done under President 
Benita Juarez, a full-blooded Indian, a highly educated and honor- 
able man. The intention was, not to repudiate the debts, but to 
recuperate the treasury. 

France, England, and Spain, however, had grown impatient and 
they decided to make a joint demand for immediate payment of 
their claims on Mexico. But as Mexico was utterly unable to pay, 
they sent a fleet to take possession of Vera Cruz and collect the 
customs of that port until the claims were settled. This was in 
the spring of 1862. In a short time the Mexican government made 
arrangements by which England and Spain were satisfied, and they 
withdrew their vessels. But France refused to accept the same 

1 Bullock's " History of the Confederate States Navy," p. 815. 

2 See "Side Lights," Series II, p. 224. Most of the survivors of the Alabama 
became prisoners of Captain Winslow; but Semmes was rescued by a British vessel 
and given his freedom. 



EXECUTION OF MAXIMILIAN 779 

terms, and then it developed that she had ulterior motives — noth- 
ing less than the seizure of the Mexican government and the setting 
up of a monarchy on the ruins of the Republic. As a 
pretext the French espoused the famous Jecker bond L'^^^^q ^^ 
swindle. A few years before this a revolutionary govern- 
ment in Mexico had issued $15,000,000 in bonds, and these were pur- 
chased by the Swiss banker, J ecker, at five cents on the dollar. France 
now demanded full payment of this fraudulent debt, and as Mexico 
could not pay, determined on the conquest of the country. This was 
accomplished by midsummer; 1863, and Maximilian, archduke of 
Austria, was invited to become the emperor of Mexico. A year 
later Maximilian, who was doubtless a sincere man, but not a states- 
man, assumed the government, the Mexicans at the same time 
making a pretense of being content with the new order. The 
French army, however, remained, and c^ it rested the security of the 
throne. 

All this was galling to the people of the United States. It was 
the most radical infraction of the Monroe Doctrine yet attempted. 
But as it occurred during the darkest period of the Civil War, 
Mr. Seward managed the matter with admirable tact, lest the 
life of the nation be endangered. Not until after the battle of 
Gettysburg and the fall of Vicksburg did he inform the French that 
the proceedings in Mexico were distasteful to the United States 
government. After the war had closed, Seward came out boldly and 
demanded of the Emperor Napoleon that the French armies be with- 
drawn from Mexico ; and to emphasize this demand 
General Sheridan was sent into Texas with fifty thou- ]y[aximilian 
sand veteran troops. The Emperor of France now 
clearly understood, and ere long he withdrew his armies. Maximilian, 
however, remained, in the belief that he had won the Mexican people, 
and that they would willingly remain his subjects. But in this he 
was sadly in error. The deposed President Juarez marched upon 
the capital with an army. The unhappy Maximilian was easily 
overpowered and captured. He was executed in 1867, and Mexico 
again became a republic. 

It is a pleasure to turn to our relations with Germany and Russia 
during the war. Not only was the German Confederation in full 
sympathy with the Union cause, but thousands of German-Americans 
gave their lives in defense of that cause. But Russia was the most 
conspicuous foreign friend we had in war times. Not long after the 



780 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

war opened, the Czar revealed to the United States that some of the 
powers were contemplating concerted action against the Union. In 
the spring of 1863 a fleet of Russian war vessels was stationed in 
New York harbor and anotlier at San Francisco, where they remained 
for many months. The admiral of the fleet at New York, being 
asked why he was here, answered that he did not know, that his 
orders were sealed and were not to be broken, except in a certain 
contingency which had not occurred. It was afterward learned at St. 
Petersburg that the orders were, that in case of war between the 
United States and England or France, the Russian fleets were to 
report to the President for duty. Various motives for the action of 
Russia are given, the most plausible of which is that the Crimean 
War had left with her bitterness toward France and England. 

OBSERVATIONS ON THE WAR 

The magnitude of the Civil War may be realized by contrasting 
it with the Revolution. The army of McClellan in 1862 or that of 
Grant in 1865 was at least seven times greater than any ever com- 
manded by Washington. When Lee surrendered at Appomattox his 
army was less than half its usual size, and yet he surrendered twice 
as many men as Burgoyne at Saratoga and Cornwallis at Yorktown 
combined.-^ There were cavalry raids in the Civil War that are 
scarcely mentioned in history, any one of which in one month de- 
stroyed more property and took more captives than did any British 
army of the Revolution in a whole year. 

The cost of the Civil War in life and treasure was enormous. Of 
the northern armies one hundred and ten thousand men were shot 
dead or mortally wounded in battle, while two hundred and fifty 
thousand died of disease or accident. If the losses to the South 
were proportionally great, as they probably were, the war cost the 
J . y. nation at least half a million human lives, to say noth- 
ing of thousands who returned to their homes with 
broken health or maimed bodies. President Lincoln issued twelve 
calls for volunteers, and the whole number of men enlisted was 
2,773,400,- many of whom were reenlistments. The highest num- 
ber of northern men in the field at one time (April, 1865) slightly 

1 Johnson, p. 321. 

2 This does not include one hundred and twenty thousand emergency men who 
were not in active service. 



GREAT COMMANDERS 781 



exceeded one million. The whole number of enlistments in the 
South probably reached a million.^ 

The cost in treasure was equally astonishing. The expense to 
the government reached an average of nearly $3,000,000 a day, and 
there was a public debt in August, 1865, of 12,845,000,000. These 
figures take no account of the separate expenditures of 
the states and cities, amounting to nearly f 500,000,000, ^°^*"^ 
nor of the expense to the South, nor of the incalculable 
destruction of property. To all this must be added the interest on 
the public debt and the pensions paid to the soldiers, to the widows, 
and the orphans. The total cost of the war no doubt exceeded 
$10,000,000,000. And yet the country increased in wealth and 
resources during the war and the period following it. The South, 
it is true, was ruined and exhausted ; but the North was stronger 
and better equipped in 1865 than in 1861. 

A great movement will always bring before the public gaze great 
characters who might otherwise have died unknown. In the Civil 
War several commanders in the field achieved fame of the first order ; 
while in civil life the fame of only one, Abraham Lincoln, was greatly 
enhanced by the war. The reverse was true of the Revolution. Of 
the half dozen who achieved great fame in that period, only one was 
a commander of armies.- 

The Civil War brought out no commanders of the very highest 
grade — certainly no Napoleons or Hannibals. The first place among 
the commanders is usually, and perhaps justly, awarded to Grant. 
He has been severely criticised. It is often stated that his army 
always outnumbered the army of his enemy, that he was simply a 
bull-dog fighter, was no tactician, and won his victories by brute 
force. Much of this is true, and it is also true that Grant was want- 

1 "Battles and Leaders," Vol. IV, p. 768. Livermore makes a higher estimate 
based on the census of 1860; but no accurate records of Confederate enlistments were 
kept. 

2 Washington stands without a rival as the military leader of the Revolution. 
Greene, who comes next, must be classed below him. But Franklin, Jefferson, 
Patrick Henry, and John and Samuel Adams are all among the first-rank heroes 
in the popular mind. The Civil War gave us Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, and Far- 
ragut, closely seconded by Meade and Thomas: and, if we include the other side, Lee 
and Jackson. But outside the battle field Lincoln stands grandly alone. Other great 
names we have: Seward, Sumner, Chase, Fessenden, Wade, and Stevens; but most 
of them had reached the acme of their fame before the war, and none of the galaxy 
is classed in popular fancy as a star of the first magnitude. — Note from "Side 
Lights," Series II, p. 48. 



782 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

ing in that essential to a great commander, — personal magnetism, 
the ability to electrify an army with his own spirit. But with all 
this, the facts remain that Grant did at times display great power as 
a tactician, and that the three great surrenders, at Donelson, Vicks- 
burg, and Appomattox, were all made to him. 

Next to Grant stands Sherman and then Sheridan. Sherman dis- 
played extraordinary talents at Shiloh and in the Atlanta campaign, 
as did Sheridan at Cedar Creek and at Five Forks. 
Great mill- Sheridan possessed the power above all men in the war, 
' except Stonewall Jackson, to infuse the fire of his own 
soul into an army„ Next to these we would place Thomas. There 
was nothing more grandly heroic in the war than the stand made by 
Thomas at Chickamauga, and there was no battle more perfectly 
planned than the battle of Nashville. But Thomas never received 
the honor he deserved. Why the name of Thomas was not men- 
tioned in the congratulatory order to the officers and men who fought 
at Mill Spring ; why he, instead of Rosecrans, did not succeed Buell 
after Perryville ; and why General Grant in his Memoirs persistently 
withholds from Thomas the credit he deserves, are among the war 
mysteries not yet revealed. Rosecrans gave much promise for a 
time, but he never recovered from his unfortunate disaster, for which 
he was not to blame, at Chickamauga. 

On the southern side there were at least five able commanders — 
Lee, Jackson, the two Johnstons, and Longstreet. The fact that 
two of these were slain in battle before the issue of the war was de- 
cided may have had much to do, if not with the ultimate result, cer- 
tainly with the duration of the war. Albert Sidney Johnston was at 
first believed to be the ablest commander in the South, and Jefferson 
Davis declared that when Johnston fell at Pittsburg Landing, the 
cause of the South was lost. The worth of Jackson is well known. 
Lee declared that he would have won a mighty victory at Gettysburg 
had Jackson still been with him, and it is possible that he would 
have done so. Bishop Polk ranked next in importance among the 
southern slain, but his death did not perceptibly affect the outcome. 

On the northern side at least four prominent men were killed, — 
Baker, Reynolds, Sedgwick, and McPherson ; but the death of none 
of these is believed to have affected the general result. One of the 
southern generals of some prominence was born in the North, — ' 
Pemberton, a native of Connecticut, — while two of the strongest 
northern commanders — Farragut and Thomas — were of southern 



PERMANENT RESULTS OF THE WAR 783 

birth. It will be noticed that all the generals who achieved the 
highest success were graduates of West Point. A few volunteers, 
however, such as John A. Logan, N. P. Banks, Lew Wallace, Butler, 
Phil Kearney, Nelson A. Miles, Sigel, and Carl Schurz, made most 
creditable records. It is notable that no well-known commander of 
the war, except General Hunter, had reached the age of fifty years 
at the close of the war, and many of them were under forty.^ 

In addition to the causes of northern success given on a preceding 
page, another must be mentioned, — the great superiority of Lincoln 
over Jefferson Davis. These two opposing chieftains were born in 
the same state, Kentucky, but a year apart. Both left their native 
state in early life, the one drifting northward absorbed the free-soil 
sentiment of his adopted section, until it became the guiding star of 
his life ; the other, migrating to the cotton belt, espoused the cause of 
the slaveholder and became the leader of the far-famed aristocracy 
of the South. It is curious to speculate what might have been the 
history of our country had the direction of the migration of these 
two been reversed. 

The most remarkable fact concerning the Civil War is that it 
wrought no permanent change in our civic institutions (aside from 
slavery), that it left no trace upon the people as regards local govern- 
ment, personal liberty, or freedom of speech, and that it did not 
change our character as a peace-loving people. For four years the 
President wielded almost imperial power, but the functions of his 
office were not permanently affected. No President since Lincoln 
has enjoyed greater power than those who preceded him. The thou- 
sands of arbitrary arrests and the suppression of many newspapers 
have left not a trace on our personal liberty and freedom of the 
press. At the close of the war the armies melted away like magic, 
the soldiers returned to the pursuits of peace, and the relative im- 
portance of the civil and military authorities was left absolutely the 
same as before the war. These facts we look upon with pardonable 
pride, as they prove our great steadiness and conservatism as a 
people. 

What then were the results of the great war aside from the 
extinction of slavery ? It readjusted the relations between the 
nation and the individual states, and established the nation on a 
permanent basis by eliminating from American politics the idea of 
state sovereignty and of secession ; it transferred the primary alle- 
1 See Blaine, Vol. II, p. 29. 



784 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

giance of the citizen from the state to the nation ; ^ and, by removing 
slavery, the war opened the way for a feeling of common brotherhood 
between the two great sections of the country, and led to the devel- 
opment of the vast resources of the South. The war was a surgical 
operation, severe indeed, but necessary to restore the normal health 
of the nation, and with all its cost it brought untold blessings to the 
United States. Never before the war was the development of the 
country so marvelous as it has been since ; never was there a feel- 
ing of oneness in all sections of our broad land as at present, and 
never in history was the theory of self-government so firmly estab- 
lished as a practical and enduring thing as to-day in the United 
States. 

NOTES 

Capture of Jefferson Davis. — The Confederate President, on escaping from 
Richmond, April 2, went with his cabinet to Danville, where they obtained rooms, 
set up the departments of the government, and issued an address to "fire the 
southern heart." Learning of Lee's surrender and of the approach of Federal 
cavalry, he hastened to move to Greensboro, North Carolina. Here he had an 
interview with Johnston and Beauregard, who declared that the cause was hope- 
less, and advised a surrender ; but Davis refused to give up. From here the 
party moved in all sorts of vehicles to Charlotte, North Carolina, thence to 
Abbeville, South Carolina, and thence to Washington, Georgia. On leaving 
Charlotte the company consisted of some two thousand persons, mostly cavalry 
from Johnston's array, but it rapidly melted away until few were left except 
the fallen President, his family, one member of his cabinet, and a few servants. 
The aim was to move westward and join with the army of Kirby Smith west of 
the Mississippi ; but this was now given up, and it was decided that Davis leave 
his family and proceed on horseback to the coast of Florida and thence embark 
for Texas. The party encamped on the night of May 9 in a pine forest near 
Irwinville, in southern Georgia, and here at daybreak next morning they were 
captured by a band of Federal cavalry under Colonel Pritchard of Michigan. 
Davis was defiant and sullen, though he was well treated by his captors. He was 
carried northward, and imprisoned in Fortress Monroe. Here he remained for 
two years, when he was indicted for treason and released on bail, his bondsmen 
being Horace Greeley, Gerrit Smith, and Cornelius Vanderbilt. On Christmas 
day, 1868, President Johnson proclaimed a pardon for all hitherto unpardoned 
participants in the rebellion. This included Davis, who thus became a free man. 
He returned to his former home in Mississippi, where he lived for a quarter of a 
century in retirement, writing, meantime, his " Rise and Fall of the Confederate 
Government" in two large volumes. 

Fate of Lincoln's Assassins. — John Wilkes Booth was found to be at the 
head of a few conspirators, whose headquarters had been at Washington for 

1 This was accomplished by the Civil War and was put into permanent form by 
the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. 



NOTES 785 

several months. Their intention was to abduct President Lincoln and carry him 
to Richmond ; but as no opi^ortunity offered, and as the surrender of Lee mad- 
dened their brains, already insanely devoted to the southern cause, they 
resolved to kill the President, the Vice President, Mr. Seward, and General 
Grant. But Grant went to Baltimore on the afternoon of the 14th, and thus 
escaped. 

After the assassination, Booth escaped across the navy-yard bridge and, 
joined by an accomplice named Herold, rode till toward morning, and came to 
the house of Dr. Mudd, a sympathizer, who set the bone of Booth's broken leg. 
They were aided by sympathizers along the way, remaining a whole weekwith 
a Mr. Jones near Port Tobacco. At length they were rowed across the Potomac 
into Virginia; but the government detectives were scouring the country, and 
escape was impossible. Booth was greatly disappointed. He expected the 
whole South to rise up and call him a hero. On the night of the 25th of April, 
Booth and his companion were found sleeping in the barn of a Mr. Garrett near 
Port Royal, by a searching party under Lieutenant Doherty. Herold came out 
and surrendered, but Booth refused to do so, and the barn was fired. While it 
was burning, Booth was shot in the neck by Boston Corbett, and died three hours 
later. 

Payne, who had attempted the life of Secretary Seward, left his hat when 
he escaped. This led to his capture. Hiding a few days near Washington, 
he stole into the city, hatless, in search of food, and was arrested. He and 
Herold, Mrs. Surrat, at whose house the conspiracy was hatched, and an accom- 
plice named Atzerodt, were hanged, while Dr. Mudd and a few others were im- 
prisoned for life, but were afterward released. The common belief at first, that 
Jefferson Davis was connected with the conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, was 
proved to be wholly without foundation. 

The Finances. — The government met its war expenses by laying an income 
tax of 3 per cent on all incomes over $800, by tariff duties, by internal revenue, 
and by issuing interest-bearing bonds to the extent of $1,199,000,000, and non- 
interest-bearing notes called "greenbacks" to the extent of $450,000,000, as 
noted in the text. By the close of the year 1861, all banks had suspended specie 
payments, and the government soon did the same. All coin Boon disappeared 
from circulation, and gold rose rapidly in value, reaching 285, its highest point, 
in July, 1864. A soldier's pay was $13 per month with food and clothes. It 
cost the government about $1000 a year to keep each soldier in the field. The 
Confederate notes depreciated until, in the spring of 1865, it required $100 to 
purchase one dollar in gold, and $1000 to purchase a barrel of flour, while a 
spool of thread cost $20, and a pound of sugar $75. This money, of course, had 
no purchasing power on the collapse of the Confederate government. 



Sz 



CHAPTER XXXI 

ANDREW JOHNSON AND RECONSTRUCTION 

The surrender of the Confederate armies marked the end of blood- 
shed, but did not bring rest and peace to the American people. As 
at the close of the Kevolution the great problem of self-government 
remained to be solved, so with the close of the Civil War came the 
serious task of restoring the seceded states to their normal relations 
in the Union. 

THE NEW PROBLEM 

Long before the war had closed, the subject of how to get tKe 
seceding states back into the Union began to occupy the attention of 
the President and Congress. The problem was a new one and had 
no precedent in history, nor was it provided for in the Constitution. 
Much eloquence was wasted on the subject of the relations the 
rebellious states bore to the Union during the war. Some took the 
ground that the seceding states had lost all standing as members of 
the Union, others, including President Lincoln, contending that the 
relations of the seceded states to the government were only suspended 
and could not be severed.^ 

But the practical question was, how to reinstate the straying 
sisters in the family. On this subject the Republican party came 
to be seriously divided. One faction took the position that when 
the war was over and the Southern states had accepted the great two- 
fold result, — the restoration of the Union and the removal of slavery. 
The President — ^^^7 should be readily forgiven and should be read- 
and Congress niitted with as little further humiliation as possible, 
at variance. To this class belonged President Lincoln, Secretary 
Seward, Generals Grant and Sherman, and many of the leading men 
of the North who had done all in their power to put down the rebel- 
lion. The opposing faction was far more radical. It comprised the 

1 This position was sustained in a Supreme Court decision (Texas vs. White, 
1868) , in which our country is pronounced ' ' an indestructible Union composed of 
indestructible states." 

786 



RADICALS IN CONGRESS 787 

majority of the members of Congress, led by Charles Sumner in the 
Senate and by Thaddeus Stevens in the House. These men and 
their followers were ready to humiliate the people of the South still 
further after defeating them in battle, and to grant them forgiveness 
only when they abjectedly begged it and acknowledged themselves 
utterly in the wrong. This was asking too much. If it be granted 
that the southern people were sincere in warring against the Union, 
how could they be expected, on their defeat, instantly to denounce 
the cause in which their fathers and brethren had died as a false 
one? Time alone can bring such changes; matters of the heart 
and conscience are wholly beyond the powers of legislative coercion. 
The South has come to see that a division of the Union would have 
been a disaster, and that slavery was an evil ; but such a condition 
could not have been expected in 1865. 

Early in the war Stevens took the ground that the seceded 
states had forfeited all rights under the Constitution, and should 
be dealt with as conquered territory. As the war drew to a close, he 
and his followers became more fierce in their attitude toward the 
South ; they displayed an utter want of magnanimity, and they failed 
also to realize that their course .was bad public policy. Many of the 
leading southerners would have been of great service, had they been 
given an opportunity, in leading their countrymen to accept in good 
faith the results of the war and to become good citizens. "I per- 
ceived that we had the unbounded respect," said General Sherman, 
" of our armed enemies. ... I am sure that at the close of the 
Civil War the Confederate army embraced the best governed, the 
best disposed, the most reliable men of the South ; and I would have 
used them in reconstruction instead of driving them into a hopeless 
opposition." This was also the view of President Lincoln ; but not 
so with the leaders in Congress, and the result was a serious breach 
between the legislative and executive branches of the government. 

Mr. Lincoln believed that as the pardoning power in the case of 
an individual rested with the Executive, the same should extend to 
the states. In December, 1863, he set forth a plan of reconstruction 
by which he offered pardon to those who had been in rebellion, with 
certain exceptions, on condition that they take an oath i,iiicolii's 
to support and defend the Constitution and the Union, plan of recon- 
and to abide by the laws and proclamations relating to struction. 
slavery. He also declared that a state might resume its place in the 
Union when one tenth of the number of the voters of 1860 had taken 



788 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

this oath and had set up a state government. At the same time he 
confessed that the question of the admission of their representatives 
in the national Congress mvist be decided by the respective houses. 
It was not long before Louisiana and Arkansas took advantage of 
this offer, framed and adopted constitutions in which slavery was 
forever forbidden, and set up state governments under them. A 
little over one tenth of the presidential vote of 1860 was cast in 
these two states. The element of weakness in these governments lay 
in the fact that they could exist only when protected by national arms. 

Mr. Lincoln acted in good faith. He bore no malice toward the 
people of the South. But his plan was not carefully completed, and 
he was wrong in not taking more pains to win Congress to his way 
of thinking. The opposition in Congress to the President's plan 
was at first feeble; but owing to a growing jealousy of the executive 
department, to a distrust of the ex-Confederates, and to a belief that 
Mr. Lincoln would be too lenient in his dealings with them, the 
majority came to be openly hostile to the "ten per cent" plan, and 
when the newly elected members from Arkansas presented them- 
selves, they were unceremoniously rejected by both House and 
Senate. Congress then passed a reconstruction bill differing widely 
from the views of the President. By this bill the President was 
directed to appoint a provisional governor for each rebellious state, 
and this governor should, on the cessation of hostilities, make an 
enrollment of all the white male citizens ; and if a majority of these 
should take an oath to support the Constitiition, a convention shoidd 
be called to frame a state Constitution, which should disfranchise 
the leaders of the rebellion, abolish slavery, and pronounce against 
the payment of any Confederate debt. This Constitution must then 
be submitted to a popular vote ; if it were supported by a majority, 
the governor was to report the fact to the President, who should recog- 
nize the state government after obtaining the consent of Congress.^ 

The measure was a severe rebuke to the President. It was sent 
to him on July 4, 1864, the last day of the session, and he quietly 
disposed of it by a pocket veto.^ A few days after the session closed 

1 Even this bill was too mild for Stevens, the House leader, who denied all con- 
stitutional rights to the South, and favored confiscating the property of the leaders 
of the rebellion. 

2 The Constitution provides that a congressional bill must be signed or vetoed by 
the President within ten days after its passage. If he does neither, it will become a 
law witliout his signature. This, however, does not apply when Congress adjourns 
within the ten days. If in that case the President withholds his signature, the bill 



LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 789 

he issued a proclamation declaring that he was "unprepared ... to be 
inflexibly committed to any single plan of restoration," or to declare 
the governments in Louisiana and Arkansas set aside, thereby repel- 
ling the loyal citizens of these states. Had Congress been in session, 
a fierce conflict would doubtless have been precipitated. But the 
members had gone to their homes and would not again assemble for 
some months ; and further, the country was in the midst of a presi- 
dential campaign, and any party schism at that time might have 
proved disastrous. Most of the leaders therefore smothered their 
resentment and continued to work for Mr. Lincoln's reelection. 

But there were two notable exceptions. Senator Benjamin Wade 
of Ohio and Representative Henry Winter Davis of IVIaryland, chair- 
men of the respective committees on rebellious states, -jij^g Wade- 
came out in a most caustic paper against the President. Davis 
This paper "was published widely over the signatures of manifesto, 
the two statesmen. It arraigned Mr. Lincoln in the severest lan- 
guage, declaring that the Union men in Congress " would not submit 
to be impeached of rash and unconstitutional legislation," that the 
President " must confine himself to executive duties — to obey and 
execute, and not to make the laws." This remarkable paper only 
served to rouse Lincoln's friends, and it doubtless contributed to his 
great majority at the polls in November. So fully had Lincoln won 
the hearts of the people, even in Maryland, that Mr. Davis, who had 
written this paper, was denied a renomination to Congress. When 
Congress assembled in December, the President wisely refrained, in 
his message, from making any reference to reconstruction, and the 
winter passed without further progress. But Congress was still 
defiant; and an open rupture with the President, when the great 
subject should again be reached, seemed inevitable. Lincoln adhered 
to his " Louisiana plan " with unexpected tenacity. In a speech 
made on April 11, 1865, the last public speech of his 
life, he reviewed his plan of reconstruction, stating g^gg^j^ ^ *° 
what he had done and why he did it. He explained 
how unwise it would be to reject and spurn the loyal people of the 
South in their endeavors to aid in bringing back the erring states 

does not become law. This is called a pocket veto. Congress was wrong in rebuking 
the President so sharply in this hill ; but Mr. Lincoln no doubt made a serious mistake 
in not signing it. In a private conversation with Sumner he expressed his regret at 
not having done so. The bill was far milder than the reconstruction bill adopted 
three years later. 



790 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

^^ — ■ — ' ^ 

into the Union. " It may be my duty," were his final words, " to 
make some new announcement to the people of the South. I am 
considering and shall not fail to act when satisfied that action will 
be proper." What the " new announcement " was to be was never 
known. Four days after making this speech the great President was 
dead. 

THE NEW PRESIDENT AND THE OLD PLAN 

Of all our Presidents who rose from the humbler walks of lite, 
the most notable example was Andrew Johnson. He was the third 
accidental President, the third also to be born in North Carolina 
and elected from Tennessee. As a youth Johnson belonged to the 
class of " poor whites " in the South, a class whose social standing 
was scarcely above that of the slave. Besides being low in the 
social scale, Johnson was illiterate. A tailor by trade, he worked 
industriously and picked up the little knowledge within his reach. 
When married, he was scarcely able to read ; his wife became his 
first and only teacher, and he soon acquired a fair working education. 
He was a coarse, honest, powerful personality. Becoming interested 
in politics, he was sent to the legislature of his adopted state, whence 
he was promoted in 1843 to the Lower House of Congress. After 
Early life of *®^ years' service in the House, he was elected governor 
Andrew of Tennessee, and later he entered the United States 

Johnson. Senate. Here we find him at the outbreak of the war ; 

and he alone, of the twenty-two senators from the seceded states, 
remained true to the Union. Thus Johnson attracted the attention 
of the country and especially of Lincoln, who made him military 
governor of Tennessee, and who later gave his voice for him as 
candidate for the vice presidency. 

Johnson's patriotism was unquestioned, and his courage rose to 
the heroic. On one occasion he kept at bay a mob thirsting for his 
blood by the defiant glare of his eyes. But his courage was of the 
bull-dog character. To the better part of valor, discretion, he was a 
stranger. He was pugnacious and egotistical ; " he seemed to enjoy 
combat and continued to fight after he was beaten with- 
character ^^^ knowing he was beaten." ' In ordinary times John- 
son might have made a good President. But the times 
were inauspicious. The agitation of the people over reconstruction 
was scarcely less than during the war, and moreover, the machinery 
I " Side Lights," Series II, p. 186. 



JOHNSON AND SEWAKD 791 

of government had been thrown out of balance by the death of 
Lincoln. Among public men of the time, it would have been diffi- 
cult to find a man less fitted for the ponderous duties of the great 
office than was this belligerent, egotistical, tactless man from 
Tennessee. 

Now in the midst of the strife over reconstruction Andrew Johnson 
became President of the United States. Twice before had the Vice 
President succeeded to the chief office, and in each case the policy of 
the government had been radically changed. That the same would 
again occur seemed evident from the earliest utterances of the new 
President. In the first weeks of his presidency he breathed out 
threatenings against the leaders of the rebellion continually. What 
a contrast with the attitude of the mild, the ever humane Lincoln ! 
But a change came over the mind of the newly installed Presi- 
dent. Only a few weeks passed before he veered about in his attitude 
toward the South, and seemed ready to go as far as Lincoln had ever 
gone in his efforts at conciliation. The change in Johnson is sup- 
posed to have been wrought by the influence of Seward, whom he 
retained as secretary of state. The wounds received by Mr. Seward 
on the night of the assassination of Lincoln were at first thought to 
be fatal. For days he hovered between life and death. Then he 
began to improve, and so rapid was his recovery that in a few weeks 
he again took his place in the Cabinet. Seward did not favor the 
harsh measures toward the South implied in the threats of Johnson. 
In magnanimity of soul he was comparable with his fallen chieftain. 
Johnson came under the subtle power of Seward's mind, and the less 
yielded to the greater.^ The outcome of this coalition was unhappy ; 
but neither foresaw this, and Seward, judged alone from his motives, 
was never greater in all his great life, never more heroic and admi- 
rable. 

It must be remembered that for many years before the war, Sew- 
ard, as champion of the cause of the slave, as the unrelenting politi- 
cal foe of the slaveholders, as the father of Republican- 
ism, was despised from one end of the South to the olward^^^ ° 
other. But as the war neared its ending he became an 
advocate of mild measures toward the South, and he labored with 
Lincoln for months to make the pathway of the erring sisters easy to 

1 This view is strongly advocated by Mr. Blaine and is doubtless the correct one, 
though it is quite probable that Johnson's change was partly due to the reasserting 
of his democratic views. 



792 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

retrace. While thus engaged, he was attacked on the Led of sickness 
by a half-crazed sympathizer with disunion, and stabbed and gashed 
till life was almost gone. Had there been a grain of littleness in 
Seward's soul, it would now have gained the mastery. But instead 
of showing resentment, he resumed his place in the Cabinet and 
advocated the same mild reconstruction plan for which he had labored 
before. Johnson now took up the thread of reconstruction where 
Lincoln had left off, and henceforth his attitude was one of concilia- 
tion toward the South. 

Congress was not in session, and Johnson was easily persuaded to 
believe that he had power to restore the Southern states to the Union 
without the aid of Congress. On the 29th of May, 
Johnson's 1865, he issued his great amnesty proclamation extend- 
ing pardon to almost the entire South, with the excep- 
tion of the leaders in the rebellion who were designated under 
thirteen different headings; and most of these exceptions were 
promised pardon on the condition that they personally seek it. 

On this same day, May 29, the President issued a second procla- 
mation appointing a provisional governor of North Carolina, who 
was to reestablish the machinery of government in that state on the 
basis of the vote of the white citizens who should take the oath 
required by the amnesty proclamation. In a short time similar 
action was taken with regard to other states, and by the middle of 
July all the seceded states had taken steps toward setting up gov- 
ernments by the authority of Johnson, — except four, Louisiana, 
Arkansas, Tennessee, and Virginia, whose "ten per cent" govern- 
ments, established under Lincoln's authority, were now recognized; — 
and each soon had its legislature at work and everything moving in 
apparent harmony. 

What a marvelous achievement ! This great problem of recon- 
struction for which the history of the ages furnished no precedent, 
which had puzzled the brain of the wisest statesmen, — this vast 
problem had been completely solved and disposed of in a few weeks 
by this accidental President who had scarcely learned to read when 
he reached adult life. Johnson had asked no advice of Congress. 
He seemed to have forgotten that President Lincoln 

!??l^.l^^?'^®" had found a powerful obstacle to his method of recon- 
construction. . , ^ ^ .. «ii.i-i i 

struction m the opposition of the legislative branch. 

Johnson's egotism led him to believe that he could do what Lincoln 

had failed to do, and that he was quite competent to perform the 



AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION 793 

work ; and he was led to believe that it came within his duty and 
authority to readmit the seceded states single-handed. He probably 
expected opposition from the legislative branch, but there is little 
reason to believe that Johnson meant to defy or to offend Congress, 
or to alienate the party that had elected him. 

It cannot be denied that there was much merit in the plan of 
Johnson, of which, however, Lincoln and Seward, rather than he, were 
the authors. John Sherman in his ''Recollections" declares the 
scheme " wise and judicious." Johnson's plan was based on Lincoln's 
Louisiana plan, but it also contained many features of the congres- 
sional bill that Lincoln had refused to sign the year before. By 
this plan a state was to be restored to the Union, after it had abol- 
ished slavery, repudiated any debt incurred in aid of rebellion, and 
ratified the 

THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT 

Eor more than sixty years the Supreme Law of the land had 
remained unchanged. So slow moving are we, and so tenaciously 
do we cling to our organic law, that in those sixty years every pro- 
posed amendment, and they were many, fell to the ground.^ Nothing 
short of a great national upheaval could bring about constitutional 
changes, and this was furnished by the Civil War, whose permanent 
results are registered in three amendments to the Constitution. The 
first of these, the Thirteenth, is very short and deals only with re- 
moving slavery forever from the United States. When President 
Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation, he intended it only 
as a preliminary measure, and it applied only to slaves of disloyal 
masters. He knew that to be effective and universal it must be 
followed by an amendment to the Constitution. When the saving 
of the Union seemed assured, the great subject on the mind of the 
President was that of removing slavery. His later messages are 
full of the subject. In his annual message of December, 1864, 
referring to the blacks who had been set free by the proclamation 
of 1863, or by acts of Congress, he declared that if the people should 
make it an " executive duty to reen slave such persons, another and 
not I must be their instrument to perform it." This was a notice 

1 See Ames's "Proposed Amendments," passim. Other reasons for our not 
amending the Constitution more frequently are, that some features have heen changed 
by custom, others by the decisions of the Federal court in accordance with broad 
construction , and the fact that the machinery of amendment is very cumbersome. 
See supra, p. 339. 



794 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

that he would resign his office rather than become an instrument ia 
reenslaving the blacks already set free. 

As early as April, 1864, the Senate adopted an emancipation 
amendment; but it failed in the House. As the summer and 
autumn passed, the Union armies made notable progress ; Lincolo 
was reelected and the Kepublican majority increased in Congress 
Maryland had emancipated of her own accord, and other border 
states were moving in the same direction. It seemed certain that 
if the Thirty-eighth Congress refused to reconsider and pass the 
amendment, the Thirty-ninth would pass it. But the Thirty-eighth 
did not wait. A few Democratic votes were needed to make the 
two-thirds majority, and these President Lincoln secured by an adroit 
use of the patronage. After some weeks' debate, the measure was 
passed (119 to 56) amid the greatest excitement. The members of 
the House then sang the doxology and adjourned. 

The Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery forever in the 
United States, was then sent to the states and, being ratified by the 
necessary three fourths, was proclaimed, on December 18, 1865, a 
part of the Supreme Law of the land.^ 

On meeting in December, 1865, Congress utterly ignored the 
work of Johnson. The House, after electing a speaker, entertained 
a motion made by Thaddeus Stevens, that a joint committee of 
House and Senate be appointed to inquire into the condition of the 
seceded states, and passed it without debate — before the annual 
message of the President had been received. The seceded states, 
whose representatives waited outside for admission, were not even 
mentioned in the roll call. The Senate, led by Sumner, was equally 
defiant, and the President soon found himself out of harmony with 
both houses. Admitting that the Johnson plan of reconstruction 
was wise in many respects, as is now generally agreed, but two 
reasons are apparent for this action of Congress. The first was 
ignoble and unworthy the lawmakers of a great nation. It was a 
feeling of malice toward the people of the South, coupled with a 
feeling of pique that the President had attempted this great work 
without consultiag them. The second reason, a commendable one 
which justified their revising of Johnson's work, but not their 

1 Among the states ratifying were a few that had seceded and had not yet heen 
readmitted by Congress. These were necessary to malce the three fourths. This 
fact forced the country to one of two conclusions : that the Amendment was not 
legally adopted, or that the restoration of states by Lincoln and Johnson was valid. 



RECONSTRUCTION 795 



wantonly offending him, was the fact that some of the southern 
Jegislatures, assembled under the Johnson plan, had already passed 
unjust laws discriminating against the black man. To these may be 
added a third reason, namely, a fear that the Democrats of the North 
would join their political fortunes with the South, and at an early 
day get control of the government. 

Euined by the war, the South had won the sympathy of the 
world, and there were many in the North ready to follow the lead of 
Lincoln, Seward, and Grant, and deal gently with the fallen foe. 
During the summer of 1865 the South had a great opportunity to 
show its appreciation of this and to increase the rising sympathy by 
dealing gently with the negro. But various Southern states took the 
opposite course. It is true that the problem of the southern whites 
was a hard one. The government of millions of illiterate freedmen, 
ignorant, lazy, and often vicious, required special legislation ; but 
such legislation, instead of being humane, was in some cases harsh 
and unjust, and this threw a chill over the rising sympathy of the 
North, and gave color to the harsh measures of Congress that were 
soon to be enacted. 



CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION 

With the meeting of the Thirty-ninth Congress in December, 
1865, began the most violent political contest in American history. 
Congress, as stated, ignored the work of the President and formu- 
lated its own plan of reconstruction. The President, whose chief 
characteristic was pugnacity, refused to bow to the will of Congress ; 
and he made personal attacks in public speeches on the leading men 
in Congress, pretending to believe that they were desirous of having 
him assassinated.^ Such a radical departure was this from the ordi- 
nary presidential dignity that it produced a shock, and served only 
to unite the President's enemies against him. 

The great debates on reconstruction, covering many months, 
began on December 18, 1865. On that day Thaddeus Stevens, who 
was henceforth to the end of his life dictator of the House, made a 
radical, not to say violent, speech, in which he pronounced the South 
conquered territory whose future condition must depend on the will 
of the conquerors. The Senate, led by Sumner and his colleague, 
Henry Wilson, was equally radical. The Freedmen's Bureau BiU 
1 See McCall's " Thaddeus Steveus," p. 253. 



796 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

was passed in February, vetoed by the President, but failed to pass 
over the veto. The act provided for selling land to the freedmen at 
a very low rate, reserved the property of the late Confederate gov- 
ernment for their education, and ordered the President to protect 
them when necessary.^ A few days after the failure to pass this bill 
over the veto. President Johnson made a violent speech from the 
steps of the White House in which he pronounced Congress an 
irresponsible body and denounced its leaders unsparingly. This 
speech tended to solidify Congress against him, and when in March 
he vetoed the Civil Rights Bill, it readily passed over his veto. This 
law was intended to give the negro the rights of a citizen before the 
law ; but its principles were soon embodied in a more permanent 
form by the passing in June, 1866, of the Pourteenth Amendment. 
It was believed that merely giving to the black man his freedom 
would not insure his rights before the law. He must have other 
safeguards or his freedom would amount to little. The Fourteenth 
Amendment, therefore, in its first section, defined citizenship in such 
a way as to make the negro a citizen, and to place him exactly on 
a footing with the white man in his relation to the Federal govern- 
ment. It also denied to any state the right to abridge the privi- 
leges of the citizens of the United States, to deprive them of life, 
liberty, or property without due process of law, or to deprive any 
within its jurisdiction of equal protection of the law. The second 
section declared that if any state denies the elective franchise to 
any portion of its male citizens above twenty-one years of age, its 
representation in the Lower House of Congress should be reduced 
in like proportion.^ This left in the power of the state the colored 
man's right to vote, and any state might disfranchise him if it 
were willing to pay the penalty of a reduced representation in 
Congress. 

The adoption by the Southern states of this Amendment was now 
made a condition of their readmission to the Union. One of the 
eleven, Tennessee, took advantage of the opportunity and came 
back into the Union fold. The other ten held aloof. The summer 

1 The Freedman's Bureau Bill came up again and was passed over the executive 
veto in July. 

2 The third section excluded from the right to hold office under the government 
all who, having held a national or state office, had entered into rehellion against the 
government. The fourth section pronounced on the validity of the public debt, and 
forbade any state from paying any debt incurred in rebellion, or for any of the eman« 
cipated slaves. 



CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION OF 1866 /97 

of 1866 passed, and the autumn brought the election of a new Con- 
gress. Never before had there been such a bitter fight when a 
President was not to be elected. Both parties held great national 
conventions in various cities. The Johnson party consisted of the 
Democrats and a considerable section of the Republican party led by 
Henry J. Raymond, editor of the Neio York Times. President John- 
son at this time made his famous *' swinging round the circle " tour, 
ostensiblj^ to the laying of the corner stone of the Doug- _&^ueust- 
las monument in Chicago, But it became a campaigning September, 
tour, and the partisan speeches of the President were so 1866. 
violent and so un'jecoming the exalted office that he filled as to make 
every true American blush. He attacked Congress with great fury, 
declared he would stick to his " policy," nor be turned from his pur- 
pose "though the powers of hell and Thad Stevens and his gang 
were by," that Stevens and Wendell Phillips should be hanged, and 
the like. But Johnson's policy was very much discredited at the 
election. The opposition won a great victory and had a majority of 
nearly three to one in the next House. 

Had Johnson, on learning the result of tho election, bowed him- 
self to his master, the people, with " Thy will be done," he might 
have regained much that he had lost, and his name might now have 
a meaning in history that it can never have. But Johnson still 
showed fight ; he clung to his plan, and the Southern states took 
courage. They seemed to thini that he would win in the end, and 
the entire ten deliberately rejected the Fourteenth Amendment. 

Congress regarded this as a defiance of its power and a challenge 
to battle. The recent election tvas looked upon as an approval by 
the people of its plans, and henceforth its dealings r^^ Great 
with the South were drastic and merciless. It was Recon- 
now evident that the radicals meant to reconstruct the struction Act. 
South over again under the supervision of the army directed by 
Congress and to build up a Republican party in the South by 
enfranchising the negro. That this was the aim of Congress was 
acknowledged by such leaders as Sumner, Stevens, and Wade.^ In 
February, 1867, Stevens moved in the House the " Great Reconstruc- 
tion Act " which provided that the ten states not yet admitted be 
divided into five military districts, into each of which should be 
sent an officer with an army to supplant the civil government. The 
bill was passed over the President's veto on the 2d of March. 
1 " Cambridge Modern ffistory," Vol. VII, p. 633. 



798 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

and two days later the Thirty-ninth Congress expired. But instead 
of taking the usual recess of nine months, the new Congress met at the 
moment the old expired, in the fear that the President, if left alone, 
would not properly carry out its desires. 

This reconstruction act, with a supplementary one passed later 
in March, provided that the military governor of each district 
make a registration of all the male citizens of each state, submit 
to them a test oath, and call for a constitutional convention, the 
delegates to be elected by those who should take the oath. If a 
state constitution so framed should conform with the national Con- 
stitution, should be ratified by a majority of the voters of the state, 
and be approved by Congress, the state would thereupon be read- 
mitted to the Union, after its legislature had ratified the Fourteenth 
Amendment. 

Thus the Southern states were placed under military rule,^ order 
was again restored, and most of them at length proceeded to comply 
with the exactions of Congress. Within a year and a half after the 
military occupation of the South seven of the ten states had com- 
plied with the conditions and were readmitted to representation in 
Congress, each having ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, which 
became a part of the Constitution in July, 1868. Three states, how- 
ever, Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas, still held aloof and thereby 
denied themselves the privilege of taking part in the presidential 
election of 1868. 

The Southern states that ratified the Fourteenth Amendment had 
done so through the newly built-up Eepublican party, composed 
chiefly of negroes in those states. But the northern radicals, fearing 
that the Bepublican party in the South, which depended on the negrc 
vote, would be insecure when the whites again gained control, and 
believing that the ballot would be a permanent means of protection 
in the hands of the blacks, now determined that the right of the 
negro to vote should not be left Avith the states at all. This idea 
took shape in the Fifteenth Amendment, which denied to Congress or to 
any state the j)ower to disfranchise a man on account of race, color, 
or previous condition of servitude. This amendment passed both 
houses in February, 1869, and the three states that had not yet been 
admitted were now required to ratify it, as well as the Fourteenth, as 

1 The five districts were put under the respective commands of Generals Schofield, 
Sickles, Pope, Ord, and Sheridan (who was soon supplanted hy Hancock). They were 
appointed by the President with the advice of General Grant. 



THE FINAL REUNION 799 



a condition of their admission. This they eventually did, and before 
the close of the year 1870 all had been reinstated, and the Fifteenth 
Amendment was part of the Constitution.^ 

THE CARPETBAGGERS — THE RACE QUESTION 

Congressional reconstruction was thorough, drastic, merciless ; a 
study of it enlists our sympathies with the South. The governments 
it set up were all temporary, and during their short existence the 
most corrupt in the annals of the United States. Had it not been 
for the summary negro laws made by some of the Southern states in 
1865, and the abusive violence of President Johnson, public opinion 
at the North would not have sustained Congress in its methods of 
procedure. It is true that something more was necessary to be done 
for the black man than merely to set him free. It seemed needful 
that he be protected, for a time at least, by the national arm. This 
was effected by congressional reconstruction, and the result was a series 
of milder negro laws in the Southern states and the adoption of the 
Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the national Constitution. 
Aside from this, congressional reconstruction left no permanent re- 
sults, ana the expediency of adopting the two amendments is at this 
day seriously questioned,- and, whatever their merits, they have 
practically ceased to be operative in the South. The Fourteenth 
and Fifteenth amendments, it will be remembered, deal only with 
the states and do not protect the individual voter from local violence 
while casting his ballot. For such protection the negro must still 
depend solely on the state in which he resides. If it refuses to pro- 
tect him, he has no redress. 

The governments set up during those days were scandalous be- 
yond precedent. The old political leaders Avere not yet permitted to 
take part in the state governments. The newly enfranchised freedmen 
were utterly unfit to take the lead, and the result was that a class of 
unscrupulous adventurers from the North, packing up their goods in 
a carpetbag, as it was said, went to the South, won the negrc voters by 
their blandishments, and soon had the state governments under their 

1 Georgia, however, had forfeited its rights by pronouncing the negro ineligible 
to hold office. The state was obliged to repeal this law, and it was January, 1871, 
before it was finally readmitted. 

2 Mr. Blaine, Mr. John Sherman, and most of the leading Republicans of the 
period following the war agree that the Fifteenth Amendment was an unwise meas- 
ure. See Blaine's " Twenty Years of Congraas," Vol. 11, p. 418, and Sherman's 
"Recollections," Vol. I, p. 460. 



800 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

control. The state treasuries were plundered and bonds were issued 
increasing the state debts to an alarming degree. In Louisiana the 
public debt rose from ten to fifty million dollars in the few years of 
carpetbag government ; in Alabama it increased over thirty million ; 
in Georgia nearly fifty million.^ These are but samples of all. The 
increase indicated no public improvements — only theft. Taxes rose 
to a point beyond the ability of the people to pay. In Mississippi 
six hundred and forty thousand acres, one fifth of the state, were 
forfeited for taxes. In South Carolina twenty-six hundred pieces of 
land were sold for taxes in one county in a single year.^ The negro 
voters were easily led into the corrupt business, but the carpet 
bagger always managed to get the lion's share.^ Here and there an 
ex-Confederate would join the thieving gang for the plunder there 
was in it. Such were called " scalawags." 

The better class of whites stood aghast and helpless at the further 
impoverishment of their already bankrupt states. Many kept a 
sullen, bitter silence ; but the more vicious class formed a secret 
organization known as the "Ku Klux Klan" with the object of in- 
timidating the black voter. These governments were sustained by 
the military arm. The Republican party as a whole received the 
blame. There were many thousands of whites in the South at the 
close of the war who were in sympathy with the Republican party; 
but now, almost to a man, they turned against it and 
South ^°^ joined the Democrats. For many years thereafter the 
South was known as the " solid " South. Before the 
war the South was scarcely more Democratic than Whig ; and it was 
not the war that made it solidly Democratic, — it was preeminently 
the carpetbag governments.* 

The carpetbag governments disappeared with the withdrawal of 
the troops, and the state governments immediately passed again into 
the hands of the white men.^ And this was most natural. Nothing 
else could possibly have been expected. The white race had labored 
for centuries to attain self-government. It paid more than 99 per 

1 Curry's " The South," p. 231. 

2 McCall's " Thaddeus Stevens," American Statesman Series, p. 303. 
8 Lalor's "Cyclopedia," Vol. Ill, p. 554. 

* And, it may be added, the race question helped to keep it solid so long. See the 
following pages. 

* President Johnson had issued a universal pardon in December, 1868, and in 
May, 1872, Congress removed the disabilities imposed by the Fourteenth Amendment 
except in a few cases. 



THE RACE PROBLEM 80; 

cent of the taxes. Could it be possible that the government of these 
great communities should be turned over to a landless, penniless, 
homeless, illiterate race that knew not the first principles of self- 
government ? Such a spectacle is unknown in the world's history. 
Where the brains and property are on the one side and most of the 
ignorance and poverty on the other, the former will rule at any cost. 
The cost in this case was too often violence and fraud ; but under 
the same conditions the same results must have followed in the 
North, or anywhere else. 

The rule of the white man is essential to southern progress. 
Can it be said, on general principles, or on the basis of the car- 
petbag governments, that the black race could have developed 
the South as it has been developed since the war ? .jj^g ^^ite 
The writer of this volume believes himself to be as man's 
nearly without race prejudice as a normal white man government, 
can be ; but he believes that all thoughtful people will agree that the 
great development of the South since the war — in art, in science, 
literature, education, and in material resources — could not have been, 
except under the domination of the white race. 

Then arises the question, Why do not the two races blend and coop- 
erate in matters of government ? This brings up the so-called race 
problem, the most serious and menacing question before the American 
people to-day. In two respects the two races have refused to blend 
— politically and socially. Nor is it possible to coerce them. It is 
folly to attempt by legislative acts, or by moral pressure, to force 
unnatural relations between them. Nature seems to have drawn a 
line between the races that man has no power to obliterate. In 
matters of business the two races may have and do have the most 
cordial relations ; but in politics and in the social circle there is a 
gulf between them, almost as wide now as at the close of the war. 
For a generation after the war the North reproached the South for 
its attitude toward the colored man, and in so far as this pertained to 
violence and abuse, the reproach was just ; but in matters of politics 
the North has come to take practically the same ground as held all 
along by the South. I make no attempt to explain why the white man 
will not admit the black man as a partner in governmental aifairs ; 
this belongs to the domain of the sociologist; but there are the facts, 
and the instinct far transcends any party allegiance. It is not a tenet 
of Democratic doctrine peculiar to that party. The Eepublicana 
have reached the same attitude. For many years after the wajf 
8v 



802 HISTORY OP THE UNITED STATES 

there were colored Republicans in both houses of Congress ; to-day 
(1904) there is not one in either House. The Republican state con- 
vention in Korth Carolina in September, 1902, as in 
The race several other Southern states the same year, refused to 

admit a single black man to its membership.^ In recent 
years the solidity of the South has been broken,^ but this was not 
done until the Republicans threw the race question into the back- 
ground and made other issues paramount. We want no solid South, 
nor solid North, no dividing on sectional lines in American politics. 
As above stated, the race question is not a political question, and 
if the Democrats of the North were to attempt to force their 
brethren of the South in this matter, the South would soon be 
solidly Republican. 

What, then, of the negro in the future ? He can become equal to 
the white man in the government of the South only when he makes 
himself an equal force in civilization. And perhaps this may never 
be, for Nature has done more for his pale-faced brother than for him. 
What, then, of the negro in the future ? The best thing remains to 
be told, namely : The negro is quite safe and his happiness quite 
secure under the white man's government. The white man at this 
time makes every law in every southern state, but in no case, aside 
from those pertaining to the franchise, do the laws now discriminate 
against the black man. There is not a colored child in any city, 
village, or township of the whole South that has not access to a free 
public school, established under the white man's government, and 
supported by his money .^ So in property rights, the negro stands 
before the law on a level with his white brother. If the time shall ever 
come when the negro can make himself an equal force with the white 
man in matters of government, he need not build the edifice ; there it 
stands ready for him to occupy, there is the unchangeable law, making 
him an equal, in the last three amendments to the Constitution — so 
much for congressional reconstruction. Meantime if he is denied a free 
ballot, if he is denied a part in making the laws, he still enjoys the 
same protection under the laws with the men who make them. 

There still remains the social problem. In this the line between 
the races is more tensely drawn than is the political line, and al' 

1 See the Outlook, Vol. LXXII, p. 2591. 

2 Notably in Maryland, West Virginia, and Kentucky. 

8 Except in some localities where schools are not provided for either race. The 
whites still pay above 90 per cent of the taxes. See Curry's " The South," p. 238. 



UNDOING OF RECONSTRUCTION 803 

attempts at coercion are worse than folly. Why should there be any 
attempt at coercion? Why should not the races remain apart 
socially and each be content with his own society ? If the white 
man is content with the society of his own race, why should not the 
negro be content with his ? Constitutions, congresses, and courts are 
powerless to change the social relations between the races. Until 
this natural difference between them is properly recognized, this 
great problem cannot be solved. 

The future of the negro rests chiefly with himself. The great 
curse of the race to-day is, not the want of a free ballot, but the want 
of ambition to do something and to be somebody. Vast numbers of 
the southern blacks are of the listless, aimless class who aspire to 
nothing, who are content to live in squalor and ignorance. But there 
are noble exceptions ; there are many southern colored men who are 
striving to uplift their race to a higher plane of civilization. If the 
bulk of the race would follow the guidance of that most useful of all 
colored men in the United States, Booker T. Washington, the race 
question would soon cease to be troublesome. 

A final word must here be said about congressional reconstruc- 
tion The process of the " undoing of reconstruction " began with 
the downfall of the carpetbag governments, continued ipj^g undoing 
for more than thirty years, and resulted in the complete of reconstruc- 
restoration of the whites to power throughout the South. ^^°^- 
The first stage in this process was marked by violence and disorder 
in the extreme, the most prominent feature being the work of the 
Ku Klux. This condition led Congress to pass the Enforcement 
Act of 1870, the Ku Klux Act of 1871, and of an additional Civil 
Rights Bill in 1875. There were also Federal Elections acts passed 
in 1871 and 1872. But in spite of all this, every southern state that 
had seceded turned Democratic, beginning with Tennessee in 1869 and 
ending with Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina in 1877. But as 
violence in the South against the black voter always awakened an out- 
cry from the North, a new plan was inaugurated about 1877, which 
marks the beginning of the second stage of the undoing of reconstruc- 
tion. During this period, which continued till 1890, the whites kept 
control chiefly by sharp practice, such as gerrymandering and ballot- 
box juggling, by which the ignorant blacks were easily managed.* 

1 All sorts of devices were employed. Sometimes the negroes were obliged to 
travel thirty or forty miles to vote, where rivers without bridges were to be crossed, 
and all the ferries would be tied up on election day. In one town where a poll tax 



804 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Meantime^ a series of Supreme Court decisions, if we may antici 
pate a little more, served to encourage the southern democracy in 
its methods. A decision of 1873, known as the Slaughter House 
Cases, to be referred to later, greatly weakened the Fourteenth 
Amendment as compared with its earlier intended meaning, and 
other later decisions continued this weakening process. In a decision 
of 1875 and another in 1882, the Enforcement Act ^ of 1870 and the 
Ku Klux Act were rendered null by their being confined to state 
action, and not to individuals who conspired to deprive negroes of 
their rights, and in 1883 the Supreme Court pronounced the Civil 
Eights Act of 1875 unconstitutional. 

During this period the equality of the negro with the white man 
was recognized in law, though not in fact. But in 1890 the third 
and last stage of the process of disfranchising the blacks began. In 
this year Mississippi applied another method without treading on 
the Fifteenth Amendment. The state adopted a constitution which 
shut out nearly all the black voters by a property and educational 
test, while the ignorant white voter was taken care of through 
the "reasonable interpretation" of the constitution clause. South 
Carolina followed in 1895 with an "understanding" clause to save 
the illiterate white voter; for the white election officer may, 
all unconsciously of course, decide that the ignorant negro does 
not understand the constitution, while the equally ignorant white 
man does. Louisiana, in 1898, protected the ignorant whites by 
a new device known as the " Grandfather clause " by which a 
man could not be denied the right to vote if his father or grand- 
father was a voter in 1867. North Carolina followed this example 
in 1900, and other states have since then adopted similar constitu- 
tions. These new state constitutions render the Fifteenth Amend- 
ment and parts of the Fourteenth almost a dead letter at the South. 
Some of these constitutions have been tested before the Federal 
Supreme Court but in each case the matter has been dismissed for 
want of jurisdiction,^ nor have the Kepublicans of the Noi^th shown 

was required, and the Republicans had furnished hundreds of the negroes with tax 
receipts for a certain election, the Democrats managed to have a circus in town on 
election day, and arranged to have tax receipts accepted for admission. The election 
booth was deserted by the blacks while the circus was crowded. See Professor W. A. 
Dunning's " Undoing of Reconstruction," in the Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 88, p. 437 sq. 

1 All the Force Acts were repealed by a Democratic Congress in 1894. 

2 See Williams vs. Mississippi, 170 U.S. 213 ; the Nation of April 30 and May 7- 
1903. 



THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS 801 

a disposition to apply the test of the Fourteenth Amendment to 
reduce the representation of the Southern states in Congress, in cou' 
sequence of their disfranchising so large a portion of their voters. 

IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON 

By far tlie greatest historic trial ever held in the United States 
was that of Andrew Johnson by the Senate in the spring of 1868, 
after his impeachment by the House of Representatives. The strife 
between the President and Congress that began in December, 1865, 
increased in violence for two and a half years, culminating in the 
impeachment by the House and the trial by the Senate. Had Lincoln 
been spared, he might have succeeded in his method of reconstruc- 
tion. He had won the hearts of the people as few had ever done, 
and they would probably have sustained him in defiance of Congress. 
But Johnson had never won the people, and without the aid of Con- 
gress he was powerless to carry out his plans. Moreover, Lincoln 
was a man of infinite tact, and he could parry the blows of his 
enemies with his consummate wit. Johnson was peculiarly lacking 
in these respects, and if Congress had the temerity to oppose Lincoln 
with all his resources of power, would it not more readily set its 
hand against this accidental President ? * 

The warfare between the President and Congress went on month 
by month, and on the 2d of March, 1867, Congress passed over 
the President's veto, not only the Great Eeconstruc- xenure of 
tiou Act, which we have noticed, but also the Tenure Oface Bill, 
of Office Bill. By this law the power of the President March, 1867. 
was greatly curtailed. The Constitution provides that many of the 
more important official appointments of the President must be rati- 
fied by the Senate, but all such officials were subject to removal by 
the President alone. So the practice had continued by common 
consent from the founding of the government ; but the Tenure of 
Office Act required the consent of the Senate for removals, as well 
as for appointments. Two reasons are conceivable for the enact- 
ment of this law : first, a fear entertained by some that the Presi- 
dent designed some attack on the powers and privileges of Congress ; 
and a personal dislike of Johnson, coupled with a desire to curb his 
power wherever possible.' 

1 In other ways the power of the President was also curbed. A •' rider " of the 
Army Appropriation Bill took from him the command of the army and gave it to the 



806 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Johnson, on becoming President, had retained the Cabinet of Lin- 
coln, At first the members generally agreed with the new President's 
policy ; but as the contest grew hot, several of them took the side of 
Congress, and for this reason three of them resigned from the Cab- 
inet in the spring of 1868. The secretary of war, however, Edwin 
M. Stanton, though condemning the President's course, refused to 
resign. As the months passed all personal relations ceased between 
the President and his secretary, and yet the latter clung to his ofl&ce. 
In August, 1867, Johnson addressed a note to Stanton requesting 
his resignation, but Stanton bluntly refused to resign. A week later 
Johnson suspended him from the office and appointed General Grant 
secretary ad interim. The Tenure of Office Law permitted such action 
during the recess of Congress, but required the President to make a 
report of it to the Senate at its next meeting. If the Senate approved 
his action, it stood ; if not, the old official resumed his place. 

Accordingly, President Johnson reported his action to the Senate 
on its meeting in December, and some weeks later he was astonished 
when that body refused to concur in the removal of Stanton. No 
explanation can be given for this action of the Senate, except on the 
ground of personal feeling against Andrew Johuson. There was no 
public demand for Grant's removal, for at this moment Grant was 
the most popular man in the United States. Thus Johnson had 
forced upon him a secretary with whom he was not on speaking 
terms, and the United States Senate never did a less creditable act. 
Johnson's anger rose to the boiling point. He even chided General 
Grant and made a personal enemy of him for giving up the office 
too readily on hearing of the action of the Senate. Grant had been 
on very friendly terms with Johnson, and had accompanied him on 
his " swinging round the circle " tour of the West. Had Johnson 
been possessed of a tithe of the tact of his predecessor, he would 
have retained the friendship of Grant at any cost. But now with a 
few reproachful words he ended their friendship, and they were 
never afterward reconciled.^ No man in public life ever played into 
the hands of his enemies more completely than did Andrew Johnson. 
The majority of the Republican party had been looking forward to 

general of the army. In January, 1867, a law was passed denying him the power to 
proclaim general amnesty ; but Johnson deemed the law unconstitutional, and went 
on issuing pardons at his pleasure. 

1 The first hitch in their friendship, however, had occurred the year before, when 
Johnson, against Grant's wishes, removed Sheridan from command of a district in 
the South. 



THE HOUSE IMPEACHES JOHNSON 807 

making Grant their candidate for President in the approaching cam- 
paign, and they were not pleased with the warm friendship between 
him and their most implacable enemy. They were now highly grati- 
fied at this open rupture between the two, 

Stanton had resumed his place in the Cabinet, But Johnson 
brought matters to a crisis when, on the 21st of February, he defied 
the Senate by dismissing Stanton from the Cabinet, joiinsoii 
The country was startled at the reckless courage of the removes Stan- 
President, The Senate was enraged at the defiance of ton.Februarj 
its authority, but it could do nothing except condemn ' ^^°^- 
the action of Johnson in a resolution. This it did, as Blaine says, 
"promptly, resentfully, almost passionately."^ 

With the House rests the power of impeachment. Many were 
Johnson's enemies in the House, They had attempted to impeach 
him the year before, and had failed. Since then they had watched with 
eagle eye for an opportunity to renew their efforts, and they promptly 
seized on his quarrel with the Senate. On the same day that John- 
son sent to the Senate a notice of Stanton's removal, a resolution was 
brought before the House that "Andrew Johnson, President of the 
United States, be impeached of high crimes and misdemeajwrs." The 
resolution was referred to a committee with Stevens at its head. It 
reported next day and recommended that the resolution pass without 
debate. Two days, however, were taken for debate, and when the 
vote was taken the ballot stood 126 for impeachment and 
47 against it. Thus the President of the United States, ^/nt""^®*^^" 
for the first and only time in our history, was legally 
impeached, and he must now stand before the bar of the Senate and 
answer for his alleged crimes. The House proceeded to elect seven 
of its members as prosecutors in the trial that was to follow,^ 

Johnson meantime seemed calm and undisturbed by the great 
movement going on in Congress. He quietly sent to the Senate the 
name of Thomas Ewing as secretary of war. This for once was a 
tactful stroke. It had been rumored that Johnson meant to usurp 
the government and to place it in the hands of the military. But 
the appointment of Ewing, a man of well-known honesty and patriot- 
ism, rendered all such rumors idle and foolish. 

1 " Twenty Years of Congress," Vol. II, p. 355. 

2 The men elected were Boutwell and Butler of Massachusetts, Williams, Bing- 
ham, and Stevens of Pennsylvania, Wilson of Iowa, and Logan of Illinois. All were 
intensely hostile to the President. 



808 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



THE GREAT TRIAL 

The Senate sat in grave silence with Chief Justice Chase as its 
presiding officer, when, on the 6th of March, 1868, the members of 
the House filed into the chamber, led by their chosen managers, to 
present formal charges against the President of the United States. 
The charges were eleven in number, the most important being the 
second, charging Mr. Johnson with violating the Constitution by- 
removing Mr. Stanton in defiance of the Tenure of Office Act ; the 
third, charging him with appointing another to fill the office when 
no vacancy existed ; and the eleventh, charging the President with 
stating in a public speech that the Thirty -ninth Congress was not a 
lawful body because certain Southern states were not represented. 

The most serious of these, and that on which the trial hinged, 
was the removal of Stanton. Let us look into this for a moment. 
When the Tenure of Office Bill was pending before the Senate, it was 
agreed by a majority of the senators that Cabinet officials be not 
included in the law, but the House insisted that they be included, 
and won its point ; not, however, without bringing out some signifi- 
cant remarks from leading Republican senators. " If a Cabinet 
officer," said John Sherman, " should attempt to hold his office for a 
moment beyond the time when he retains the entire confidence of 
the President, I would not vote to retain him." Similar .expressions 
were heard from Senators Fessenden, Edmunds, and others.-^ The 
attempt of Congress to force upon the President a confidential adviser 
in whom he had no confidence and whom he personally disliked, fur- 
nishes a spectacle unknown before or since in our government. Mr. 
Blaine, in his "Twenty Years of Congress," discusses this subject 
with great fairness, and agrees witli every thoughtful student of the 
subject at this time that Congress was clearly in the wrong and was 
prompted by ignoble motives. And the more does this appear when 
it is remembered that the defense sought to show at the trial that 
one of the objects of Johnson in removing Stanton was to bring the 
matter before the Supreme Court in order to test the validity of the 
Tenure of Office Law. 

After the formal presentation of the articles of impeachment on 

March 5, the high court adjourned, and the trial was not properly 

begun till the 30th. The President's counsel was composed of men 

of the highest ability. Among them were Benjamin R. Curtis, 

1 See Blaine, Vol. 11, p. 352. 



A PREJUDICED JURY 809 

former justice of the Supreme Court, and William M. Evarts, the 
eminent New York lawyer. 

In the course of the trial Mr. Evarts offered to prove that while 
the Tenure of Office Act was before President Johnson, it was sub- 
mitted to the Cabinet, every member of which deemed it unconstitu- 
tional, and that the duty of preparing the veto message devolved on 
Mr. Seward and Mr. Stanton. Chief Justice Chase decided to admit 
this testimony, but a vote of the Senate on its admissi- 
bility was called for and a majority decided to exclude ^^J®*^*^^'^ °* 

•^ J J evidence. 

it. Again IMr. Evarts offered to show that the entire 

Cabinet had agreed that the appointees of President Lincoln could 
not come within the law. Mr. Chase decided that this testimony 
sliould be received, but this too was cast out by a vote of the Senate. 
Still again, Evarts offered, on the part of the President, to prove that 
he and his Cabinet agreed, before the removal of Stanton, that the 
legality of the Tenure of Office Law should be tested, and that one 
object in dismissing Stanton was to bring the matter before the 
Supreme Court. But even this testimony was ruled out by the 
eminent jury. Certainly this was an extraordinary method of deal- 
ing with an accused before a court. When a man, on trial for the 
alleged violation of a questionable law, offers to show that his motive 
was to put the law itself on trial, and his offer is rejected, what 
unbiased observer can believe otherwise than that such rejection is 
based on prejudice ? 

Among the witnesses in the great trial were men of national 
fame, members of the Cabinet, and generals of the army. Gideon 
Wells and General Sherman each sat for two days under the cross- 
fire of the contending lawyers. By the 22d of April the testimony 
was all in, and then began the fierce oratorial contest of the lawyers. 
For many days they furnished the country with a rare intellectual 
treat. Not until May 16 was the Senate ready to vote on the great 
question — whether the President of the United States should be 
acquitted or deposed from his office. 

There were fifty-four senators, and it would require two thirds, 
or thirty-six, to convict. Eight of the senators were Democratic, 
and these, having no quarrel with the President, were sure to vote 
for his acquittal. So also were four others, who were known as ad- 
ministration Republicans. In addition to the votes of these twelve, 
seven more were needed, from the regular Republican ranks, to save 
the President. Many of the senators filed their opinions, giving 



810 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



their reasons, before the voting began ; but enough had declined to 
do this to leave the outcome in doubt. The doubtful class was led 
by Fessendeo of Maine and Trumbull of Illinois. 

The voting began on the 16th of May. The occasion was a solemn 
and momentous one ; for the decision on this great question must be 
a precedent for generations to come. The interest became intense 
as the moment for taking the first ballot approached. The members 
of the House were admitted to the floor of the Senate chamber, and 
the galleries were packed with high officials of the government, 
foreign ministers, and citizens of every rank from all parts of 
the country.^ Outside the chamber surged a multitude unable to 
gain admittance. Telegraph operators sat at their places ready to 
flash the news to the uttermost parts of the Union — to the cities, 
towns, and railroad stations, where eager throngs had gathered to 
await the verdict of the Senate. Within the chamber the silence 
was almost painful as the roll call proceeded, and each senator rose 
in his place and pronounced " guilty," or " not guilty." The first 
vote was taken on the eleventh impeachment article, as it in a 
general way embodied all the rest. The result was thirty-five for 
conviction and nineteen for acquittal. The President therefore 
escaped deposition by a single vote. The Senate then 
The acquittal, j^^y Q^^^.^ed to the 26th of May. When the Court of Im- 
peachment met again and voted on the second and third articles, the 
vote stood the same as before. The court then adjourned sine die; the 
remaining articles were never voted on ; the great trial was over. 

Secretary Stanton immediately resigned his office, and General 
Schofield was appointed in his stead. Stanton had served as secre- 
tary of war from the time of his appointment by Lincoln 
in 1862, and no man ever filled that office with greater 
fidelity and devotion to the public service. He was an unrelenting 
foe to all jobbery and corruption, and while we cannot sympathize 
with him in this contest with Johnson, we honor his memory for his 
unselfish public service. Soon after the trial his health failed and 
the next year he sank into the grave, after being honored by Presi- 
dent Grant with an appointment to the Supreme Court. 

Next to the President and Stanton the one most concerned in 

the outcome of the trial was Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio. Had 

the trial gone against Johnson, Wade, as president of the Senate, 

would have been President of the United States until the following 

1 Blaine, Vol. II, p. 374. 



END OF THE GREAT TRIAL 811 

spring. He had missed it by a single vote. In our history but two 
others, Aaron Burr and Samuel J. Tilden, have come so near the 
great prize and yet missed it. Wade's political life was soon to close ; 
it had reached its zenith and it took a downward turn at the great trial. 
He had been a powerful leader. For eighteen years his voice had 
been heard in the Senate chamber. The public awarded 
him high honor ; but now he voted against Johnson and * *' 

thus for himself. His friends had boasted that, if he could not give 
his voice for acquittal, he would refrain from voting at all ; but he 
voted nevertheless. The public never fully forgave him. It still 
honored him still, but not so highly as before.^ 

The verdict of the Senate was at first a disappointment to the 
Republican party ; but when the excitement of the moment had sub- 
sided, a general satisfaction with the verdict was manifest. The 
people could not wholly forget the noble stand for the Union taken 
by Andrew Johnson at the beginning of the war. They remembered, 
too, that, with all his faults, Johnson had risen of his own force from 
the lowest depths of society, and such a record is the highest pass- 
port to public esteem in America. Nor could the belief be eradicated 
from the public mind that the trial was not altogether a fair one, 
that many of the members of Congress were unconsciously prejudiced 
against the President. In ordinary criminal cases the members of 
the jury are required to be without previous personal relations with 
the accused; but here was a jury the greater part of which had, for 
a long season, been engaged in a bitter contest with the accused. 
They were men of the highest training and education, but this did 
not lift them above the common weaknesses of humanity. Educa- 
tion gives a man greater self-control and develops any talent with 
which nature has endowed him ; but it cannot implant new virtues, 
nor train out of a man the common follies of our nature. This highly 
cultured jury was in some measure partial and prejudiced, simply 
because it could not help being so. 

The real offense of the President consisted, not in the removal of 
Stanton nor in anything written in the impeachment articles, but 
in his persistent, exasperating opposition of the party that gave 
him his power.^ Johnson had a legal, if not a moral, right to his 
course concerning the negro and the South ; but as the enemies he 

1 Within the same week Wade was defeated as candidate for Vice President, and 
these disasters closely followed his defeat for reelection to the Senate. 

2 See the Nation, Vol. VI, p 384; Blaine, Vol. II, p. 377. 



B12 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

made by taking this course could not reach him on account of it, 
they arraigned him on a technicality which under other conditions 
would have attracted little attention. The most gratifying fact in 
connection with the great trial is that during its progress there was 
no popular uprising, no disturbance of the social and business rela- 
tions of the country, no evidence that the quiet reign of law would 
be disturbed whatever the result of the trial. 



NOTES 

Tbaddens Sterena. — Durlug the last years of his life, Stevens was not only 
the leader in Congress, but also the leader of his party throughout the country, 
and congressional reconstruction was an embodiment of his ideas. So radical 
and relentless was he that at first Congress was unwilling to follow him, but at 
length came to do so, except as to his desire to confiscate the property of Con- 
federates. Stevens's attitude toward the South arose less from a malicious feel- 
ing, than from his extreme principles of democracy, almost approaching the 
John Brown type ; though, unlike Brown, he shrank from bloodshed. His love 
for the black man seemed to reach an abnormal state, and just before his death 
he requested that his body be buried in an obscure private cemetery, because 
the public cemeteries excluded negroes by their charters. Stevens was a man of 
unusual wit. On one occasion, while speaking in the House, a certain very 
loquacious member, who always affected great humility and put a low estimate 
on his own ideas, desired Stevens to yield him the floor for a time. Stevens did 
so, saying " Now I yield the floor to Mr. ,who will make a few feeble re- 
marks." (McCall's "Stevens," p. 314.) During the last months of his life, 
Stevens was so weak that he had to be carried about in a chair. One day he 
said to the two stalwart men who were carrying him, " Who will carry me when 
you two strong men are dead and gone ? " 

Nebraska and Alaska. — Nebraska was part of the Louisiana Purchase. 
The country was partly explored in 1804 by Lewis and Clark. In 1854 it was 
organized as a territory in the famous Kansas-Nebraska Bill. In 1863 Nebraska 
was reduced to its present limits, and in 1867, having sixty thousand inhabit- 
ants, it was admitted as a state. President Johnson vetoed the bill of admission 
because it forbade the new state ever to deny a man the right to vote on account 
of race or color. But it passed over the veto, and Nebraska became a state on 
March 1, 1867. 

Within the same year, 1867, the territory of Alaska was purchased by the 
United States from Russia for $7,200,000. Russia acquired the right to Alaska 
through the discoveries of Vitus Bering in 1741. It is a dreary, mountainous 
region of long, severe winters. Its valleys are fertile, and at the time of the 
purchase the country was inhabited by various Indian tribes, with a few white 
men and Chinese. In recent years it has been found to be exceedingly vich in 
gold deposits, while the seal fisheries have amounted to over $12,000,000. The 
whole country comprises 599,446 square miles. See map following p, 896. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

RECUPERATING TEARS 

Peace, the long-desired, can hardly be said to have spread her 
white wings over the land until reconstruction had been practically 
accomplished and the trial of Johnson was over. Now at last the 
great strife was ended, and though the bitterness engendered by it 
could only wear away with the passing of the generation, every one 
felt that, as the one and only cause of internecine war had been 
removed, never again would America witness the scenes of the past 
eight years. Before reconstruction had been fully accomplished the 
country turned to its quadrennial duty of electing a President. 

'I HE ELECTION OP 1868 

Four days after the deciding vote in the trial of Johnson had 
been cast, the national Republican convention met in Chicago. Por 
the first place on the ticket there was no contest, as the whole party 
was agreed in its choice of the valiant commander who had won 
first honors on the battle field. Not only had General Grant dis- 
tinguished himself in war, but during the Johnson administration, 
though his position was a trying one, he had borne himself with 
great discretion and dignity. So reticent had Grant been in regard 
to politics that for some time after the close of hostilities his politi- 
cal bias was unknown. He had voted for James Buchanan in 1856, 
and the rumor gained currency that the Democrats hoped to make him 
their candidate in 1868.^ But Grant indicated that his sympathies 
were with the Republicans. On the first ballot Grant was named 
by a unanimous vote. Por Vice President the convention named 
Schuyler Colfax of Indiana, speaker of the House of Representatives. 

The platform adopted by the convention made two points con- 

1 Colonel A. K. McClure declares (see "Our Presidents," p. 202) that Grant 
before the war was a radical proslavery Democrat, not even so liberal as Douglas, and 
that he never voted the Republican ticket before he became Presideat. It was 
Colonel Forney of the Philadelphia Press who persuaded Grant to permit the Repub* 
licans, rather than the Democrats, to make him their candidate. 

813 



814 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



spicuous, — a pledge in substance, though not in so many words, to 
pay the public debt in coin, and a demand for equal suffrage for 
white and black men in the South. The first of these, concerning the 
finances, was highly commendable, and the pledge was carried out to 
the letter in the following years. But the other plank was highly 
discreditable to the party. It imposed negro suffrage on the South 
(the Fifteenth Amendment being not yet adopted) and left the matter 
to be decided by the various states in the North. " This was an 
evasion of duty quite unworthy the Republican party," says Mr. 
Blaine, and " carried with it an element of deception." ^ It was a 




EILECTION 

REPUBLICAN 
DEMOCRATIC 
•^Klectors chosen by the legislatuw 



strange proceeding to attempt to force the South to stand upon a 
higher plane of political virtue than the North itself was willing to 
adopt. The object in exempting the Northern states from this con- 
dition was to avoid giving offense to a few doubtful states, notably 
Indiana and California.^ The Republican keynote of the campaign, 
however, was not found in the platform, but in the laconic phrase, 
" Let us have peace," from General Grant's letter of acceptance. 

The Democratic convention, which met on the 4th of July in 
New York City, was looked forward to with great interest because of 

1 "Twenty Years of Congress," Vol. II, p. 388. 

2 Other Republican states, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, and Kansas, 
had recently rejected negro suffrage. 



PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1868 815 

the uncertainty as to what it ■would do. Two great questions must be 
pronounced on : Republican reconstruction, and the payment of the 
public debt in specie; and it decided adversely on both. The platform 
adopted declared that the portion of the public debt not payable by 
express terms in coin " ought to be paid in lawful money," that is, legal 
tender notes, which were far below the gold standard in value ; and 
it pronounced the reconstruction acts '' usurpations, unconstitutional, 
revolutionary, and void." The plank on the money ques- 
tion appealed to many who did not hold government ^®™o'="'"C 
bonds ; but that on reconstruction was not popular at 
the North, as the people were weary of the long-drawn-out subject 
and were unwilling to undo the great work now so nearly completed. 

The most widely discussed candidates for the nomination were 
George H. Pendleton, who represented the greenback craze, and 
Salmon P. Chase, both of Ohio. Chase had first been elected to the 
Senate by the Democrats, but for many years he had acted with 
the Republicans. He had resigned from Lincoln's Cabinet in 1864, 
and was now chief justice of the Federal Supreme Court. Thomas 
A. Hendricks of Indiana and General W. S. Hancock were also voted 
for ; but after the convention had cast twenty-one ballots without result, 
there was a sudden stampede for Horatio Seymour of New York 
who at that moment sat before the delegates as chairman of tbe 
convention. Repeatedly had Mr. Seymour declined to permit his 
name to be considered, and he now reiterated this decision from the 
chair. But his words were unheeded. On the twenty-second ballot 
the convention cast a unanimous vote for Seymour. Frank P. Blair 
of Missouri was then nominated for the vice presidency. 

Mr. Seymour was a man of great ability and political sagacity, 
and was doubtless the most popular man the party could have 
named. During the war he had vigorously criticised the administra- 
tion, but he was never violent nor disloyal. Moreover, he was a 
" hard money " man, and on this point opposed to his party platform. 
Blair had acted with Lincoln during the war, but now he was a 
radical Democrat on reconstruction. So extreme were his views that 
he became a heavy burden for the party to carry. The party was 
further handicapped by the prominent part taken in the convention 
by former leaders of the Rebellion, notably Wade Hampton, who had 
written the plank on reconstruction. 

General Grant was elected by 214 votes to 80 for Mr. Sey- 
mour. These figures would indicate an overwhelming victory for 



816 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Grant ; but an analysis of the vote was by no means reassuring to the 
Republicans. Of the eight seceded states which voted, six cast 
their ballots for Grant.^ This was due chiefly to the 
e ec ion. ^^^^ ^-^^^ many of the whites were disfranchised, and that 
these states were under carpetbag governments. Seymour carried 
New York, New Jersey, Oregon, and Delaware, and also Maryland, 
Georgia, and Louisiana. Had all the Southern states voted, and had 
the South been solidly Democratic, as it came to be a few years 
later, Seymour would have been elected President over Grant. But 
this was not all. Seymour came within less than a thousand votes of 
winning in Indiana and was but 514 below Grant in California, while 
the Republican majorities in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other Northern 
states were very small. These facts were startling to the Republi- 
cans, and convinced them that henceforth, as in ante-bellum days, 
they would have to reckon with a powerful rival in the Democratic 
party. The two chief causes of this unexpected showing of the 
Democrats were, that thousands of their number who had acted with 
the " Union " party during the war had now returned to their old 
allegiance, and that a considerable number of Republicans, who had 
followed President Johnson and had opposed congressional recon- 
struction, now found a permanent home in the Democratic fold. 

OPENING OF A NEW ERA 

Many of our Presidents have been men with military records ; 
but only once before the election of Grant — just twenty years before 
— had the people chosen a chief magistrate on account of a purely 
military record. General Grant's inaugural address, in which he 
said that he accepted the responsibilities of the great office without 
fear, and his subsequent choosing of a cabinet, revealed his profound 
ignorance of the great work that lay before him. The surprise to 
his party was complete when he named Mr. A. T. Stewart, the well- 
known New York merchant, as secretary of the treasury. Mr. 
Stewart was ineligible, as a law passed in 1789 forbade the employ- 
ment in the revenue service of any one engaged in foreign com- 
merce. When the President ascertained this fact he chose George 
S. Boutwell of Massachusetts to fill the office.^ 

1 As stated in the preceding chapter, Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas did not vote 
lathis election. 

2 First, however, he requested Congress to remove the disability of Mr. Stewart, 
but this request was not granted. 



SUPREME COURT DECISIONS 817 



Other appointments were quite satisfactory : E. B. Washburne 
became secretary of state, Jacob D. Cox, secretary of the interior, E. 
K. Hoar, attorney-general, and J. A. J. Cresswell, post- 
master-general. Mr. Washburne, however, after a week's ^ a me . 
service, resigned and became minister to France, and was succeeded 
in the Cabinet by Hamilton Fish of New York. 

The House was organized on March 4, 1869, according to the law 
passed two years before, and James G. Blaine was elected speaker. 
The Senate easily maintained its standard of ability. Among its lead- 
ing members were Carl Schurz, newly elected from Missouri ; Hannibal 
Hamlin of Maine, former Vice President ; Henry Wilson, a future Vice 
President ; George F. Edmunds of Vermont, Allan G. Thurman, the 
sturdy Ohio Democrat who came to be called the " Old Roman," John 
Sherman, Charles Sumner, Jonathan Trumbull, W. P. Fessenden, and 
William G. Brownlow, the erratic fighting parson of Tennessee. 

One of the first acts of this Congress was to modify the Tenure 
of Office Act to an extent amounting almost to its repeal. This was 
an acknowledgment that the law was a purely partisan one. Affairs 
at the South were still in an unsettled condition, and, as briefly stated 
on a preceding page. Congress passed laws known as " force bills," 
aimed chieflv at Ku Klux interference with elections in the South. 
The first of these, passed in May, 1870, provided that in cities of more 
than twenty thousand inhabitants the elections be controlled by 
Federal supervisors. The second, passed in April, 1871, was far more 
sweeping. It resembled the famous Sedition Law of 1798.^ It made 
the depriving of any one of the rights of citizenship, as defined in the 
Fourteenth Amendment, a penal offense, held the state 
responsible for the enforcement of that Amendment, ,^ °"® 
authorized the President, for a specified time, to suspend 
the writ of Habeas Corpus, and to suppress any insurrection by the 
army and navy of the United States. But for some years longer elec- 
tion troubles at the South continued to disturb the whole country, 
and President Grant was frequently called on to quell the riots and 
to decide the contests. In some states " Returning Boards " had been 
created by law, and these boards were empowered to sit in judgment 
on all election returns. They were destined to attract great attention 
a few years later, at the disputed presidential election of 1876. 

Meantime the Federal Supreme Court was again making itself 
felt in the land. Three decisions of great national importance were 

1 Alexander Johnson's " American Politics," p. 214. 
So 



818 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

made at this period. The first of these, the famous Texas vs. White 
case of 1868,^ while upholding congressional reconstruction, pro- 
nounced that the seceding states had not been out of the Union, and 
that the act of secession was void. The second, in 1869, was a deci- 
sion against the constitutionality of the Legal Tender Law of 1862. 
In this famous case, Hepburn vs. Griswold, Chief Justice Chase pro- 
nounced unconstitutional a portion of the law by which he had, as 
secretary of the treasury, issued the greenbacks eight years before. 
The decision pronounced against the validity of the law with refer- 
ence to preexisting debts. But this decision was not permitted to 
stand. Two new justices having been appointed, the case was tried 
again the next year and the decision was reversed.^ Finally, the 
" Slaughter House '' cases of 1873 concerning the chartering of a 
company by the government of Louisiana practically set state rights 
on the same footing as that commonly understood at the North before 
the war, and decidedly limited the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment. 
These decisions were very conservative in their tendencies, and they 
strongly emphasize what I have stated on a preceding page, ^- that 
the Civil War wrought little permanent change in the civil govern- 
ment of the nation, or even in the relation of the states to the Union. 

The great industrial event of this period was the completion of 
the first railroad across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. The 
great West was rapidly growing. In the late fifties gold had been 
discovered on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, 
Pacific j^g^j. ^j^g present city of Denver, and silver within the 

bounds of Nevada. But these places were far from 
civilization. It was determined therefore to build a railroad through 
this vast mountainous region at the nation's expense. The work was 
begun in 1862. Two companies were chartered, the Union Pacific 
to build westward from Omaha, and the Central Pacific to build east- 
ward from Sacramento. On the lOth of May, 1869, the two companies 
met at a point in Utah, the last rail was laid with impressive cere- 
mony, and the great work was completed. 

More than f 27,000,000 had been given by the government to each 
of these companies, and they received, in addition, every odd section 
of land in a strip twenty miles wide along the entire route. This 
land grant came to give great dissatisfaction to a large portion of 
the people of the country, and was for many years a disturbing 
element. The building of the Pacific Railroad occasioned, a few 

1 See 7 "Wall. 700. 2 See McPherson's " Hand-Book for 1871-1872," p. 53, 



STRAINED RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND 819 

years later, one of the greatest scandals in the history of Congress, 
known as the Credit Mobilier case. 

Soon after Grant became President he conceived the project of 
annexing the Dominican Republic, comprising the eastern portion of 
the island of San Domingo, to the United States. But the scheme 
was opposed by most of the leading statesmen of the party, and it 
came to naught. In the light of these later days, since we have 
acquired West Indian possessions, greater wisdom must be accorded 
General Grant's views than was accorded them at the time. The 
President's views remained unchanged in regard to San Domingo, 
and he referred to it again in his last message to Congress. One 
effect of the matter was a complete alienation between him and 
Senator Sumner, who had led the opposition to annexation. They 
were henceforth personal enemies.^ 

THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON 

In our foreign relations the chief legacy of the war was the 
unsettled dispute with Great Britain concerning the depredations 
of the reckless Alabama and her reckless sisters. Mr. Charles 
Francis Adams, our minister at London, protested from the begin- 
ning against the building of Confederate cruisers in English waters, 
and in 1865 he made to Earl Russell an official statement of the 
number and tonnage of the United States vessels transferred to the 
British flag on account of the depredations of the southern cruisers. 
The earl answered in the following decisive language : " Her 
Majesty's government must decline either to make reparation and 
compensation for the captures made by the Alabama, or to refer the 
question to any foreign state." Secretary Seward some time later 
sent a list of the claims for which the British government would 
be held responsible. The British government still refused to be 
moved ; but when, in 1868, Mr. Adams's successor concluded a treaty 
with that government which ignored the Alabama claims, providing 
only for a commission to settle private claims of both countries, and 
that treaty was rejected by the United States Senate by an almost 
unanimous vote, the English public began to awaken to the fact 
that there was something serious between the two nations. Senator 
Sumner had made a most radical speech, in which he put forth the 

1 Sumner was in the end greatly humiliated by being removed, through Grant's 
influence, from the head of the Senate committee on foreign affairs, and by the recall 
of his personal friend, John Lothrop Motley, from the post as minister to England. 



820 HISTORY OF THE UNIl'ED STATES 

most extravagant claims. He contended that England was responsi 
ble not only for the destruction of our shipping, but for our loss in 
the carrying trade, and even for the prolongation of the war occa- 
sioned by the early recognition of the belligerent rights of the South 
by the British queen. According to Sumner's rating, the British 
government should pay to the United States some hundreds of 
millions of dollars. 

General Grant, who had now become President, gave no counte- 
nance to the preposterous claims of Sumner ; but with the more mod- 
erate claim of damages for the destruction of our shipping he was 
in full sympathy. In his annual message of 1870 he recommended 
that the government assume and pay these claims of American citi- 
zens against England, and thus raise the affair to the dignity of a 
purely international one. The message made a profound impression 
in England, and moved the Ministry to speedy action. Some weeks 
later the English minister at Washington, Sir Edward Thornton, 
proposed a Joint High Commission to sit at Washington and discuss 
pending questions. The offer was accepted and this commission, 
composed of men of the highest standing in the two countries, began 
its sittings early in March, 1871,^ 

For two reasons the British were now anxious for an early settle- 
ment : to preclude all danger of hostilities with the United States, 
and, as Lord Granville said in the House of Lords, to prepare for 
"possible complications in Europe" that might arise from the 
Franco-Prussian War. If England had become embroiled in a 
European war with the Alabama claims unsettled, she could hardly 
have expected the United States to take the trouble to prevent the 
building and fitting out in American waters of vessels hostile to 
her. 

The Joint High Commission labored for two months and brought 
forth the Treaty of Washington, which was ratified by the Senate 
in May, by the British government in June, and was 
Commis^on pi'oclaimed in force by President Grant on the 4th of 
July. The treaty provided not only for the settlement 
of the Alabama Claims, but also for the settlement of the north- 
western boundary of the United States which had been but vaguely 

1 The United States was represented by Hamilton Fish, secretary of state; 
Robert C. Schenck, minister to England; Samuel Nelson, E. R. Hoar, and G. H. 
Williams. Great Britain was represented by Earl de Grey and Ripon, Sir Stafford 
Northcote, Sir Edward Thornton, Sir John A. Macdonald, and Professor Bernard, 
who held the chair of international law at Oxford. 



THE ALABAMA CLAIMS 821 

defined in the Treaty of 1847, and for the claims of Canada against 
the United States concerning the fisheries.^ The Alabama claims 
were to be decided by a tribunal of five men to meet at Geneva, 
Switzerland, the fisheries dispute by a commission to meet at Hali- 
fax, and the boundary between the United States and British Colum- 
bia was to be referred to the Emperor of Germany. 

Of the five men who were to form the Court of Arbitration at 
Geneva, one each was to be appointed by the President of the United 
States, the Queen of England, the King of Italy, the Emperor of 
Brazil, and the President of the Swiss Kepublic. President Grant 
appointed Charles Francis Adams, Queen Victoria appointed Sir 
Alexander Cockburn, lord chief justice of England, the King of 
Italy named Count Sclopis, whose reputation as a jurist and a man of 
letters extended throughout Europe, while the Emperor of Brazil 
appointed the Viscount d'ltajuba, and the Swiss President chose 
Jacques Staempfli. These men were all of great eminence. They 
began their sittings on December 15, 1871, The claims at first 
put forth by the agent of the United States were very extravagant, 
and included the "indirect claims" for consequential damages, such 
as Mr. Sumner had advanced in his Senate speech. Mr. Gladstone 
declared that the " indirect claims " did not come within the tribu- 
nal's jurisdiction, and the whole British press broke out fiercely 
against the American proposal. While the two nations were in a 
furor of excitement over the matter, the Geneva tribunal ended the 
suspense by deciding in favor of the British view, namely, that only 
the claims for actual destruction of property by English-built Con- 
federate cruisers could be considered. 

The real work of the tribunal continued for many months, and 
was not completed until the following September. The decision 
was that the British government had failed to use due 
diligence in the performance of its neutral obligations, a^^rd* 
and that it pay the United States the sum of $15,500,000 
in gold. The only negative vote cast was that of Chief Justice Cock- 
burn, who refused also to sign the article when it was completed. 
The British public was greatly displeased with the verdict ; but the 
Ministry accepted it, and the troublesome question was settled. The 
Americans rejoiced, not on account of the money to be paid, but 
over the moral victory, as the verdict pronounced England in the 
wrong throughout the long controversy. This Alabama Affair has 
1 See McPherson's « Hand-Book," p. 87. 



822 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

been pronounced the most unfortunate blunder in the history of the 
British Monarchy.^ 

The decision of the German Emperor with regard to the boun- 
dary dispute in the Northwest was in favor of the United States, 
giving us a group of small islands that had been claimed by both 
countries. This left the United States, for the first time after the 
close of the Kevolution, as stated by President Grant, without a 
boundary dispute with Great Britain.^ 

THE LIBERAL REPUBLICAN MOVEMENT 

No party was ever founded on purer motives than was the Repub- 
lican party, and no President ever entered on the great office with 
nobler intentions than did General Grant. But no party can long 
have a monopoly of government without the rise of demagogues and 
corruptionists within its ranks. Especially is this true at a time of 
great social upheaval like civil war, when offices are multiplied 
and when the opposing rival becomes so weak that its protesting 
voice can be heard but faintly. The Republican party proved no 
exception to the rule. Its achievements during the first years of its 
power were great. It had left a record in American annals that can- 
not be effaced, but the cankerworm had begun its work. The political 
jobber had gained his seat in the inner councils of the nation ; and 
now, to his great advantage, the people had chosen a President who, 
though a true soldier, was, like Zachary Taylor, only a soldier, a 
President who wanted the knowledge and capacity for administration, 
who was honest — too honest to suspect and watch the dishonest man. 

Before the close of Grant's first term there was widespread 
demoralization in high government circles. Few if any suspected 
Grant of conniving at wrong doing, but many believed that his sim- 
plicity of nature, his want of capacity to curb the wily politician in 
search of plunder, was the chief obstacle to good government. The 
Force Bill, which practically suspended civil government in parts of 
the South, also helped to cause a reaction in the North ; and a very 
respectable element in the Republican party opposed the renomi- 
nation of Grant for a second term. In this class of anti-Grant 
Republicans we find such leaders as Seward, Greeley, and Charles 
A. Dana of New York ; Lyman Trumbull and David Davis of Uli- 

1 The Nation, Vol. XIV, p. 84. 

2 The fisheries question was not disposed of for some years after this. It will hi 
noticed later. 



ANTI-GRANT MOVEMENT 828 

nois; Chase and Stanley Matthews and Thomas Ewing of Ohio; 
Governor Curtin and A. K. McClure of Pennsylvania; diaries 
Francis Adams, Senator Sumner, Carl Schurz, General Banks, 
Cassius M. Clay, Justice Field, and many others. These men 
had many followers, and were supported by such great dailies as 
the New York Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, and the Cincinnati 
Commercial. The great body of the Republican party, however, 
determined to renominate Grant, whereupon a majority of the oppos- 
ing faction broke away from the party, put its own ticket in the 
field, and called itself the Liberal Republican party. The national 
movement was preceded by a local movement in Missouri, where the 
liberals, led by Carl Schurz and B. Gratz Brown, joining the Demo- 
crats, won a victory over the radicals, who favored retaining the dis- 
abilities of the ex-Confederates. The Missouri liberals were soon 
joined by a similar faction in Kew York and other states, and thus 
the anti-Grant or Liberal Republican party came into existence. 

When the Liberals saw that the nomination of Grant by the 
regular party was inevitable, they called a national convention, to 
meet at Cincinnati on the 1st of May, 1872.^ The proposal met with 
a wide response, and on the appointed day the city on the Ohio wit- 
nessed a great gathering, a huge mass meeting rather than a conven- 
tion. Much of the best Republican brains was represented, but the 
crowd was a motley one ; the members had not been sent, they had 
come of their own accord. They represented every shade of politi- 
cal opinion, and were of the same mind in one thing only — opposi- 
tion to Grant. Had the regular party consented to drop Grant, the 
Liberal movement would doubtless have dissolved;^ but as this 
could not be, they proceeded with their work. Their platform pro- 
nounced against civic corruption, and the continued disabilities of 
the ex-Confederates, and, as a direct thrust at Grant, declared that 
no President should be a candidate for reelection.^ On i,iijeral con- 
the tariff they could not agree, and they waived the vention, May, 
issue. The momentous question was the choice of a 1873. 
candidate for the presidency. On this point success or failure would 
probably turn. It was known that the new party could not win 
alone ; but there was a tacit understanding that the Democrats would 
indorse its nominees if acceptable to them. Much, therefore, de- 
pended on the choice of the Liberal convention. 

1 The call was made by the Missouri Liberals. 

3 The Nation, Vol. XV, p. 20. « McPherson, p. 207. 



824 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

The leading name before the convention was that of Charles 
Francis Adams. Adams was a finished statesman. He had dis- 
played high diplomatic skill as minister to England during the war, 
and, moreover, he belonged to the only 'family in America that had 
given two Presidents to the United States. But Adams, like his 
father and grandfather, was wanting in tact and in the winning arts 
of the politician; and, true to his ancestral precedents, he made a 
foolish blunder at the moment when this convention seemed about to 
name him for the highest office in the land. He telegraphed his 
managers to "take him out of that crowd" rather than make any 
pledges for his honesty. There were men in "that crowd" who 
resented the apparent reflection and cast their ballots in another 
direction. The other leading candidates were Lyman Trumbull, 
David Davis, and Horace Greeley. Any one of the first three would 
have been agreeable to the Democrats. The convention nominated 
the fourth. 

HORACE GREELEY 

The great editor of the New York Trilnme was the most con- 
spicuous man in the country next to President Grant; and while 
Grant had but recently loomed first npon the military, then upon 
the political, horizon with the suddenness of a meteor, Greeley's fame 
had shone with a steady light for a generation. While Grant was 
yet a boy in knickerbockers on his father's farm in southern Ohio, 
Greeley was experimenting in the nation's metropolis with the first 
one-cent daily ever issued; while Grant was an unknown cadet at 
West Point, Greeley was in the forefront of the memora- 
Greelev ble political battle of 1840; and while Grant was hauling 

cordwood and hoeing potatoes in Missouri, already a 
middle-aged man, and perhaps without a dream of future greatness, 
Greeley was the proprietor of the leading American newspaper and 
the acknowledged prince of American editors. 

Horace Greeley, the son of a farmer, was born in New Hampshire 
in 1811. As a well-grown boy we find him in the printing business 
in Erie, Pennsylvania. At length, determined to strike out in the 
great world and win for himself the best that his talents could procure, 
he went to the city of New York. After a long journey on foot and 
on canal boats he reached the metropolis with ambition in his soul 
and nothing in his pocket; to become, after years of toil and dis- 
couragement, the leading editor in the city and the nation. 



THE DEMOCRATS JOIN THE LIBERALS 825 

For many years Greeley had been in the midst of every political 
battle in his state and in the nation. His pen was often caustic, 
always powerful ; his courage never faltered, but he often displayed 
a singular lack of wisdom at a critical moment. So outspoken had 
he been on public questions that he had made enemies on every side. 
Herein lay his weakness as a candidate. He could not hope to be 
elected without the aid of the Democratic party, and he had been the 
implacable foe of that party for a generation. Scarcely a leading man 
in the party had escaped the bitter castigation of his pen. Could this 
party now make this man their standard bearer in the great contest ? 

The nomination of Greeley at Cincinnati stunned the Democracy 
of the North.^ Any other public man would liave suited them 
better. For a time the opposition to him was formidable ; but as the 
weeks passed and the leaders perceived the hopelessness of their 
cause, except they joined with the Liberals, it was decided to swal- 
low the medicine, however bitter. Accordingly, the Democratic con- 
vention, which met in July at Baltimore, nominated Greeley and 
B. Gratz Brown, the Liberal Republican candidates.^ 

The Republicans had met in Philadelphia, and had renominated 
Grant by a unanimous vote. Henry Wilson, the Massachusetts sena- 
tor, was named for Vice President.^ The campaign partook of the 
character of that of 1840, when Greeley first rose to public notice. 
The Greeley orators rung many changes on Grant's civic incapacity, 
his nepotism in public appointments, and on the corrupt carpetbag 
governments of the South. The Grant supporters declared that if 
Greeley were elected, it would be a Democratic victory, as the great 
majority of his supporters came from that party ; that it would be 
turning the government over to the unregenerate Democracy. It was 
dangerous, they argued, to intrust the hard-won fruits of the war to 
the party that but eight years before had pronounced the war a fail- 
ure, the party that was unfriendly to the freedman and to the last 
three amendments, the party that included all the old slaveholders 
and ex-rebels. But Greeley was hopeful until the early state elections 

1 Greeley was more popular at the South because of his mild attitude on recon- 
struction, and because he had signed the bail bond of Jefferson Davis. 

2 A small faction of the party, however, calling themselves " the Straightouts," 
refused to support Greeley, met in convention at Louisville, and nominated Charles 
O'Connor and John Quincy Adams. This party made little showing in the election. 

' Wilson's origin was as obscure as that of Lincoln or of Andrew Johnson. He 
was the son of an Irish farm laborer named Colbath, and his own name was Jeremiah 
Jones Colbath. Not liking his name, he had it changed by the state legislature to 
Henry Wilson. 



826 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

pointed unerringly to the reelection of Grant. The election came, 
and Grant swept the country overwhelmingly, receiving 

Slnt*"^ °^ *^^® ^°^®^ °^ ®^®^'^ ^*^*® ^^ *^^® North, and of all but six 
in the South. Since the reelection of Monroe in 1820, 
but twice (in 1852 and in 1864) had there been such a sweeping 
victory. Greeley's elements of weakness were two : tens of thousands 
of old-time Democrats refused to support him and remained away 
from the polls ; and a great many Republicans, who were at first in 
full sympathy with the Liberals, finding themselves in Democratic com- 
pany, hastened before election day to get back into the Republican fold. 
Greeley's defeat came upon him with a shock. It was not 
simply the defeat, for that was not unexpected, even by him, but the 
overwhelming vastness of it, that was crushing. Greeley had come to 
believe, from his great editorial success and from his influence in 
national councils, that he was one of the most highly honored among 
his countrymen ; and now to have his idol shattered at one fell blow 
was more than his sensitive nature could endure. He could not see that 
thousands of his friends had voted against him because they feared 
that a change in the government at that time would not be well for 
the country, and that they were still his friends. He did not foresee 
that his countrymen, for generations after he was gone, would honor 
his memory as one of the ablest and noblest men of his times. He 
saw only the result of the election, and it crushed him. Moreover, 
the last weeks of the campaign he spent at the bedside of his dying 
wife, the companion of his long struggles. Her death occurred just 
before the election, and the double blow proved too heavy. Greeley's 
reason was dethroned, and he was sent to an insane asylum. Ere 
the mouth that brought his great defeat had closed — 
Greelev while the shouts of victory for his successful rival were 

still resounding and the bonfires were still burning — • 
Horace Greeley was dead. The whole nation mourned at the sad 
end of Greeley, one of the noblest of men with all his political 
antagonisms; and men of every political shade, including President 
Grant, stood sorrowing about the grave when his body was laid to rest. 

EXECUTIVE DEMORALIZATION 

The sweeping victory of Grant in 1872 gave the Republican party 
a feeling of security, a belief that it was more strongly intrenched in 
power than ever before. This condition was an unwholesome one, 



DISHONEST GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS 827 

aud it led the party more than ever to disregard the accusations of 
corruption that had been so freely made in the campaign. The 
prophecies of evil, freely made by the Democrats, were soon amply 
justified. General Grant proved utterly incapable of cleaning the 
Augean stables, and during his second term the demoralization in. 
public life was more widespread than ever before in the history of 
the government. If Grant were not utterly without a knowledge 
of the responsibilities of the great office, he was hopelessl}^ egotistical. 
This was shown by his appointing his first Cabinet without consulting 
any of the leaders of his party. And he maintained this attitude 
throughout the eight years. Nor was he a good j udge of character ; the 
political adventurer could gain his ear as readily as the long-tried states-^ 
man of well-known probity, and many of his appointments were made 
without consultation with his Cabinet. The result was that every branch 
of the government became infested with men who sought only plunder. 

The most notable of the resulting scandals was that known as the 
Credit Mobilier case. The Credit Mobilier was a corporation, which 
in ISfU became a company to construct the transcontinental railroad. 
During the presidential campaign of 1872 the Democratic 
leaders charged various Republican leaders with holding ]J-,v,-\-er 
stock in the Credit Mobilier Company. For members 
of Congress to be interested in a company whose profits and fortunes 
depended mainly on friendly acts of Congress was considered highly 
improper. A searching investigation revealed that the charges were 
founded on facts. Many reputations were blasted, and two members 
of the House were severely censured. 

The " Whiskey Ring " was exposed by Secretary of the Treasury 
Bristow. In many western towns — St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, 
and others — the manufacturers of whiskey corrupted the govern- 
ment officials, and in two years defrauded the government of over 
^4,000,000. IMore than fifty United States officials were arrested, but 
most of them escaped punishment. 

The corrupt practices were not confined to the lower officials. 
In 1876, Secretary of War W. W. Belknap was accused of offering to 
sell the control of the post-tradership at Fort Sill, Indian 
Territory. An investigation followed, and the most glar- 
ing frauds were unearthed. Belknap was shown to have received 
at least .|>24,000 by "farming out" contracts. He was speedily 
impeached by the House of Representatives ; but before he could be 
tried by the Senate, and indeed, a few hours before the impeachment 



828 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

vote was passed, he resigned from the Cabinet, and thus no doubt 
escaped conviction by the Senate, 

Indian affairs were woefully mismanaged during this period. 
The Indian bureau had its ring of contractors who grew rich by 
defrauding the government and the Indians, Many of the tribes, 
entitled to certain supplies by treaty with the government, were 
systematically defrauded, and they grew discontented and hostile. 
The disastrous Indian troubles in the Northwest at this time were 
due chiefly to the gross mismanagement of the Indian bureau. 

In 1873 the Modocs of Oregon became unmanageable and General 
Canby, a distinguished officer of the Mexican and Civil wars, was 
sent to pacify them. With two civilians he met the Modoc chief, 
Captain Jack, and his attendants, under a flag of truce, when 
suddenly the Indians opened fire without a word of warning. Canby 
and one of his companions were killed. A vigorous campaign was 
then opened against the tribe, and it was soon subdued and the 
assassins captured. They were tried in a civil court for murder, and 
three of them, including Captain Jack, were put to death. 

The most disastrous Indian battle in the last half century 
occurred in June, 1876, on the Li(:tle Big Horn River in Montana. 
The Sioux and other trioes, led by Sitting Bull and 
d th^^ Crazy Horse, became hostile and collected a band of 

several thousand warriors. An army in three divisions 
was sent against them. Under General Terry, commander of one 
of the divisions, was General George A. Custer, the noted cavalry 
leader, Custer, while separated from the main army, with nearly 
three hundred men, encountered the Indian army and offered battle. 
The Indians surrounded him in great numbers, and though he and 
his troops fought bravely, Custer and his whole band perished,^ 

Not all the troublesome questions of the day resulted from 
executive incapacity. The political turmoils of the South, the re- 
maining legacy of the war and reconstruction, grew out of the opposi- 
tion to the Force Bill. The southern whites were determined to 
terrorize the black voters and to drive the northern squatters from the 
country. To do this bands of masked men rode through the country 
by night and spread terror on every hand. But there were other 
causes of disorder. In Arkansas two of the carpetbaggers. Brooks 

lOnly one man, a half-breed scout, escaped alive. The horse "Commanche" 
also escaped, and was found some miles from the battle ground with seven 
wounds. 



DIVISION IN THE SOUTH 82k 

and Baxter, both claiming to be Republicans, fought over the gov- 
ernorship. The struggle covered two years ; finally President Grant, 
through his attorney general, settled the matter in favor of Baxter. 
Louisiana was the state to suffer most and longest through po- 
iitical disorders. Here also the fight began between Republican 
factions, but it soon became a war between the Republicans and the 
Democrats. W. P. Kellogg, the Republican governor, was accused 
of running the state into ruinous debt, and his election 
was disputed. In August, 1874, an outbreak in the Red Y^^. ^ 
River Parish resulted in the killing of six Republican 
officials. President Grant was about to send troops when the de- 
feated candidate for lieutenant governor, Mr. D. B. Penn, in the ab- 
sence of Mr. McEnery, the defeated candidate for governor, denounced 
Kellogg as a usurper, and called on the people to arm and drive him 
from office. Some ten thousand men responded to Penn's call, and an 
armed collision took place on the streets of New Orleans in which a 
dozen or more men were killed on each side. Kellogg was driven from 
the statehouse, and Penn was installed governor. But Federal troops 
soon arrived and drove Penn out and reinstated Kellogg. The next 
year the trouble was renewed over the election of the legislature, and 
bloodshed was narrowly averted. At length the Democrats sullenly 
yielded to the Kellogg government, owing to the presence of 
Federal troops. On the withdrawal of the troops in 1877 the state 
passed into the hands of the Democrats, where it has since re- 
mained. 



FINANCIAL LEGISLATION 

The great subject of finance, with which the country had to 
grapple during the war period, as we have noticed here and there in 
treating of that period, was still a troublesome problem in the years 
that followed the war. Whatever fault may be found with the 
government during these post-bellum years, in one thing — in manag- 
ing the finances — it did nobly. 

At various times during the war there were temporary spasms in 
the money market, but on the whole the finances were kept in a fairly 
steady condition, owing chiefly to the masterly ability of Secretary 
Chase, and to the legal tender and banking acts of Congress. Never- 
theless gold rose to 285, as before mentioned, and ceased to circu- 
late in the channels of trade ; and with all the vast sources of current 



830 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

revenue the public debt reached $2,800,000,000. This debt had to la 
reckoned with, and in doing so the Eepviblican party, in 
^"^Rfi'f order to maintain the public credit, took a stand equally 

commendable with that of the Federal party eighty 
years before. Mr. Hugh McCuUoch, secretary of the treasury, be- 
gan retiring the greenbacks in 18G6, but, after he had withdrawn 
some $66,000,000 from circulation in a little over two years. Con- 
gress, alarmed at an outcry against it from the West, put a stop tc 
the process. Through the able management of McCulloch the public 
debt had been reduced before the close of the year 1868 by more 
than $200,000,000, while the annual revenue had been cut down 
$140,000,000, and nearly all the temporary obligations had been 
exchanged for long-time bonds. 

In 1869 occurred the great gold conspiracy, culminating in "Black 
Friday." The leading character in this plot to corner the gold market 
Black Friday ^^^ ^^^ Gould of New York. It had been the custom 
September of the government to sell a million dollars' worth of 
24, 1869. gold per month for the accommodation of importers and 

others. Gould, who was aided by James Fisk and A. 11. Corbin, a 
brother-in-law of President Grant, and one or two others, conspired 
to corner the gold market; but this could not be.done while the gov- 
ernment sales continued. They convinced the President, therefore, 
that it would be better for the country, the movement of the crops, 
and the like, if the gold sales were suspended. The President inno- 
cently consented and promised to grant their request. Lest he should 
change his mind, however, he was induced, how or by whom is not 
known, to make a visit of a week or two with an old friend in an 
obscure town in western Pennsylvania, which was without railroad 
or telegraphic communication. The conspirators determined to pur- 
chase all the gold in sight and then force it to the highest possible 
point before selling. Everything seemed to work well. The pool 
held a hundred millions. On the fatal Friday they purchased twenty- 
six million at 1.60, and pandemonium reigned in the stock exchange. 
But on one thing they had not reckoned. President Grant had 
returned to Washington, and in response to many letters and telegrams 
urging him to break the conspiracy, he yielded and threw five 
millions of gold on the market. This worked like magic. It caused 
a sudden drop in the gold market, and the conspirators were beaten 
at their own game. Their losses reached many millions. The panic 
caused by this plot was temporary and was purely financial. The 



THE PUBLIC DEBT 831 

real panic that was to lay a heavy hand on all the people Avas four 
years yet in the future. 

We return to our subject — the doings of Congress concerning 
the public debt. President Grant in his annual message of 1869 
recommended that tlie large portion of the public debt which still 
bore 6 per cent interest be funded at 4|- per cent. The response 
was a refunding act in July, 1870, and a supplementary one the 
following January. These acts authorized the issue of $500,000,000 
of 5 per cent bonds redeemable in ten years, $300,000,000 at 4i- per 
cent to run fifteen years, and $1,000,000,000 of 4 per 
cent bonds to run thirty years. All were payable in .,® ^^vi.^^ 
coin and exempt from taxation. The saving to the 
government occasioned by refunding at a lower rate of interest 
amounted to many millions a year. But, on the other hand, the 
revenues were greatly reduced by the expiration of the income tax 
law at the end of the year 1871, and by the reduction of the duties 
on tea, coffee, sugar, and some other articles ; and yet, the war 
expenses being cut off, the public debt diminished rapidly, and by 
the close of the year 1872 it was nearly a thousand million dollars 
less than at the close of the war. 

Before the refunding was completed, the silver question came 
into prominence. In February, 1873, a law was passed to " demon- 
etize" silver, or to drop the standard silver dollar of 
412,V grains from the list of United States coins, and sub- ^i^JJ?"®*'^'^^ 
stitute the trade dollar of 420 grains.^ This caused a 
drop in the value of silver, and a popular desire that the old dollar 
be restored grew up. The result was the Bland-Allison Bill of 1875.^ 
By this law the secretary of the treasury was directed to purchase 
enough silver to coin not less than two million nor more than four 
million dollars a month of 4121 grains ; while, by a law of 1877, the 
trade dollar ceased to be a legal tender. By a law of 1878, the dollar 
of 4121 grains was made a legal tender, and the following year silver 
coins of less than one dollar were made legal tender to the amount 
of ten dollars. Thus began the silver agitation that was to result in 
the Sherman Law of 1890, its repeal a few years later, and the great 
silver movement that was to mark the closing years of the century. 

The great aftermath of the inflation of the war period was the 

1 This act was not opposed by any one, as the silver dollar had long been out of 
circulation. 

2 Passed over the President's veto. 



832 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



panic of 1873, For sjme years after the war money was plentiful, 

and the people formed the habit of STjendiug it freely, 
Pamcofl873. j 4; • ^ \.- m 

and 01 engaging m unwise speculation. ihe cur- 
rency had been greatly contracted by the canceling of legal tender 
notes under Secretary McCulloch. But the people did not take 
account of the new conditions ; they went on in the old way until the 
crash came. Hundreds of miles of needless railroads were built in 
the unpeopled West ; great business enterprises were undertaken on 
borrowed capital. As a fever leaves its victim weaker than before, so 
the fever of inflated prices and overissues of money will in the end 
bring disaster in the business world. The panic of 1873, which ran its 
course in four or five years, was occasioned, but not caused, by the 
failure of the great Philadelphia banking house of Jay Cooke and Com- 
pany on September 18, 1873. This day is known as a second Black 
Friday. From this day failure followed failure among the great 
business and banking firms. Business of every sort became stagnant, 
and only after years of recuperation could the normal conditions of 
trade be resumed. 

POLITICAI. REACTION 

In our American politics a money panic or an industrial depression, 
"hard times" from whatever cause and however inevitable, is laid 
at the door of the party in power. For many scandals in public 
life and for many other shortcomings the Republican party was, in 
whole or in part, responsible ; but no human wisdom could have pre- 
vented the panic of 1873. And yet the party was held responsible for 
it, and it became a powerful weapon in the hands of the Democrats in 
their struggle for supremacy. The defeat of Greeley in 1872 left the 
Democratic party disorganized and prostrate ; but in the end the party 
was strengthened by the escapade. It went down in the disaster, but 
it had become used to defeat, and it rose with its usual resilience. 
The Liberal party was crushed to rise no more, and most of its mem- 
bers went back to the Republican fold whence they had come ; but 
not all, — thousands remained with the Democratic party, and in 
this way was that party strengthened by the Liberal movement.* 

1 As examples take A. K. McClure and ex-Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania. 
McClure, one of the ablest editors in the country and the intimate friend of Lincoln, 
after many years as a Republican manager, now became a leader of the Democrats. 
Curtin never went back to the Republicans, but was sent to Congress for several 
terms as a Democrat. Thomas Ewing and Lymau Trumbull were oi this class. 



DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS ELECTED 83S 

The Republicans had sinned grievously. The party was justly 
blamed for the corruption that pervaded the administration, for the 
Credit Mobilier scandal, and for the " Salary Grab," by which the 
members of Congress increased their own compensation by 50 per 
cent, and made the bill retroactive so as to apply to the Congress 
that passed it;^ but it was unjustly blamed for bringing on the 
panic of 1873. The people are ever ready to listen when their 
pockets are touched. They heeded the Democratic call for reform. 
The first note of warning came from Ohio, where, in 1873, the people 
elected as their governor William Allen, an old-time Democrat who 
had served in Congress before the Mexican War. New York 
sounded the next note in the election of Samuel J. Tilden as governor. 
The political reaction swept the country like a tidal wave, and in 1874 
the Democrats carried the country. The Republican majority of 
near a hundred in the Lower House was replaced by a Democratic 
majority almost as great. Mr. Blaine, who had been Speaker for 
the past six years, was replaced by Michael C. Kerr of Indiana. 

The Republican party, guilty though it was of many misde- 
meanors, now did a noble act. After a short session the House would 
pass into other hands, after which no party measure 
could be enacted. Before the close of the session, there- Resumption 
fore, the Republicans passed a law providing for the grad- 
ual resumption of specie payments. The act was passed at this time 
for the purpose of placing the matter beyond the control of the 
Democrats, as they were known to oppose it. Resumption of specie 
payments, — that is, a redeeming of all paper money, or a readiness to 
redeem it in coin, was necessary to the credit of the nation and to 
the bringing about of perfectly normal business conditions. The Re- 
sumption Act had been recommended in the President's message, and 
by the secretary of the treasury, B. H. Bristow. It was passed in Jan- 
uary, 1875, and was to go into operation just four years later. John 
Sherman of Ohio, secretary of the treasury during the succeeding ad- 
ministration, became the chief agent in bringing it about, and in doing 
so he placed himself as a financier in the class with Hamilton, Gallatin, 
and Chase. 

1 So fierce was the cry of the people against this act that the same Congresi 
repealed it. 



8a 



834 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



THE CENTENNIAL 

A pleasing episode in the midst of political turmoil was the great 
industrial fair tliat was held at Philadelphia in commemoration of 
the nation's birth. The old city from which the Declaration of 
Independence had emanated was the most fitting place for this Cen- 
tennial Exhibition, and the expansive Fairmonnt Park, lying on 
both sides of the winding Schuylkill, furnished an admirable site. 
In 1872 Congress passed an act creating a Centennial Board of 
Finance with full power to transact the financial business. It also 
created a commission to consist of one delegate from each state and 
territory, requested the President to proclaim the exposition to the 
Avorld and invite other nations to participate. Thirty-three countries 
responded — all the civilized nations, except Greece. 

The necessary money was raised by a loan of $1,500,000 by 
Congress, an appropriation of an equal sum by Philadelphia, 
$1,000,000 by Pennsylvania, smaller amounts by other states, and 
the remainder by the sale of stock. Several hundred buildings, large 
and small, were erected on the grounds. The main building, a great 
structure covering twenty acres, was devoted chiefly to manufactures 
and mining products of all nations. Next in size came Machinery 
Hall, which covered thirteen acres. The chief attraction of this 
building was the great Corliss engine which furnished the motive 
power for thousands of connecting machines. Agricultural Hall, 
covering ten acres, was built in the form of a nave with three tran- 
septs. The products here displayed, especially from the great middle 
West, constituted one of the most attractive features of the fair. 
These aforementioned buildings were temporary; but Memorial 
Hall, a substantial granite structure devoted to art, and Horti- 
cultural Hall, made of iron and glass in the Moorish style of the 
twelfth century, were intended to be permanent, and are still 
standing. 

A vast throng of people attended the opening, President Grant 
and Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil, being the chief figures. The 
people who entered the gates during the six months of the exhibition, 
from May 10 to November 10, numbered 9,900,000, a larger attend- 
ance than had any previous international exhibition, except that at 
Paris in 1867, which was open eight months instead of six. The 
Centennial Exhibition was not successful iiuaiiciully, as its stock- 



REPUBLICAN CONVENTION 835 

holders were never repaid in full. But in the more important objects 
— the advancing of science and knowledge, the awakening of a 
fraternal interest between our country and foreign nations and 
between the various sections of our own country — the exhibi- 
tion was eminently successful. It proved a stimulus to art, 
science, and commerce, to agriculture and manufacturing in every 
branch. 

The lesson learned by America was a long-needed lesson in art 
and grace. The American people, in preparing a great continent for 
modern civilized life had been painfully practical, and in the great 
rush of building cities and railroads and inventing machinery had 
aimed at utility while neglecting the refinements tliat characterize 
the older countries. Many of the foreign exhibits at the great 
fair were of such a character as to awaken in the overpractical Ameri- 
can a desire to cultivate the higher graces and refinements of art and 
beauty that mean so much in modern civilization. The European, 
on the other hand, was benefited by his contact with the sleepless 
activity, the ingenious, ever advancing life that characterize America. 

THE DISPUTED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 

Never but once in our history has there been a disputed presi- 
dential election. Twice before the electoral college had failed to 
choose a President and the election was thrown into the House ; ^ 
but in neither case was there any dispute as to the number of votes 
cast for each candidate. In 1876, however, there was a dispute con- 
cerning the number of electoral votes cast for each candidate, and 
the peace of the country was most seriously threatened. 

For sixteen years the Republican party had held the reins of 
government. Its achievements were great and of permanent value ; 
but its many false steps, especially those of Grant's second term, 
had greatly weakened the party. The great wave of Democracy 
that swept over the country in 1874 had in some measure subsided ; 
but the sentiment for reform was still strong, and the Democrats 
eagerly entered the presidential contest of the centennial year. 

The Republicans met in national convention at Cincinnati on the 
14th of June. For the first time since 1860 there was to be a con- 
test for the nomination. The man whose following was largest was 
James Gr. Blaine of Maine, and his name was put before the conven- 
tion by Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll in a brilliant outburst of eloquence 

1 In 1800 and 1824. 



836 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

that made the speaker scarcely less famous than the one for whom 
he spoke. Blaine was by far the strongest and most popular leader 
in the party. But his name had been tainted with a charge of 
corruption, and a certain conservative element of the Republican 
party regarded him with distrust. Furthermore, he had powerful 
enemies who were ready to go to any lengths to compass his defeat.^ 

On the first ballot Blaine fell but little short of the nomination. 
Six ballots were cast without result ; but on the seventh there Avas 
a stampede for Governor Hayes of Ohio, who received 
Sl^e^'*'' the nomination. William A. Wheeler of New York was 
nominated for the vice presidency. The platform 
sounded the great deeds of the party in the past, promised to 
punish all public offenders with unsparing severity, and mercilessly 
arraigned the Democracy as in league with, if not identical with, the 
late foes of the government. 

The nomination of Rutherford B. Hayes was a surprise to the 
country. He may be classed among the " dark horse " candidates, 
as no important element of his party had intended to make him the 
nominee. Hayes had not been looked upon as a leading man of his 
party, but his record was by no means to be despised. ^ A native of 
Ohio, and a graduate of the Harvard law school, he had served through 
the war and had attained the rank of brigadier general. While still in 
the field he was elected to Congress, where he served four years. 
It is singular how often the number four recurs in the career of 
Hayes. Four years he spent as a youth in college ; four years he 
served in the war, being wounded four times ; four years he served 
in Congress, being first elected in 1864 ; four years and a little over he 
was governor of Ohio, and four years President of the United States. 

The Democratic convention was held in St. Louis two weeks after 
the nomination of Hayes. For the first time since the passing of 
Douglas the party enjoyed the leadership of a great man. For 
mauy years Samuel J. Tilden of iSTew York had served his party in 
minor capacities ; but only recently — not until he had almost 
reached his three score years — had he risen in the political sky as 
a star of the first magnitude. He was a great lawyer, and possessed 
vast wealth. He had come into national prominence by unearthing 
the corruptions of the Tweed Ring in New York, and he was then 

^ A feeble effort was made by the friends of President Grant to have him nomi- 
nated for a third term ; but the plan was killed by an almost unanimous vote in the 
House of Representatives against it. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1876 887 

made governor of the state. In a short time he was recognized as the 
leader of the Democracy in the nation. He beheld his party, as it 
were, a flock without a shepherd, and quietly assumed control. 

Tilden was nominated on the second ballot by a very large 
majority, and Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana was given second 
place on the ticket. The platform sounded, with the ring of a 
bugle blast, the one note of reform in the government service. 
And this became the Democratic cry throughout the campaign. It 
was reiterated and reechoed from every side ; the city daily and the 
country newspaper, the famous orator and the local exhorter in the 
countiy schoolhouse — all joined in the one widespread cry of reform. 
The Democratic orators told the truth, but not the whole 
truth. Unwearied they were in crying out against the ^<'^J°*^^o'^ 
evils of the Republican administration, but its good deeds 
they left unmentioned ; the settlement of the Alabama claims, the pro- 
vision for a resumption of specie payments, the improvement of the nat- 
uralization laws — for such the Democratic orator had no use in 1876. 

The Republicans were clearly on the defensive. They could not 
raise a counter cry of corruption, for the Democrats had been out of 
power for sixteen years, and they resorted to the old device of 
"waving the bloody shirt." They denounced the Democrats, North 
and South, as public enemies, unregenerate rebels, and called on the 
people to meet them at the polls in the same spirit as they had been 
met on the battle field.^ If the Democrats succeeded to power, the 
southern war debt would be paid, and perhaps the black man reenslaved. 
But the cry was well worn ; only the least intelligent were frightened 
by it. As the campaign progressed the Republicans assailed the 
character of Mr. Tilden, and drew forth from him an explanatory 
letter which satisfied his followers, but did not silence his accusers. 

Besides the two great political parties two smaller ones came into 
the field in this campaign. The Independent, or Greenback party, 
nominated the venerable New York philanthropist, Peter Cooper, 
for the presidency, while the newly organized Prohibition party 
chose Greene Clay Smith for the same office. But these minor 
parties cut a small figure in the great contest. 

The contest was a close one, as had been foreseen ; but no one 
was prepared for the long, exciting struggle that was to continue 
throughout the winter. On the morning after the election, the news- 
papers of the country announced the election of Tilden; but this 

1 The Nation, Vol. XXIII, p. 227. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



was soon disputed by the Republicans, and the struggle, which was 
supposed to end with election day, had only begun. Tilden had 
won the states of New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Indiana 
in the north, and every southern state except three. South Carolina, 
Florida, and Louisiana, which were still under carpetbag govern- 
ment , He had also received a popular majority of a quarter of a 
million votes. It required 185 electoral votes to elect, and Tilden 
had secured 184 without any from the three disputed states. Mr. 
Hayes, therefore, to win the presidency must have every elector 
from these three states. In one of these, Louisiana, the face of the 
returns gave Tilden a majority of 7876 over Hayes. The other two 
were close, Hayes having a slight apparent majority. How cculd 
the Republicans go behind the returns and claim Louisiana? Sim- 
ply by pronouncing the Democratic majority fraudulent through the 
" Returning Board," which had absolute judicial power over the elec- 
tions. The Returning Board in each state was a creation of the 
carpetbag government, and the carpetbag government was sustained 
by national troops. If these forces chose, therefore, to pronounce 
the three states Republican, there was no power to prevent it — and 
that is exactly what they chose. The matter was decided in high 
Republican circles at Washington. The prize was vast — the con- 
trol of a great nation — and the temptation proved too great to be 
resisted. The Democratic party has been a dreadful sinner since 
long before the war, has often committed fraud, and even now is un- 
reformed and unfit to control the government. If such a misfortune 
can be averted by appropriating a few electoral votes, it is quite right 
to do so. It would in the end be a real service to the country. Thus 
reasoned the Republicans, and their conscience in the matter was 
probably up to the standard of the average political conscience. The 
Democratic party might have done the same thing under the same 
conditions. 

The Democrats gave up South Carolina and Florida without a 
serious struggle, but they felt that they could certainly hold Louisi- 
ana, where the returns gave them nearly eight thousand 
Returning majority. Some of the leading members of each party 
went to New Orleans to see fair play for their respec- 
tive parties. The Democrats who went thither proposed joint meet- 
ings that all might witness the final count by the returning board, 
but the Republicans refused their request and excluded them from 
the meetings. 



THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION 839 

The returning board in Louisiana was properly composed, of five 
members ; but at this moment there were but four, and two of them 
were colored men. The men were insignificant in the extreme. One 
of the white men, J. M. Wells, had been dismissed from a public office 
as "a political trickster and dishonest man." ^ One of the colored 
men was a saloon keeper who had been indicted for larceny and had 
confessed his crime. The situation was not only grave; it was 
highly ludicrous. A great nation of fifty million people waited 
with breathless eagerness for this petty board of insignificant and 
unknown men to name their Chief Magistrate for the ensuing four 
years. Moreover, the board was for sale. Wells sent to New York 
and offered to deliver the electoral vote of Louisiana to the Demo- 
crats for the sum of one million dollars.^ The offer was declined. 
What may have been his negotiations with the Republicans is not 
known, except that he was appointed to an office soon after the inau- 
guration. The board threw out more than enough Democratic pre- 
cincts, on the ground of fraud and violence at the election, to sweep 
away the Tilden majority, and the Hayes electors were given cer- 
tificates. The Democratic governor then gave certificates to the 
Tilden electors. 

It was shown that there had been much disorder and violence at 
the polls in Louisiana as in other states, but both parties had been 
guilty. The returning board, which actually falsified some of the 
returns (for which one of its members was afterward sent to the 
penitentiary), merely substituted one fraud for another. 

The Democrats all over the country raised the cry of fraud. The 
weeks passed. Neither party would yield, and intense excitement 
prevailed everywhere. The Democrats threatened to 
raise an army and prevent the seating of Hayes by ^^^^ ^^" ^ 
force. The danger of internecine war was tremendous. 
Such a war might have been the most appalling in history. Only 
the deep-seated conservatism of the people, the inborn love of peace 
and order, saved the country. The people at this crisis looked 
instinctively to Congress for a solution. Bvit the Senate was Repub- 
lican and the House Democratic. What could be done ? Inaugura- 
tion day drew near. One proposal for settlement after another was 
made and rejected. At length, however, it was agreed by a vote of 

1 Haworth's " Hayes-Tilden Disputed Presidential Election," p. 98. This work 
is an exhaustive and scholarly study of the subject. 

2 Ibid., pp. 111-112. 



840 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

both houses that the matter be settled by a grand tripartite coin 
mittee of fifteen — ^five from the Senate, five from the House, and 
five from the Supreme Court. This committee, known as the 
Electoral Commission, was to decide the contest, and from their 
decision there was to be no appeal. When fourteen had been 
chosen, five from each House and four from the Supreme Court, 
seven of them were from each political party. Justice David Davis 
was about to be selected by the four from the Supreme Court, as the 
fifteenth, as he was considered a neutral in politics ; but at that 
moment the Illinois legislature elected him to the United States 
Senate as a Democrat. Justice Bradley was then chosen in his stead.^ 
Davis had supported Tilden in the campaign, while Bradley had sup- 
ported Hayes, and this change was fatal to the chances of Tilden. 

The Electoral Commission was thus composed of eight Kepublicans 
and seven Democrats. It was hoped, however, that they would rise 
above the trammels of party and render a judicial verdict on the 
pure merits of the case. But this they could not do. On every 
question that came before them they voted as partisans and not as 
judges. Double returns had been sent from each of the 
Comm on three disputed states, and in every case, including a dis- 
puted elector from Oregon, the commission decided for 
the Hayes electors by a vote of eight to seven. The final vote was 
taken on the 2d of March, and two days later General Hayes became 
President of the United States.^ The Democrats were greatly 
disappointed and they found some relief in renewing the cry of 
fraud, in accusing the Republicans of having stolen the presidency 
— and this cry they kept up for many years. 

General Hayes was an honest man, and he made a faithful Presi- 
dent; but he never ceased to feel keenly the accusation of his 
opponents that he had accepted an office to which he had not been 
elected. And yet it is difficult to see how he could have done other- 
wise, when called to the presidential chair, than obey the mandate 
of his party, without bringing greater evils upon the country. 

Scarcely had Mr. Hayes taken his seat when he withdrew the 

1 The Electoral Commission was composed of the following persons : Justices of 
the Supreme Court, Clifford, Miller, Field, Strong, and Bradley ; Senators, Edmunds, 
Morton, Frelinghuysen, Bayard, and Thurman; Representatives, Payne, Hunton, 
Abbot, Garfield, and Hoar. 

2 He took the oath of ofiice on Saturday, March 3d, and the ceremonies were 
held on the fifth. 



NOTES 841 

troops from the garrisons of the three Southern states,' which at once 
passed into the hands of the Democrats, and from that time to the 
present they all have been steadily Democratic. Thus ended carpet- 
bag rule in the South. The Republican rank and file were not 
pleased with this action of President Hayes. By thus recognizing 
the governors and other state officers who had been voted for on the 
same tickets that had contained the Tilden electors, the President 
was in a sense acknowledging that the Tilden electors had received 
a majority of votes over his own. The act certainly darkened the 
cloud that hung over his title to the presidency. This was explained 
by the claim that as the electors may be chosen "in such manner 
as the legislature of the state may direct," the legislature had the 
power to commit the choice of electors to the returning boards, 
though not the choice of state officers. It developed, however, 
that the Republican leaders had bargained with the Democrats of 
these states to withdraw the troops and to give them (the Demo- 
crats) full control, if they would agree to the appropriation by the 
Republicans of the electoral votes. If this is true, — and it is 
positively stated by Colonel A. K. McClure in his recent book/ — it 
was one of the most unsavory bargains in our political history, and 
either party was quite as guilty as the other. 

NOTES 

The Chicago Fire. — One of the most destructive fires of modern times, and 
the greatest city fire in history, was that of Chicago, October 8-9, 1871. It 
started in a small barn in the western district of the city, and burned over nearly 
2200 acres, reducing 17,450 buildings to ashes, and destroying 250 human lives. 
Some of the finest business blocks were included in this area, as were also many 
costly private residences, extensive factories, vast piles of lumber, and thousands 
of tons of coal. The value of the property consumed reached nearly 1 200,000,000, 
and 98,000 people were rendered homeless. The rebuilding of Chicago displayed, 
as nothing had ever done before, the marvelous energy of the West, and espe- 
cially the enterprise of the people of this great mid-continental metropolis. On 
the ruins of the old city a new and grander city was built, and with such 
rapidity that within a very few years scarcely a trace of the disastrous confla- 
gration remained. 

The Tweed Ring. — One of the notable events of 1871 was the unearthing 
of the notorious Tweed Ring in New York. For some years the city had been 
held by the throat by a gang of politicians, who proved to be thieves plundering 
the people under the guise of law. The leader of these was W. W. Tweed, 

1 Except that this had already been done in the case of Florida. 

2 See "Our Presidents," p. 266. 



842 NOTES 

« 
formerly a mechanic, then the political "boss"; and with him were associated 
R. B. Connolly, city comptroller; P. B. Sweeny, head of the public parks 
department; A. Oakley Hall, the mayor, and others of lesser note. The thieves 
secured control of all the machinery of the city, and then by forged accounts, by 
furnishing supplies, giving out contracts, and the like, they looted the treasury 
of vast sums of money. They charged the city $12,000,000 for the new city 
treasury building, which probably cost less than $2,000,000. The robberies 
doubtless exceeded $100,000,000, much of which was used for bribing lower 
officials. The corruption was exposed largely through the tireless efforts of 
Samuel J. Tilden. Hall was tried and the jury disagreed. Connolly and Sweeny 
fled the country. Tweed was sentenced to pay a heavy fine, and to serve twelve 
years in prison, when he made his escape. He was afterwards caught in Spain 
and brought back. He died in prison in 1878. 

The Burlingame Treaty. — An important event of the year 1868 was the 
making of the Burlingame Treaty with China. Anson Burlingame, a man with 
a varied career as a member of the Free-soil and Know-nothing parties, as one 
of the founders of the Republican party, and as member of Congress from 
Massachusetts, was sent as minister to China in 1861. After six years' service, 
when about to return to the United States, the Chinese government offered to 
make him envoy of that country to the United States, and to the nations of 
Europe. He accepted, and arrived in the United States with a Chinese embassy 
in the spring of 1868. They were received with high honor, and a treaty of 
commerce and amity was soon framed, and was ratified by our Senate in July. 
Burlingame then proceeded to Europe in the employ of China, and soon had 
treaties with that country and most of the European countries. Early in 1870, 
while negotiating at St. Petersburg, he died of pneumonia. The later influx of 
Chinese to the United States had its origin in the Burlingame Treaty, as it 
permitted a fr^e migration from one country to the other. 



i 



CHAPTER XXXTII 

INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 

The retirement of President Grant was pathetic. As a com- 
mander of armies he had won enduring honors, but his eight years' 
service in the great oflfice of the presidency had added no luster to 
his name. For the intrigues and corruptions of his administration 
he was responsible only in so far as he was incapable of perceiving 
and checking them. That he was personally honest cannot be 
doubted. He received no share of the plunder of his dishonest 
officials, and it must have grieved his soul when he realized, as he 
certainly did, that his administration would be remembered more 
by the corrupt practices of the officials whom he trusted than for 
anything else. But the American people have affectionately over- 
looked his weaknesses, and they remember him as the heroic figure 
that forced the surrender of Vicksburg and of the Confederate army 
at Appomattox ; while his generous terms at the surrender of Lee 
and his mild partisanship in the years following endeared him to the 
people of the South. 

NEW CONDITIONS 

President Hayes was a sincere man and not without ability ; but 
he was not popular with his party. He never gained, nor attempted 
to gain, a place in its inner counsels. His withdrawal of the troops 
from the South displeased many ; his vetoing the Bland Silver Bill 
won him few friends. All corruptionists were arrayed against the 
President when they found that he was beyond their reach. Then 
it must be added that Mr. Hayes had no power to win and manage 
Congress, as many of his predecessors had done. The Democrats 
had control of the House, and during the whole four years no dis- 
tinctive party measure could be passed. In fact, the Democrats on 
several occasions held up the necessary legislation, such as the appro- 
priation bills, by putting on riders for the repeal of some obnoxious 
Republican law, notably the General Elections Law of 1872. Every 

843 



844 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

effort to coerce the President was resorted to, such as refusing 
appropriations necessary to carry out the laws, but the President 
refused to yiekl ; he vetoed one measure after another and triumphed 
in the end. But these were only ripples compared with the turbu- 
lent breakers of the past, and the Hayes administration was of great 
benefit to the country as a season of political restfulness. From the 
outbreak of the war fifteen years before, the violence of partisan or 
military contest, or both, had been incessant. Now for the first time 
since the firing on Fort Sumter the South was left to take care of 
itself, the great parties were well balanced, and the people were free 
to turn their attention to the industrial development of the country. 
They felt too, as never before, the oneness of the nation. The bitter- 
ness engendered by the great civil strife was beginning 
1 ica res . ^^ soften, and, but for the occasional rumors of violence 
at the South, the negro question and the secession question passed 
out of the public mind. For half a century such political quiet had 
been unknown ; and for the first time in American history the national 
pride was rightfully enthroned in the public heart, and state pride 
forever relegated to the second place. 

Mr. Hayes was fortunate in securing William M. Evarts as secre- 
tary of state and John Sherman as secretary of the treasury. The 
great task before Sherman was to bring about resumption of specie 
payments without disturbing the business of the country. This he did 
with admirable skill, and when the day of resuming came (January 
1, 1879), not a ripple did it make on the business world. The secre- 
tary had f 130,000,000 in gold with which to redeem outstanding 
notes ; but few were offered, so great was the confidence of the people 
in the government. 

During the last half of the Hayes administration the Democrats 
were in full control of both houses of Congress — for the first time 
since 1858. But owing to the veto power of the Kepublican Presi- 
dent the Democrats could carry out no party measure. The dead- 
lock continued for ten years longer.^ Meantime the people turned 
their attention to business. For the first time the resources of the 
South were added to the economic forces of the nation. The system 
of labor in the South before the war was such that only the agricul- 
tural interests could be developed. The vast coal beds, covering 
some forty thousand square miles, the extensive iron deposits, the 

1 Except for two years, 1881-1883, when the Republicans, who controlled the House 
by one vote , also controlled the Senate by the single decidi ng vote of the Vice President, 



LABOR AGITATION 845 



illimitable timber regions — all had remained unused. But now the 
old system was swept away, the whole South was thrown open to 
the labor of the world, mines were opened and manufactories built, 
and this without any decrease, but indeed with a steady increase^ 
of the production of cotton. 

One effect of the newly awakened industrial life was that the 
great business interests of the country became centralized in the 
hands of a comparatively few men. Great corporations were organ- 
ized, and as a partial result the labor world became restless. In 1877 
the great railroad strike occurred. The employees of great rail- 
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad went on a strike on the road strike, 
14th of July, and they were soon followed by the era- 1877. 
ployees of all the other great lines east of the Mississippi, and for 
two weeks all traffic in that great section was at a standstill. The 
strikers took possession of the railroad property, — tracks, yards, 
roundhouses, and rolling stock, — and in Pittsburg, the center of the 
disturbance, there were serious riots, resulting in many deaths, and in 
the destruction of millions of dollars' worth of property. In Martins- 
burg, West Virginia, in Baltimore and other places there was much 
rioting and frequent conflicts between the rioters and the troops sent 
to keep the peace. The governors of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and 
West Virginia were forced to call for national troops to aid them in 
enforcing the laws. By the end of July the fire of mob violence had 
burned out and the strikers resumed work. In some instances the 
strikers had won some advantage by the strike ; but in many cases 
they went back to work without any substantial gain. 

The railway strike was contagious. It was followed by sympa- 
thetic strikes in many callings — coal-mining, manufacturing, and 
many branches of industry in which the wages of the laborer were 
low — and the disturbance spread to the Pacific Coast. The most 
serious of these was the strike of the anthracite miners of Pennsyl- 
vania, which spread to the bituminous regions of West Virginia and 
westward to Illinois. The twofold grievance of the miners was 
too low wages, and the obligation to purchase all their supplies at 
the company stores at exorbitant prices. The miners, who had the 
general sympathy of the public, won in the contest and gained an 
advance of 10 per cent in wages.' 

1 Just before this strike the notorious Mollie Maguires, a murderous band that 

had spread terror through the coal regions of Pennsylvania for several years, were 
run down and captured, several of the leaders being hanged. 



846 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Close upon these events followed a labor agitation of a different 
kind on the Pacific Coast, known as the anti-Chinese movement. 
The Chinese began migrating to California in large numbers soon 
after the concluding of the Burlingame Treaty. Their willingness 
to work for very low wages rendered them, as their numbers in- 
creased, undesirable competitors with white laborers. After earning 
a few hundred dollars they would betake themselves back to their 
native land, whence hordes of their brethren would come to America 
to repeat the process. In no case did the Mongolian pretend to be- 
come an element in American society ; he remained apart from tlie 
body politic, retaining his peculiar customs and superstitious. The 
Chinese threatened to deluge the whole western coast with their 
undesirable presence. After various sporadic efforts that came to 
nothing, a movement against Chinese immigration was set on foot 
in 1877. The laborers of San Francisco, led by Dennis 
Anti-Cnmese Keartiey, one of their number, held many open meet- 
ings to denounce Chinese labor and immigration. The 
meetings were disorderly, and the leaders, including Kearney, were 
imprisoned. But the movement would not subside. Congress was 
petitioned to take up the matter, to the end that the Burlingame 
Treaty be modified in the interest of the people of the Pacific Coast. 
In 1878 Congress passed a Chinese Exclusion measure, which, 
however, was vetoed by President Hayes. Years passed and the 
Chinese continued to come in increasing numbers. The agitation 
was renewed, and in 1888 a Chinese Exclusion law was enacted. 
This was followed in May, 1892, by the Geary Chinese Exclusion 
Law, introduced by representative Geary of California. 
1892^ ^^' This law was the most sweeping of its kind ever enacted 
by any country, and it awakened a vigorous protest from 
the Chinese government. While to some extent evaded, the law has 
greatly relieved the western coast of a most undesirable class. 

About the time of Hayes's accession to the presidency an indus- 
trial movement of the farmers reached its height. The Patrons of 
Husbandry, commonly called Grangers, was a secret or- 
e rangers, g^^^^ation for the promotion of agricultural interests. 
It was organized in Washington in 1867, admitted both men and 
women to membership, and professed to be non-political, though it 
had much political influence in forcing a reduction of the exorbitant 
freight rates of the railroad corporations. In 1876 the membership 
reached at least a million and a half. 



THE FISHERIES DISPUTE 847 

Another agricultural society, the Farmer's Alliance, was organ- 
ized in 1873. It spread rapidly until it became national in scope.' 
It is not a secret order, as is the order of Grangers, but it gives more 
attention to questions of politics. The Alliance opposes the alien 
ownership of land, national banks, and federal election laws. 

THE FISHERIES DISPUTE 

The most important matter in our foreign relations during the 
Hayes administration was the settlement of the Canadian fisheries 
question, as provided for in the Treaty of Washington of 1871, For 
more than half a century the Atlantic coast fisheries had been the 
subject of controversy between the United States and England. 
The treaty made at the close of the Revolution continued to the 
citizens of the new repviblic the right to fish in Canadian waters, 
which they had enjoyed as colonists. But at the making of the 
Treaty of Ghent, at the close of the War of 1812, the British 
claimed that all existing treaties were abrogated and that our fish- 
ing rights had expired. The treaty, however, left the matter un- 
mentioned and the Americans continued to exercise the rights 
granted in the former treaty. 

But in 1818 another treaty was concluded, by which the Americans, 
for the privilege of taking and curing fish on the coasts of Newfound- 
land and Labrador, renounced forever the right to take, dry, or cure 
fish within three marine miles of any of the coasts of his Majesty's 
other possessions in America. From this moment the trouble began. 
The difficulty of determining the three-mile limit, the presence of 
armed vessels to prevent violations of the treaty, and 
the rulings of the local courts by which alleged vio- 1318^° 
lators were tried, each played its part in disturbing 
the peace between the two countries. This disturbance continued un- 
til 1854, when a new treaty was made. This is known as the Reci- 
procity Treaty. It restored the rights of the Americans 
substantially as granted by the Treaty of 1783, but at a 1354 ^'^ 
great price. The price was reciprocity or free trade 
between the United States and Canada in a great many kinds of 
goods, nearly all of which favored Canadian interests. The markets 
of the United States were thrown open to Canada for nearly every 
article she could produce. The treaty provided that either party 

1 The national organization was not completed till 1889. 



848 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

coiild cancel it after ten years by giving a year's notice. This notice 
was givea by the United States in 1865; and the next year the 
treaty terminated, reciprocity was discontinued, and in the matter 
of the fisheries the provisions of the old Treaty of 1818 were again 
in force. 

This brings us to the Treaty of Washington of 1871. It was 
hoped that the Joint High Commission would reach a permanent 
settlement of this vexed question ; but the hope was not fully real' 
ized. The British commissioners desired to restore the Reciprocity 
Treaty of 1854, but the Americans would not consent to it. They 
intimated, however, that the United States might be willing to pay 
$1,000,000 for the permanent use of the inshore fisheries, — that is, 
within the three-mile limit. The English commissioners thought 
this sum entirely too small. When the treaty was at length ar- 
ranged, it provided that the privilege of the inshore fisheries along 
the coast of Canada be granted to the Americans, and for this privi- 
lege the Canadians received a free market in the United States for 
salt-water fish and fish-oil. But as the Canadians were supposed 
to be granting more than they received, it was provided that 
a commission of three be appointed to determine the amount of 
money that should be paid by the United States. One of these was 
to be appointed by the President, another by the Queen of England, 
while the third was to be chosen by the President and Queen 
conjointly. 

The commissioners met at Halifax in the summer of 1877. The 
case was ably argued on both sides, and as the American and English 
commissioner could not agree, the Belgian minister, 
award *"^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^® third commissioner, was left to name the 
compensation. He named $5,500,000. The British were 
greatly gratified and the Americans astonished at the amount of the 
award. It was not the payment of the money that created excite- 
ment, for the United States is very rich and such a sum is but a 
trifle ; it was the sense of being the victim of extortion that caused 
ill feeling. Secretary of State Evarts gave statistics to show that all 
the fish taken by American fishermen during the time in question. 
could not possibly leave a balance in England's favor of more than 
$1,500,000, to say nothing of the privileges granted to Canada. But 
the British, who had lost in the other two items of the Treaty of 
Washington, the Alabama claims and the boundary controversy, in- 
sisted that the report of the commission be accepted ; and Congress 



THE BLAINE-CONKLING FEUD 849 

voted the money and it was paid to the last dollar. But the matter 
left a sting in the minds of the American people, and a few years 
later the President, instructed by Congress, annulled the treaty, and 
the fisheries question became more troublesome than ever, as we 
shall notice later. 

THE GARFIELD TRAGEDY 

Three times in our history has our President suffered death at 
the hands of an assassin. The first of these tragedies occurred at 
the close of the great war while the blood of the combatants still 
boiled. The second.^ in time of peace, had its origin in a deadly 
feud between two great Eepublican leaders, and was the work of a 
half-witted fanatic who believed that he would be made a hero for 
his deed by the faction of the party that opposed the President. 
The feud was between James G. Blaine and Koscoe Conkling, and it 
began many years before. Blaine, a young editor from Maine, fi^rst 
entered the House in 1863. Though he found there many strong 
leaders, he soon proved himself one of the strongest ; and he began 
a course of party leadership unrivaled since the passing of Henry Clay. 
When Blaine entered Congress he found, among other leaders, the 
brilliant young lawyer from New York, Boscoe Conkling. Blaine 
and Conkling were wholly unlike in mental endowments. Blaine 
was hale and genial ; Conkling was dignified and self-contained. 
Blaine delighted to win new friends and to grapple them to his soul 
with hooks of steel; Conkling delighted in winning admiration, in 
wounding his enemies with his wit and sarcasm, and in dazzling his 
hearers with rounded periods of eloquence. As a party leader, a 
winner of popular applause, Blaine far surpassed Conkling; as an 
orator of brilliant diction and rhetorical power, Conkling greatly 
excelled Blaine. 

Scarcely had these two men met in Congress when a rivalry 
sprung up between them, and it was soon seen that there would be 
a clash. The occasion arose in April, 1866, when the 
House was considering a bill to reorganize the army, j^ ^^^^ 
The New York and Maine statesmen had a fierce war 
of words on the floor of the House. Each lost his temper and 
denounced the other unsparingly. At length, after the conflict had 
continued for two or three days, Blaine poured forth one of the 
most extravagant tirades of sarcastic scorn and vituperation ever 
heard on the floor of Congress. " The contempt of that large- 
st 



850 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

minded gentleman," said he, "is so wilting, his haughty disdain, 
his grandiloquent swell, his majestic, supereminent, overpowering, 
turkey-gobbler strut, has been so crushing to myself and to all the 
members of the House, that I know it was an act of the greatest 
temerity for me to enter upon a controversy with him." 

Conkling was mortally offended, and from that day to the end of 
his life he never spoke to Blaine. Soon after this Conkling was 
transferred to the Senate and Blaine became Speaker of the House. 
In later years friends of the two attempted to bring about a recon- 
ciliation between them. Blaine expressed his willingness, but Conk- 
ling met every overture with a scornful refusal. 

The Blaine-Conkling feud had its results. Not only did Conkling 
prevent the nomination of Blaine for the presidency in 1880 ; he 
caused the defeat of Blaine when the latter was nominated four 
years lat;er. A few years after this quarrel in the House, Blaine had 
come to be looked upon as the leading Republican of his time. He 
received a heavy vote in the convention of 1876. Mr. Hayes, who 
was nominated and elected, was pledged to a single term, and Blaine 
was hailed as the coming man for 1880. But a change came o'er 
the spirit of his dream. 

General Grant, on ceasing to be President, had made a tour round 
the world. He received high honor from foreign peoples and poten- 
Grant's tour tates, not only as an American and a former President, 
around the but chiefly as a soldier, for the chivalry in men's minds 
world. gtill places the warrior above the statesman, the orator, 

and the poet. The reception of Grant in foreign lands became a 
matter of national pride to all Americans ; and when, after an absence 
of three years, the vessel that bore the illustrious traveler was 
moored in the haven at the Golden Gate, a wild shout of welcome 
arose from the people. The progress of Grant from San Francisco 
to Philadelphia, whence he had started, was one continuous ovation. 
Men forgot the scandals of his administration ; their minds went 
back to remoter days. They saw now in his silent dignity the hero 
of Donelson, of Vicksburg, of Appomattox. 

It happened that at this moment there was a large faction in the 
Republican party searching for a man. This faction opposed Blaine 
for President, and looked with dismay upon his growing favor with 
the people. They wanted a man who could be successfully pitted 
against Blaine. Grant had already been spoken of for a third term. 
His great reception from abroad proved his popularity. Why let 



ELECTION OF GARFIELD 851 

all this enthusiasm go to waste ? So thought the leaders of the 
anti-Blaine faction of the Republican party in 1880, and they decided 
on Grant as their choice for President. The leader of this faction, 
a man of vast resources and power, was Koscoe Conkling of New 
York. 

The convention met in Chicago the first week in June. Conk- 
ling had a solid phalanx of a little over three hundred delegates for 
Grant. Blaine, however, was the popular choice, and his nomination 
would never have been doubtful had his forces been inanaged by a 
leader equal to Conkling. The speech of Conkling in nominating 
Grant has been pronounced second only to that of Ingersoll in pre- 
senting the name of Blaine at Cincinnati four years before. A third 
candidate, John Sherman of Ohio, was nominated by General James 
A. Garfield in a speech scarcely less eloquent than that of Conkling. 
Thirty-five ballots were taken without success, and it was evident that 
neither Blaine nor Grant could be nominated. A dark horse must be 
found, and the choice fell upon Garfield. On the thirty-sixth ballot 
there was a sudden breaking up of the convention — the Blaine men, 
the Sherman men, the scattering votes, all except the 
Grant phalanx of 306, made a dash for Garfield, and he STSr 
was nominated by a large majority. The scene was inde- 
scribable. The boom of cannon from without, the bands of music 
and the shouts of the multitude within the great hall, made an up- 
roar that no pen can picture. The newly made hero sat amid the 
waving flags and banners, dazed and speechless, as one awakened 
from a dream. 

Garfield was not the choice of the convention. His nomination 
was almost an accident. He happened to be on the uppermost crest 
of the popular wave when the inevitable break came ; and the gate 
was opened to him for great honor and position, such as many strive 
for and do not attain, and for the mournful tragedy that was to 
follow — all within a year. Garfield Avas one of the many public 
men in America who rose from the commonest walks of life. His 
father, a plodding farmer in the wilderness of northern Ohio, died 
in early manhood. James was still a child ; as he grew toward 
manhood he yearned for an education, and between his working 
hours, — on the farm, in the carpenter shop, or driving the mules of 
a canal boat, — he succeeded in preparing himself for college. After 
being graduated he became a professor, then president of a small 
college in Ohio. Next we find him in the Ohio legislature, then an 



862 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

officer in the Civil War, and later a member of the Lower House of 
Congress, where he served without a break for eighteen years. He 
was then elected to the United States Senate, but had not entered 
that body when nominated at Chicago. Garfield was not great nor 
brilliant as a statesman, though he had much power as an orator; 
he was sturdy, honest, reliable, and his selection proved a healing 
balm to the warring factions of his party. To appease the Conkling 
faction the convention chose one of that faction, Chester A. Arthur, 
for the second place on the ticket. 

The Democrats nominated General Winfield Scott Hancock, the 
ideal soldier, one of the heroes of Gettysburg and of Spottsylvania, 
for the presidency, and W. H. English for the vice presidency. The 
Greenback party, which had cast but eighty thousand votes for 
Peter Cooper in 1876 and had rolled up a million two years later 
in the state elections, put forward General James B. Weaver of 
Iowa, and the Prohibitionists presented General Neal Dow of Maine. 
It is notable that all four of the presidential candidates bore the 
military title of general. 

The campaign was singularly free from bitterness, vituperation, 
and personal attacks. Garfield was elected by an electoral vote of 
214 to 155 for Hancock ; but his popular plurality in a vote exceed- 
ing 9,000,000 was less than 10,000. The Greenback party polled 
308,000 and carried no state, while the Prohibition vote was 
but 10,000. 

The Republican factions had worked together during the cam- 
paign, but the trouble broke out afresh when Garfield chose Blaine 
for his secretary of state. This was galling to Conkling, and Blaine 
doubtless felt a sense of triumph over his great enemy. He had 
often expressed a willingness to be reconciled to his antagonist, but 
at heart he thoroughly disliked Conkling and had no desire to be his 
friend. Conkling was bold and open in his antagonism ; Blaine was 
wily and cunning, nor did he lose an opportunity to give the enraged 
lion a stealthy prod, and then turn to an inquiring public with, "What 
is he howling about ? " 

The times were ominous at the opening of the new term. Never 
had the office seeker been more clamorous for place. The two factions 
of the dominant party were ready again to break into open war for 
spoils. Soon came the occasion ; Garfield appointed Judge Robertson 
collector of the port of New York. Robertson was a friend of Blaine 
and an enemy of Conkling, and Conkling, joined by his colleague, 



DEATH OF GARFIELD 853 

Thomas C. Piatt, requested, almost demanded, that the appoint- 
ment be withdrawn. 13ut the President refused, no doubt through 
the influence of Blaine, for Garfield had no personal object in offend- 
ing Conkling or promoting Robertson. Various writers have asserted 
that Blaine was a neutral observer, and had nothing to do with this 
appointment or with the refusal to withdraw it. But this contradicts 
the logic of the whole situation. Garheld was not a powerful leader, 
as was Blaine. He had reached the limit of his capacity in Congress, 
while that of Blaine was yet unmeasured. Nor had Garfield the will 
power, the moral fiber, to stand out for a principle, and it was only 
natural that he leaned heavily upon his great secretary of state. 
The covirse of the President in this affair can be explained only by 
attributing it to the influence of Blaine. When Conkling and Piatt 
discovered that they could not secure the withdrawal of 
the name of Robertson, nor prevent its confirmation by piatt^fim 
the Senate, they resigned petulantly from that body, 
expecting to be vindicated by a reelection by the New York legis- 
lature. But both were defeated. This closed the public career of 
Roscoe Conkling — but we shall meet him once more in this history. 

This episode opened wide the breach in. the Republican party. 
The Conkling wing was known as " Stalwarts," the Blaine-Garfield 
wing as "Half-breeds." Alarming was the condition of Assassination 
the party, when suddenly the country was thrown into of Garfield, 
consternation at the assassination of the President. The J^^y 2, 1881. 
assassin was Charles J. Guiteau, a disappointed office seeker, a 
rattle-brained egotist from New York who claimed to be a " Stalwart 
of the Stalwarts," a " lawyer, theologian, and politician." He de- 
clared that the President's " removal " was a political necessity, as 
it would reunite the Republican party. He was plainly a man of 
disordered brain, nor was the country warranted in crying out 
frantically for his blood. After a long trial the following winter 
he was convicted and put to death. He should have been shut np 
for the rest of his natural life in an insane asylum. The jury simply 
reflected public opinion, which clamored for the prisoner's life.^ 

President Garfield was shot through the body. It was at first 
thought that he would die within the hour ; but he rallied, and lin- 

1 One of the experts employed to pronounce on the sanity of Guiteau acknoAvl- 
edged, twenty years later, that they all agreed that he was insane, but feared to say 
so because of the excited state of the public. For a fuller account of the Garfield 
tragedy see " Side Lights," Series II, Chap. XII. 



854 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

gered for many weeks through the hot summer months. The nation 
waited and hoped and prayed. The illustrious patient bore up 
bravely ; he never groaned nor complained ; he signed a few official 
papers, but was never able to raise his head from the pillow. In 
August the President was removed to a cottage by the sea; but 
the benefit was slight, and on the night of September 19 he died. 
A few hours later — some hours before day the next morning — 
Chester A. Arthur was sworn into the great office in his own house 
in the city of New York, and the government passed into the hands 
of the Stalwarts. The dead President was borne to Cleveland, Ohio, 
the beautiful lake city near which he had been born and had always 
lived, and here, on a grassy mound, amid a countless throng of weep- 
ing admirers, the body was laid to rest. 

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 

Chester Allan Arthur had been an obscure politician in New 
York, and was known as a leader in polite society circles rather 
than as a statesman. No man had ever become President of the 
United States who was so little known to the great public as was 
Arthur, and many were alarmed because his ability and character 
were luiknown, and especially because they feared that he would 
represent, not the country as a whole, nor even the great party that 
had elected him, but the faction of that party to which he belonged. 
But Arthur was not long in the presidential chair before he put all 
such fears at rest. He rose above all subserviency to faction and 
even to his party ; he became the people's President in the true 
sense of the tei-m ; and so wise and able was his administration that 
nothing except Blaine's powerful hold on the party prevented his 
nomination for another term.^ The Cabinet was gradually changed 
until none of the Garfield Cabinet remained except Robert T. 
Lincoln, son of the great war President. 

This administration was not marked by any great and stirring 
events. The interest of the people was enlisted in the centennial 
celebration of the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781, in 
the great industrial exposition of 1881 at Atlanta, Georgia, in another 
greater one at New Orleans three years later, and in two American 
exploring expeditions into the Arctic seas. 

1 So impartial and independent was Arthur's course, and so decidedly did he 
refuse to cater to the Stalwart faction, that even Conkling soon hecame estranged 
from him. 



REFORM IN THE CIVIL SERVICE 855 

The attention of the public was also attracted in 1881 by the 
"Star-route" frauds. These routes were mail lines in the interior 
of the country where the mail could not be carried by railroad or by 
steamboat.^ Thomas J. Brady, second assistant jjostmaster-general, 
S. W. Dorsey, a Republican senator from Arkansas, and 
others, were accused of conspiring with certain mail- ^^'^■5'*''^*® 
carrying contractors to defraud the government. For 
several years the combination stole from the government about half 
a million dollars a year. The business was broken up by publicity 
and the dismissal of several prominent officials. Some of the alleged 
conspirators were put on trial, but no punishments followed. 

We now come to the chief legislative movement of the Arthur 
administration — the reform in the civil service. When the federal 
government was organized, the civil service officials were appointed 
without any limit as to time, but their tenure of office was wholly 
subject to the appointing power, the President. 

For half a century the spoils system had held full sway.^ Public 
officials had come to feel that they were serving their party rather 
than their country, or were simply receiving their just reward for 
mere party zeal. The system was pernicious and destructive of all 
good government ; but, against the protests of many honest men, it 
continued unbroken till Grant became President. A fruitless effort 
was then made to reform the civil service. In 1871 Congress, forced 
by public opinion and in spite of the protests of the professional 
politicians, passed an act authorizing the President 
to make certain changes in the methods of appointing reform '^^^^ 
subordinate officers. Grant thereupon appointed a civil 
service commission of eminent men, who established a system of com- 
petitive examinations for appointments to office. This system con- 
tinued for three years when Congress, again under the sway of the 
politicians, refused longer to vote money to carry it on, and it had to 
fall to the ground. President Hayes throughout his term of office made 
strenuous but futile efforts to reestablish the reform in the service. 
The evil system might have continued indefinitely but for the tragic 
taking off of Garfield. His death was an indirect result of the per- 
nicious system, for it was a New York appointment that tore open 
the half-healed wound in the Eepublican party and rent it in twain, 

1 The name "star" route arose from the use of a star on the map to indicate 
these routes. 

2 For the Crawford Act and the origin of the spoils system, see ante p. 46$ 



856 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

and it was a disappointed office seeker that took his life. Public 
opinion now called with overmastering power for a reform in the civii 
service, and Congress heeded the call of its master. 

In 1882 Mr. Pendleton, a Democratic senator from Ohio, intro- 
duced a bill to reestablish the civil service on the merit system. 
Both houses were Republican, but the autumn elections swept 
that party from power in the House, The leaders of the party saw 
in this a warning from an impatient public that trifling with civil 
service reform would be tolerated no longer, and, by an almost 
unanimous vote, the Pendleton measure became law in January, 1883. 
At first but few classes came under the new law, but successive 
Presidents have enlarged the list until it includes nearly every 
branch of the government service. President Arthur with sincerity 
and courage set about putting the new law into operation, and it is a 
matter of great gratification to the country that all our recent Presi- 
dents have in this way limited and restricted their own power, and 
that of their chief supporters, for the good of the public service. 
Other legislation of importance that marked the official term of 
President Arthur included the " Edmunds law " against polygamy in 
the territories, aimed chiefly at the habits of the Mormons of Utah, 
and a tariff act. The tariff was at this time rapidly becoming a promi- 
nent issue. The high duties of war times had been for the most part 
retained, and a cry from the West for a reduction of duties was too 
strong to be resisted. As early as 1872 a general outcry from the 
West against the high tariff resulted in the reduction of many duties ; 
but three years later, when the clamor had subsided, the duties were 
quietly restored. Again, in the early eighties, the subject came to 
the front. In 1882 a tariff commission, recommended by President 
Arthur, was appointed. This commission made a report to Congress 
in December, 1882, and out of this grew the tariff of 1883, a measure 
that pleased no one. It was an abortive attempt to reduce the 
duties, but while it reduced them on many articles, it actually raised 
them on such articles as woolen dress goods, where a reduction would 
have brought relief.^ Thus far the tariff was not strictly a partisan 
question, nor had it been so for nearly forty years ; but it was soon to 
become the chief issue between the two great parties. 

1 Taussig's " Tariff History," p. 234. 



GROVER CLEVELAND 857 



A POLITICAL REVOLUTION 

For four and twenty years the Republican party had held 
supremacy in the government. In that time its achievements had 
been great. But the party had made many serious blunders, and on 
these its powerful rival had fattened until it now seemed ready to 
seize the reins of government. 

The Republican convention met in Chicago the first week in June, 
1884. There were many candidates, but the idol of the party was 
" the magnetic man from Maine," and his nomination was assured 
from the beginning. Blaine led all others on the first three ballots 
and was nominated on the fourth. The convention then wisely 
chose for second place one of the most prominent of the leaders of 
the Stalwarts, General John A. Logan of Illinois. In the platform 
the party f ulsomely praised itself for its past good deeds, pronounced 
for a protective tariff, and heartily indorsed civil service reform. 

The Democrats met in the same city a few weeks later and nomi- 
nated Grover Cleveland, governor of New York, for President, and 
Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana for Vice President. In their 
platform they pointed out the moral decay of the Republican party, 
and mercilessly arraigned that party for not keeping faith with the 
people, making, at the same time, the most glowing promises to 
correct every abuse if the people would intrust them with power. 
They also called for a reduction of the tariff without injuring " any 
domestic industries." 

The Prohibitionists nominated Governor John P. St. John of 
Kansas for President. The Greenback, now called the National 
party, chose Benjamin F. Butler as its standard bearer, and Butler 
was also nominated by the new-born Anti-Monopoly party. The 
great interest of the people, however, centered in the candidates of 
the two great political parties. Of these two men one had been in 
the public gaze as a party leader for many years, and frequent have 
been our references to his career ; the other was a new star in the 
political sky. 

Grover Cleveland, the son of a clergyman, was born in New 
Jersey in the same year and the same month that witnessed the 
inauguration of Martin Van Buren, the only President yet elected 
from New York. A few years later the family moved to a village 
near Syracuse, New York, where most of Grover's boyhood was spent 



858 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Denied a college education by the early death of his father, the 
boy at length determined to go westward and seek his fortune. He 
started for Cleveland, Ohio, being attracted by the name, but he 
stopped on the way at Buffalo, and made that city his home. He 
had determined to become a lawyer, and he soon found a place with 
one of the largest law firms of the city. 

At the outbreak of the Civil War he was a lawyer of good stand- 
ing and a fair income. When President Lincoln made his first call 
for volunteers, he and his two brothers held a conference about their 
duty to the country, and it was decided that two of them answer the 
President's call, while the third should remain at home to care for 
their mother ; and as Grover's income exceeded that of the others, 
he was chosen to remain, while the others entered the army.^ 

In the late seventies he was elected reform mayor of Buffalo. 
His record as mayor attracted wide attention. Against a most 
corrupt city council he strove unceasingly and he won in every 
contest. His scathing veto messages awakened the people as nothing 
had done before to the fact that they were being robbed by their 
officials. He saved the city over $800,000 on a sewer contract, and 
$109,000 annually in the street-cleaning department. 

In 1882, when his party wanted a reform candidate for governor 
of the state, they naturally turned to the mayor of Buffalo. The 
Republicans had nominated Judge Folger of President Arthur's 
Cabinet, against the will of the rank and file of the party, who 
desired the renomination of Governor Cornell. Thousands of them 
now turned to Cleveland, and he was elected by a plurality of almost 
two hundred thousand. It happened that the legislature of New 
York, like the city council of Buffalo, was controlled by a " ma- 
chine " which had many political debts to pay and many politi- 
cal fences to repair -^ at public expense. But here sat the reform 
governor, quiet, unostentatious, businesslike, watching the interests 
of the people, and every bill sent him that savored of corruption 
was sent back with a positive veto. The people applauded. The 
politicians grew angry and raised the cry that Cleveland was 
bidding for the presidency by appealing over their heads to the 
people ; but when he vetoed a bill to compel the Elevated Railway 
Company of New York City to reduce its fare to five cents, because 
it would impair the obligation of a contract and be " a breach of 

1 Stoddard's " Life of Cleveland," p. 40. The two brothers returned safe from 
the war, but both were lost at sea in 1872. 



DEFEAT OF BLAINE 859 



faith on the part of the state," and when he vetoed another appro- 
priating money to the Catholic Protectorate because it was purely a 
sectarian institution, his enemies were at a loss to explain. He ve- 
toed the oue bill against the wishes of ninety-nine out of every hun- 
dred people of the metropolis, and the other at the risk of offending 
great numbers of Catholic voters. Such actions exhibited a moral 
courage that was astonishing, or an indifference to public opinion 
that was equally so. Cleveland thus proved himself entirely beyond 
the control of the political bosses of New York, and against their 
fierce opposition he was nominated for President at Chicago. 

The chief issue of the campaign was, nominally, the tariff, the 
Republicans having pronounced for protection and the Democrats, 
in a halting way, for tariff reform ; but in fact the campaign became 
a personal one between the two leadiug candidates. Both parties 
stooped to defamation of character and indecent personalities. Mr. 
Plaine was a strong and fearless leader, and he took personal charge 
of his canvass; but he was unfortunate from the beginning. A 
strong element of his party, who came to be known as "Mug- 
wumps," ^ opposed him bitterly and supported Cleveland. Among 
these were Henry Ward Beecher and George William Curtis. These 
men, whose motives were beyond question, had many followers. 
They not only distrusted Blaine ; they believed that with the dawn 
uf the new industrial era the old leaders of war and reconstruction 
should be set aside, and the government placed into new hands. The 
Prohibitionists, who held the balance of power in New York, and 
jrhose vote would be drawn chiefly from the Republicans, were 
entreated by the Blaine followers to withdraw their candidate, Mr. 
St. John, from the field in Blaine's favor, but they refused to do so. 
Again, Blaine made serious blunders during the canvass. He made 
a tour through several states and, with his magnetic power over 
great crowds, he left a good impression. But on his return he 
made a stop in New York City, and this was fatal to his cause. 
Here he dined with a company of millionaires, and the Democrats 
paraded the fact before the public. A company of ministers called 
on him, and their spokesman, the Rev. Dr. Burchard, referred to the 
Democratic party as the party of "rum, Romanism, and rebellion," 
and the candidate offered no rebuke in his reply. This was eagerly 
seized on by the Democrats, as a denunciation of the Catholic 

1 Mugwump is an Algonkin word and means chief. It was long in use in parts of 

New Eugland, but before this campaign its use was not general. 



860 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



Church, and in vain did Blaine deny all sympathy with the senti- 
ment ; and the Irish Catholic vote, which sa^med to be gravitating 
toward him, was now turned to Cleveland. 

New York was the pivotal state, and its vote was cast for Cleve- 
land by a plurality of less than twelve hundred — and the long season 
of Republican supremacy wa^ .broken. Blaine's defeat was pathetic. 
For years he had' hoped and labored for ■ the great prize, and it 
seemed so near. Had he been elected, he would have made a strong 
President and, no doubt, an honest one. "But he had a premonition 



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Clay and 
Blaine. 



that, like Henry Clay, he would never be President. And how 
strangely similar seemed the defeat of Clay just forty years before. 
Clay had failed to obtain the nomination when his party was suc- 
cessful at the polls ; and when he was chosen by the 
convention, he was defeated at the polls — and the 
same was true of Blaine. New York was the pivotal 
state in 1844 and also in 1884. Clay had lost that state and the 
nation through a little third party which held the balance of power, 
and so Avith Blaine. And yet there is one more item in this strange 
parallel : Clay and Blaine each seriously injured his own cause by 
writing ill-advised letters during the campaign. 

Another element that entered into the defeat of Blaine Avas the 
attitude of his old enemy, Roscoe Conkling. Twice had Conkling pre- 



PRESIDENT CLEVELAND AND NEW CONDITIONS 861 

vented the nomination of Blaine in convention, and now when Blaine 
received it, Conkling could have secured his election ; but the mighty- 
Achilles sulked in his tent. His friends understood ; they refused 
to support the lifelong enemy of their idol and cast their votes for 
Cleveland. Had Conkling made a single speech, had he 
raised a finger in support of Blaine, in spite of the St. ^o^^^^^^S'^ 
John vote, in spite of the Mugwump de'fection, in-spite 
of the Burchard alliteration, the Empire State would have cast its 
vote for the magnetic statesman and he would have been elected.^ 
But Conkling remembered the insult of eighteen years before, the 
bitter denunciation on the floor of the House, the " grandiloquent 
swell," the "turkey-gobbler strut," and his high-poised soul could 
not forgive. He took his revenge, and Blaine nev5r became 
President. • • 

THE NEW CONDITIONS 2 

This campaign was one of unusual significance; it marked the 
restoration to power of the old party that Jefferson had founded, 
that had ruled the country for forty years without a break, that had 
sinned grievously and had suffered deeply. Now again the people 
had restored the old party to power — but only in part, for the 
Senate was still Republican, and from this cause party legislation 
was impossible and the first term of Cleveland, like the term of 
Hayes, was a season of quiet in the political world. 

Viewed in another light, the party of Cleveland was not the old 
party of Jefferson, or of Jackson, or even of James Buchanan. A new 
era had dawned and had brought with it new ideals and new duties. 
Thousands who aided in the election of Cleveland had been born 
since the firing on Fort Sumter. The great body of American 
voters had grown to manhood since then. Old conditions had 
passed away with the old generation ; the new conditions called for 
a new type of statesmanship, and in none was this embodied more 
than in the newly elected President. In his inaugural address he 
advised that the heat of the partisan be merged into the patriotism 



1 The Republican defection in Conkling's home county alone was greater than 
Cleveland's majoi-ity in the state of New York. 

2 The remainder of this history will be given in a more condensed form, nor will 
a critical discussion of current public question^ be attempted. Only the historian of 
the future will view the great issues of to-day in all their bearings, and be able to 
discuss them without partisan bias. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



of the citizen. The Republicans took their defeat gracefully, and 
the people bravely turned their faces to the future. 

Nothing so emphasized the friendly reunion of the states as the 
fact that two members of the new Cabinet, L. Q. C. Lamar and A. 
H. Garland, had been commanders in the Confederate armies. The 
fitness of these appointments was soon recognized by all. They 
did not signify, as a few radicals at first cried out, that '' the South 
was again in the saddle," but rather that the old war spirit was 
dying and that the Southern states were again in spirit, as well as 
in fact, members of the happy sisterhood. Thomas F. Bayard of 
Delaware became secretary of state, and W. C. Whitney of New 
York, secretary of the navy. 

Nothing could have been more fitting than that the first bill to 
which this new Democratic President placed his signature was an act 
Last days of restoring General Grant to the retired list of the army. 
General The aged ex-President, in the hope of gaining a for- 

Grant. _ tune, had engaged in business in the city of New York. 

The firm with Avhich he was connected proved to be disreputable ; 
the business came to an unhappy end, and, though the honor of the 
general was untouched, his modest savings were swept away in the 
crash. Moreover, Grant was suffering from an incurable disease, 
a cancer in the mouth, which baffled the skill of the physicians. 
The heart of the nation went out in sympathy with the dying hero. 
He had been laboring faithfully on his " Memoirs," the story of his 
life, that his family might reap the benefit when he was gone. In 
the spring and early summer of 1885, the malady from which he suf- 
fered became alarming, but the general continued his writing with 
the same unwearied courage that he had displayed on the battle 
field. The end came on July 23, 1885, at Mt. McGregor, near 
Saratoga. The funeral pageant in New York City was the most 
imposing ever seen in America ; and the body was laid to rest at 
Riverside Park, overlooking the Hudson.^ 

Cleveland proved himself a firm adherent of the principle of 
civil service reform. It is true that in a few years he had appointed 
many of his fellow partisans to office, as the statutory terms of the 
Republican incumbents expired. He also dismissed some for 

1 Grant's " Memoirs," in two volumes, is, from a literary point of view, the best 
of its kind in our American literature. The straightforward, unadorned narrative 
has a charm of simplicity and clearness that is very unusual. Mrs. Grant realized a 
large sum of money from the sale of the work, the first payment reaching $200,000. 



PRESIDENTIAL SUCCESSION 863 

" offensive partisanship " ; but he made no clean sweep, much to the 
dismay of the professional politicians of his party. The adminis- 
tration was not marked by any great question of public policy, but 
rather for its unbroken smoothness, and for the extraordinary 
strength in the personality of the President. The country soon 
learned that Cleveland was fully equal to the new duties before him, 
and that his conscience in dealing with national affairs was the same 
as that which characterized him at Buffalo and Albany. 

For many years Congress had been in the habit of granting pen- 
sions to the old soldiers with little regard to merit. Mr. Cleveland 
took the ground that unless a soldier was disabled by the war he 
had no just claim to the support of the government. He vetoed 
scores of private pension bills, many of which were shown to be 
fraudulent. He also vetoed the Dependent Pension bill, which pro- 
vided pensions for all who had served in the war ninety days or 
more and were now unable to do manual work; but a similar bill 
became a law in the next administration. 

The most important measure, aside from the necessary legislation, 
to become a law in the first four years of Cleveland's incumbency 
was the Presidential Succession bill. As the law stood presidential 
before, the president of the Senate, and after him the Succession 
Speaker of the House, would succeed to the presidency 1^^- 
in case of the death or disability of both the President and the Vice 
President. But such a succession might throw the government into 
the hands of a party that had been defeated at the polls by the people ; 
or in case there was no Vice President and neither the Senate nor the 
House had chosen a presiding ofiicer, there would be no one between 
the President and a legal lapse of the functions of the office. Such 
had been the condition for a time while Arthur was President, and 
the death of Vice President Hendricks in the autumn of 1885 again 
brought about the same condition. The death of Hendricks awakened 
Congress to a sense of the necessity of providing against the danger of 
a lapse and also of securing the presidency to the party that had carried 
the election. The Presidential Succession bill became a law on Jan- 
uary 18, 1886. It provides that the line of succession run through 
the Cabinet in the following order : The secretaries of state, treasury, 
war, the attorney-general, the postmaster-general, the secretary of the 
navy, and the secretary of the interior. Any member of the Cabinet 
to be in the line must be eligible to the presidency. This law settled 
a matter that had for a long period caused much anxiety. 



864 HISTORY OP THE UNITED STATES 

In the following year (February, 1887) the Electoral Count law was 
enacted. This grew out of the disputed election of 1876. It provides 
that each state shall be its own judge concerning its electoral votes. 
But if through opposing tribunals a state is unable to decide, the matter 
must be settled by a joint resolution of the two houses of Congress. 

Next came the Interstate Commerce Act, which became a^aw 
in February, 1887. For years the great railroads had discriminated 
against the small shippers by giving cheaper freight rates to the 
manufacturers and producers whose shipments were large. The most 
flagrant case in point was that of the Standard Oil Company, whiuh, 
in 1872, merged with the Southern Improvement Company and bar- 
Interstate gained with the great railroads to have its products 
Commerce carried at from 25 per cent to 50 per cent less than that 
■*-°*'- which was charged the small refiners. The result was 

that the small concerns could earn no dividends, and they were forced 
to sell out to the Standard at a great loss, and the Standard soon 
had a monopoly of the oil business.^ The farmers of the West and 
small manufacturers in every part of the country suffered greatly 
from this unfair discrimination by the railroad companies. The 
public demanded that Congress come to the rescue and stop the 
practice, and the result was the Interstate Commerce Act. By this 
act the railway companies were forbidden to make discriminations 
in freight rates or to enter into combinations for " pooling " and 
dividing their receipts. 

Two other laws of considerable importance complete the series 
of this presidential term. One of these was an amendment to the 
Edmunds Anti-Polygamy law of 1882, by which the Mormon Church 
was dissolved as a corporate body and much of its property was 
confiscated. The other was the Anti-Chinese law, which has been 
mentioned on a preceding page. 

The only foreign subject that seriously engaged the attention of 

this administration was that of the Canadian fisheries. This matter 

had been temporarily adjusted, as we have noticed, but as the United 

States deemed the settlement a disadvantageous one, it was canceled 

„. , . by President Cleveland. This left the old Treaty oi 

xisiieries . 

1818 again in operation, and the Canadians promptly put 

its worst features in force. They seized American vessels for landing 

at Canadian ports to purchase bait, to transship fish, or for any pur- 

1 The chief movers in this conspiracy were John D. Rockefeller of Cleveland, 
W. G. Warden of Philadelphia, and O. T. Waring of Pittsburg. 



LABOR AGITATION AND ANARCHY 865 

pose except for shelter, for repairs, or to obtain wood, water, and food. 
The old treaty had never before been literally interpreted, and now 
the complaints came thick and fast to Washington. A bill in Con- 
gress to close American ports to Canadian vessels was considered 
and lost. A new treaty was made with England, but the Senate 
killed it. Discretionary power was given the President to deal with 
the matter as he deemed best, and within a few years the affair was 
patched up so as to be fairly agreeable to both sides. 

During the time we are treating the labor world again became 
agitated. An order known as the Knights of Labor, founded some 
fifteen years before, now made a sudden bound and its membership 
soon exceeded half a million men. It represented nearly all trades, 
and was governed by a national executive board which had power to 
order strikes and boycotts. The Knights of Labor was touched with 
anarchy, and ere long its disintegration began. The order, however, 
was not responsible for the fearful outbreak of anarchy in Chicago 
in May, 1886. For years a few immigrant anarchists had preached 
their detestable doctrines in American cities, and at last 
they seemed to have a following in Chicago. On the night chicaeo'^ "^ 
of May 3, some fourteen hundred of the discontented 
gathered in Haymarket Square to hear the harangues of their leaders. 
A body of policemen was sent to disperse the crowd when suddenly a 
bomb, thrown into their midst, exploded with terrific force, causing 
the death of six policemen and wounding many more. The whole 
country was shocked at the outrage. Chicago did its duty. It sent 
four of the leaders of the mob to the gallows and others to the peni- 
tentiary. This summary dealing, which was applauded by the great 
body of the people, gave a setback to the anarchists from which 
they have not recovered to this day. 

THE TARIFF ISSUE 

President Cleveland believed that much of the unrest in the 
labor world had its roots in the high protective tariff. From far 
back in Jackson's days the Democratic party had been a party of 
low tariff. The Civil War brought high impost duties ; but the war 
was now long past, and yet the high duties were retained. In the 
early part of the century a protective tariff was demanded for the 
benefit of infant industries ; but now, as such industries were beyond 
the need of government aid, protection was demanded on an entirely 
3k 



866 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

different ground — on the ground of maintaining the wages of the 
laboring man. But it was evident that the laborer was not receiving 
his share of the benefit, that the manufacturer received more tlian 
the lion's share. So thought Grover Cleveland. And besides, there 
was another " condition " rather than a " theory " confronting the 
nation. The high tariff had caused a great surplus of money to be 
drawn from the channels of trade, only to be heaped up in the treas- 
ury at Washington. But the country was so wedded to a high 
tariff that not even the Democratic House had the courage to attack 
it. At last the party had a man at the helm whose courage seemed 
unlimited, and whose concern for his own political fortunes seemed 
to stand at zero. 

In December, 1887, President Cleveland, without advice from 
his fellow party leaders, devoted his entire annual message to a 
Cleveland's denunciation of the high tariff laws and a call for their 
tariff mes- modification. As the writer doubtless foresaw, the 
sage, 1887. message brought confusion to the ranks of his party, 
which was not prepared for such a positive declaration ; and, as he 
probably expected, it cost him a reelection to the presidency. But 
the message did exactly what it was intended to do — it made the 
issue for the coming election ; it committed a great party, compris- 
ing half the nation, to the principle of moderate impost duties. The 
party haltingly followed its leader, but enough stragglers fell by 
the wayside to bring defeat instead of victory. 

The Republicans took up the gage of battle that Cleveland 
had thrown down, and rejoiced at the opportunity. It is true that 
the famous message made all men think on the great subject of the 
tariff, and it won some Republicans. But the people were too 
devoted to a high tariff to consent on such short notice to abandon 
it. Mr. Blaine was still the Republican idol, and could have had 
the nomination of the party. But in the belief that he was fated 
never to be President, and in a moment of despondency, to which he 
was subject late in life, he positively refused to have his name con- 
sidered. The convention chose Benjamin Harrison of Indiana, 
grandson of William Henry Harrison, who had been elected by the 
Whigs in 1840. For second place Levi P. IVIorton was chosen, while 
the Democrats selected Allen G. Thurman, the sturdy " Old Roman " 
of Ohio, as Cleveland's running mate. 

Harrison was one of the ablest men in his party, but he was 
utterly wanting in the power to rouse popular enthusiasm. Cleve* 



CAMPAIGN OF 1888. 867 

land in some measure also lacked this power. The campaign was 
clean, intellectual, and dignified. The chief issue was of course the 
tariff, and to emphasize this each party put forth a congressional 
tariff bill. The Mills bill, framed by Roger Q. Mills of Texas, 
passed the Democratic House in the summer of 1888. 
It was framed on the lines of the tariff message of Mr. 
Cleveland, who was now the undisputed master of his party. This 
bill was not only rejected by the Republican Senate; it was answered 
by a Senate bill proposing even higher duties than those then in 
force. Neither of these bills became law, nor was such a result 
looked for by their respective supporters. They were merely expres- 
sions of party policy. 

Other political parties — the Prohibitionist, the Union Labor, the 
United Labor, and others — had candidates in the field ; but these 
organizations had little influence on the battle of the giants. Mr. 
Harrison was elected, receiving 233 electoral votes to 168 for Cleve- 
land, though his popular vote fell below that of Cleveland by about 
110,000. Cleveland would have been elected but for the loss of the 
pivotal state of New York through the defection of Tamman}'- Hall.^ 
The Republicans also gained control of the House, and were now in 
position to carry out any party measure. 

The success of the Republican party was now interpreted by its 
leaders a? a mandate from the people to raise the duties on imports 
to a still higher point, and they proceeded forthwith 
to do so. The result was the McKinley Tariff Act, of ^aS?*^ 
1890, named from its framer, Representative William 
McKinley of Ohio. By this law duties were raised to a point be- 
yond any before known in our history, — to an average of above 50 
per cent, — but its f ramers made one concession to the free traders 
by putting sugar on the free list.^ This act did not by any means 
settle the great question. 

1 David B. Hill, New York's Democratic candidate for governor and the favorite 
of Tammany, was elected by nearly twenty-nine thousand majority, while Cleveland 
fell fourteen thousand short of carrying the state. 

2 Even the Democrats did not propose free trade by any means. The Mills bill 
was called a free trade measure by its enemies ; but its average of duties, about 
42 per cent, was higher than any tariff before the war. 



86d mSTORT OF THE OTTTED STATES 



BIPORTAXT ACTS OF lSt><T 

Mr, Harrison had made James G. Blaine sec-retary of state, and 
in no capacitT in Ms long political career did the Maine statesman 
display his powers to greater advantage. The Kepublican House 
elected another Maine statesman as its Speaker, Thomas B. Keed. in 
some respects a stronger and more admirable character than Blaine. 
A practice of the minority in the House, almost from the beginning 
of the government, was to delay legislation which they did not favor, 
by making dilatory motions : but Speaker Eeed put a 
p er eeo. ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ practice by steadfastly refusing to recognize 
any member whose purpose was to obstruct business, however loud 
he might shout Another long-standing custom in the House was 
that a member was considered absent if he refused to answer to his 
name when the roll was called to ascertain whether there was a 
quorum present. Mr. Eeed broke this custom by counting as pres- 
ent those who sat silent at the roll call. The protest that arose was 
fierce and threatening, but Keed, with quiet, inflexible courage, pro- 
ceeded with the business of the House. The minority appealed to 
the Supreme Court, but Eeed was sustained, and within a few years 
his innovation was adopted by both parties as the rule of the House. 

One of the first effoits of the Republicans was to amend the elec- 
tion laws for the better protection of colored voters of the South- 
This bill, which the Democrats called the *•' Force Bill." and which 
they opposed with great bitterness, succeeded in passing the House ; 
but it was defeated in the Senate, chiefly through the efforts of 
Senator Arthur P. Gorman of ^laryland. 

This session of Congress, however, enacted, in addition to the 
McKinley Tariff bill, no less than five or six important laws. The 
Republicans were less troubled about the surphts -in the treasury 
than Cleveland had been. Instead of attempting to check the flow 
of money into the treasury, they devised plans to spend it. One of 
their first acts was to pass the Dependent Pension bill, very similar 
to the one Mr. Cleveland had vetoed. By this act Union soldiers 
and sailors who had served ninety days in the war were entitled to 
a pension, if they were from any cause unable to earn a 
Peaaioina-w li'^'iiicT : ^ii»i tii^ benefits were extended to their widows, 
children, and dependent parents. There was at once a 
rush to secure pensions, and the lobbyists and pension ** sharks '' who 
infested the halls of Congress were no doubt enriched more rapidly 



LAWS OF 18M 801 

ihan the old veterans. In 1SS9 the annual pension outlay was 
$89,000,000, and foxir years later it readied the enormous sum of 
$158,000,000. 

The pension law was passed in June ; and the same month wit 
nessed the passage of the Anti-Trust law under the title of "^An 
act to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and 
monopolies." For a decade there had been much popular protest 
against great combinations of capital for the purpose of preventing 
competition and of crushing out smaller concerns, and all the partv 
platforms of 1888 called for legislation against sxich combinations. 
This law gave the courts the power to pronounce void any contract 
injurious to the public in cases brought to trial.* 

The following month, July, brought the famous Sherman Silver 
law. The Bland-Allison Act of 1878 had been a concession to the 
silver interests of the West, ' This desire for more 
money in circulation had found expression through the ^**™^ 
Greenback party, the Farmers' Alliance, and such or- 
ganizations, and now it took the form of further demands on Congress 
for additional legislation favorable to a larger use of silver. Both the 
great political parties had stood for a sound and stable currency : but 
both were now willing to vield something to the popular demand, and 
the result was the enactment of the Sherman law. so named because 
Senator John Sherman of Ohio, the greatest financier in the country, 
was a member of the joint committee that framed it The Senate, 
av.gmented by members from several newly admitted silver states in 
the West, was in favor of the free coinage of silver ; but the House 
would not agree to this, and they compromised with the Shermim 
law. By this law the Bland- Allison Act, which provided that not 
less than 82.000.ChX> or more than ^4.000.iXX> per month was to 
be coined, was repealed, and the purchase of four and a half million 
ounces of silver per month was ordered. The notes issued in pay- 
ment for this bullion were to be redeemable in gold or silver : after 
July 1, 1891. the bullion should no longer be coined, except as it was 
needed to redeem treasury notes, and a ratio of sixteen to one in the 
coinage of silver and gold was fixed by law. The law provided also 
that for evexy gold dollar s worth of silver purchased an equivalent 

1 This law lay almost d<HiBant for nearly fourteen years w-hen it w^j; civen great 
sJKiiificaiiee by a deeiakHi of die Federal Supreme Conn ^Marv^h 14. li<4> dissolvln? th« 
Northern Seearities Company, by which the t-wo srreat railroads of the Northwest, 
the Great Northern and the Northern PacMc, had been brought onder one manage 

B«Dt. 



870 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

amount of legal tender treasury notes be issued. The attempt to 
keep up the price of silver by law resulted, like its predecessor of 
1878, in failure ; and a few years later the question rose again in fai 
greater proportions, and became the leading issue in a presidential 
election. 

Three other laws of considerable importance were enacted within 
the year 1890. One of these was known as the Original Package 
law. Some of the states had passed stringent anti-liquor laws, but 
these laws were evaded by persons who purchased liquor in the 
original package in other states, and, bringing it into a state 
having anti-liquor laws, sold it under the protection of the Inter- 
state Commerce Act of 1887. The Supreme Court sustained this 
practice ; whereupon Congress enacted the Original Package law, 
by which packages thus brought within a state were subject to 
the local laws of that state. Another Avas the Anti-Lottery law, 
which excluded lottery tickets and circulars from the mails of the 
United States. This was a deathblow to the Louisiana Lottery, 
which, in spite of many state laws to the contrary, had for many 
years done a large business in all the states through the mail. A 
third was a law forfeiting public land grants made to various rail- 
road corporations. Many of these companies liad not built their 
proposed roads and were simply holding their land grants as invest- 
ments; but an act of September, 1890, added again to the public 
domain many millions of acres which had been granted to the 
corporations. 

The years 1889 and 1890 brought into the Union six new states 
in the West. The population had moved westward across the vast 
prairies of the middle West, and up the slopes to the towering 
heights of the Rocky Mountains ; people on the Pacific Coast had 
been moving eastward. There was no longer a frontier ; the popula- 
tion had embraced the continent. It is true that these western settle- 
ments, composed of mining towns among the mountains, of cattle 
ranches along the slopes, with here and there an agricultural com- 
munity, were sparse as compared with those of the East ; but the 
extent of the various territories was so vast that the population as a 
whole was very considerable. Four new states — North 
Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington — ■ 
were admitted to the Union in 1889, and two — Idaho and Wyoming 
— the following year. The admission of the last-named states brought 
prominently before the country the long-discussed subject of woman's 



ELECTIONS OF 1890 871 



suffrage, as in both of them the right to vote and hold office was 
given to women. ^ 

The territory of Oklahoma, a portion of the Indian Territory, the 
title of which had been secured from the Indians in 1866 — on the 
condition, however, that only freedmen and civilized 
Indians occupy the land — was now opened to white * °°^*' 
settlers. Owing to the pressure of the "boomers" Congress set 
apart $4,000,000 to remove these conditions, and by a proclamation 
of the President the land was thrown open to white settlers at 
noon on April 22, 1889. Fifty thousand people waited on the 
boundary line for the bugle call to proclaian the hour. When 
the call was heard, there was a wild rush to possess the 
land. Many were successful in staking off choice lots or farms, 
but the demand was greater than the supply, and thousands failed 
to realize their golden dreams. Cities were staked out and city 
governments were organized before the evening of the first day. 
A census of that year showed that the population of Oklahoma 
exceeded sixty thousand. 

The addition of new states in the West had much to do with the 
passage of the Sherman Silver law, and these states played some 
part in the political upheaval of the same year. The congressional 
elections of 1890 resulted in a great victory for the Democrats. The 
Republican majority of about twenty in the House was replaced by 
a Democratic majority of nearly one hundred and, fifty. The chief 
issue was the McKinley Tariff. This tariff had been in force but a 
few weeks at the time of the election, and the test was not a fair one ; 
but the prices of commodities had suddenly risen, and the people 
were distrustful of the future. One of the surprises of this cam- 
paign was the strength shown by the People's party, or " Populists," 
the legitimate heirs of the Greenback party and the Farmers' Alli- 
ance. The strength of this third party came almost wholly from 
the South and West, where the spirit of unrest had reigned for sev- 
eral years. The party elected eighteen members to the House, con- 
trolled seven senatorial elections, and chose the governors in Georgia, 
South Carolina, Tennessee, and South Dakota. With the House 
thus in the hands of their enemies, the Republicans could no longer 
enact party measures, and the administration dragged listlessly along. 

1 In four western states — Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming — women have 
the right to vote and to hold office. In more than twenty other states woman suffrage 
is recognized in some form, as in municipal elections, school suffrage, and the like. 



872 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

In our foreign relations the Harrison administration was marked 
by several items of interest. One arose from the violent killing of 
eleven Italians, or Sicilians, -by a mob in New Orleans. There existed 
in that city a secret, oath-bound, murderous society known as the 
" Maffia." The chief of police, David C. Hennessy, who was very 
active in running down these criminals, was treacherously assassi- 
nated, and these eleven men were put on trial for the crime. There 
was little doubt of their guilt ; but the iury failed to 

Orleans goj^yict them. At this miscarriage of iustice the people 

massacre. ^ -, ■ i ■ -, 

of the city rose m anger and excitement ; a great crowd 

marched to the jail, battered down the door, seized the prisoners, 
and put them to death. Eight of the slain men were naturalized 
Americans ; but three proved to be subjects of the King of Italy, who 
promptly demanded redress for the outrage. After a long diplomatic 
correspondence the king's ultimatum, that indemnity be paid the 
families of the dead Italians and that their slayers be punished, was 
declined by Secretary Blaine, on the ground that the state of Louisi- 
ana, and not the United States government, had jurisdiction in the 
matter. The United States, however, agreed to pay $25,000 in- 
demnity ; the Italian king accepted this offer, and the matter was 
thus amicably settled. 

Early in 1889 the world's attention was directed to the far-away 
group of islands in the south Pacific known as Samoa. The United 
States had made a treaty of friendship with the Samoans in 1878. 
Eor a long period civil war raged in the islands ; and 
Samoa. ^^ length, in 1889, the United States, Great Britain, and 

Germany, each of which had a small fleet in the harbor, agreed to 
establish a protectorate, and decided to restore the deposed king. In 
March of the same year a terrific hurricane broke upon the islands, 
and most of the American and German war ships, together with all 
the merchant vessels in the harbor, fifteen in number, were destroyed. 

By anticipation this subject may here be disposed of by stating 
that in 1899 this agreement of the three powers was rescinded. 
Great Britain gave up all claims in Samoa for some other islands 
in the Orient, while the United States and Germany agreed 
to a division of Samoa. Upolu and other islands west of 171 
degrees west longitude fell to Germany, while Tutuila and the 
other islands east of 171 degrees became a possession of the United 
States. 

A diplomatic dispute with Chile, South America, absorbed public 



J 



INTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONS 878 

attention in the autumn of 1891. That country, as is common in 
South America, was in the throes of insurrection ; and 
the insurgents, believing that our minister, Mr. Egan, ^ *' 
sympathized with their opponents, conceived a dislike for him and 
all Americans. The United States cruiser Baltimore was lying in 
the harbol- of Valparaiso in October, 1891. While her crew were on 
shore leave, they were attacked by the populace of the city and had 
to run for their lives. Most of them escaped to their ship ; but two 
were killed and many were wounded with knives and clubs. For a 
time it seemed that war with the little republic would result, for the 
Chilean government treated the matter lightly ; but when the United 
States made a demand for redress, Chile humbly receded from her 
position and paid $75,000 to atone for the outrage. 

A long-standing diplomatic dispute with the British government 
over the seal fisheries in the Bering Sea reached an acute stage in 
1892. Before 1867 Russia had owned Alaska and had exercised ex- 
clusive rights in the Bering Sea. When we came into possession 
of Alaska, our government laid claim to the full control of the sea, 

as the Russian government had done : our motive being 

• Seal fisheries 
to protect the seals from extermination. England denied 

our exclusive right beyond the three-mile shore line. But in 1892 
the two governments agreed to a treaty which provided for arbitra- 
tion. Meantime a tribunal of temporary arbitration met in Paris, 
the United States, England, France, Italy, and Sweden being repre- 
sented. This tribunal decided in favor of Great Britain ; namely, that 
our possession of Alaska did not warrant our closing the Bering Sea 
to the world. The British government, however, agreed to cooperate 
with the United States in saving the seals from extermination, and 
thus the matter was for the time allowed to rest. 



THE ELECTION" OF 1892 

President Harrison was not popular with his party. A man of 
unquestioned integrity and ability, he was wanting in the powers of 
leadership, in personal magnetism, and the leaders of his party 
found it impossible to get into his confidence. And yet, as the 
policies of the party were the same as four years before and as Mr. 
Harrison was in full sympathy with those policies, he was the logi- 
cal candidate for renomination. His secretary of state, Mr. Blaine, 
was stilj the popular choice of the party, but there had long been a 



874 HISTOKY OF THE UNITED STATES 

feeling among the people that a Cabinet official should not become a 
candidate for the presidency in opposition to his chief. But all was 
not harmonious between the President and Mr. Blaine, and only- 
three days before the meeting of the Republican convention in 
Minneapolis, Blaine petulantly resigned from the Cabinet and per- 
mitted his name to go before the convention. It was too late, how- 
ever, as many of the delegates were pledged to Harrison and he was 
nominated on the first ballot. As it was, Blaine received 132 votes, 
and had his break with the President come a few months sooner, 
nothing could have prevented his nomination. Mr. Whitelaw Reid, 
editor of the New York Tribune, was named for Vice President, 
Blaine soon became reconciled, and used his efforts to reelect Har- 
rison. 

The Democrats met a few weeks later in Chicago and nominated 
Grover Cleveland and Adlai E. Stevenson. Cleveland was opposed 
by many delegates from the South and West who favored free silver, 
and by the delegation from his own state of New York. But the 
great masses of the party favored him, and in spite of a written 
protest signed by every delegate from New York, he was nominated 
on the first ballot. The platform denounced the McKinley Tariff, 
the Sherman Act, trusts and combinations, and advocated both gold 
and silver ; while the Republican platform upheld the McKinley 
Tariff, pronounced for the rural free delivery of mail, and for a Nica- 
ragua Canal, and on the coinage question took a position similar to 
that of the Democrats. Both parties favored national aid to the 
Columbian Exposition soon to be held at Chicago, 

The third party of this year was the most formidable since 1860. 
It was known as the People's party, and was composed chiefly of 
farmers and laborers to whom the free coinage of silver at the rate 
of 16 to 1 had presented itself as the panacea for nearly every 
national ill. Its platform pronounced also for a graduated income 
tax, and for national ownership of railroads, telegraphs, and tele- 
phones, and for the creation of postal savings banks. The party 
met in convention at Omaha in July, and nominated General James 
B. Weaver and James G. Field. The Prohibitionists nominated 
John Bidwell and J. B. Cranfill, and pronounced against trvists, mob- 
law, and the alien ownership of land. The Socialistic Labor party 
nominated Simon Wing of Massachusetts for President. 

The canvass was one of great interest, the chief issue being the 
McKinley Tariff. There was one other question, that of the frco 



PARTIES AND PLATFORMS 876 

coinage of silver, which threatened for a time to become paramount 
in this campaign. The Sherman law of 1890 had failed to arrest 
the steady decline in the price of silver, and the friends of the white 
metal now clamored for free coinage. This free-coinage movement 
swept rapidly over the West and South, and had many adherents in 
the East. It carried with it many thousands of Republicans, a 
greater number of Democrats, and the entire body of Populists. 
The Democrats would doubtless have headed off the Populists and 
made free silver their leading issue, but for one insurmountable 
obstacle — the attitude of Grover Cleveland. In Feb- 
ruary, 1891, when the party was on the verge of commit- . ® silver 
ting itself to free silver, Cleveland had written his 
"Cooper Union letter," pronouncing against free coinage. His 
friends had urged him not to commit himself on the great question 
at that time, as by so doing he would endanger his nomination ; but 
with the reckless courage that had always characterized him, he 
made his views public. The millions of advocates of free coinage 
were stunned and angered at this letter of Cleveland, the only real 
leader of the party in the past seven years ; but they were forced to 
decide between the issue and the man. So great was the popularity 
of Cleveland with the masses, and so urgent the call for his nomina- 
tion in 1892, that the silver leaders accepted him sullenly and suffered 
their pet issue to remain in the background. Hence the tariff became 
the great issue in the campaign. 

The Republicans were on the defensive in 1892. Mr. Cleveland 
had won the masses, if not the leaders, in his party, while Mr. Har- 
rison had won neither in his. Moreover, Harrison had quarreled 
with Blaine at the moment of his nomination. But the chief cause 
of his defeat was the McKinley Tariff. This tariff had raised 
prices of commodities, but not the wages of labor, and the Demo- 
crats were diligent in attributing to it greater evils than it brought. 
Its advantage to the manufactvirer could not be questioned, but 
there was a widespread belief that the laborer was not receiving his 
share of the benefits. During the months of the campaign out- 
breaks between capital and labor occurred in various states, the 
most serious of these being at Homestead, Pennsylvania, a town near 
Pittsburg, between the Carnegie Steel Company and its workmen. 

All these labor troubles militated against the Republican party in 
1892, since the party in power, guilty or not guilty, must bear the 
blame for public disorders. The result was a great victory for Cleve- 



878 NOTES 

land, who thus became our first President to be elected to a second 
term that was not consecutive with the first. So great had been 
the silver wave in the West that the Democrats named no electoral 
tickets in Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Kansas, and 
most of these states were carried by Weaver. Cleveland received 
277 electoral votes, to 145 for Harrison, and 22 for Weaver ^ 

NOTES 

The Australian Ballot. — For many years public opinion had been awaken- 
ing to the fact that many elections were fraudulently carried on by the profes- 
sional politicians. In 1888 the legislature of Massachusetts adopted a method of 
balloting, borrowed from Australia, which is known as the Australian system. 
Many other states followed the example of Massachusetts, until most if not all the 
states in the Union had adopted the new system. Its chief feature is that each 
voter receives an oificial ballot from the election officers, on which are printed 
the names of the candidates of all parties. With this he enters alone an election 
booth, and, in private, marks the names of the men for whom he wishes to vote, 
after which he folds the ballot, and returns it to the officers. The system has 
greatly aided in securing honest elections, but it has by no means removed all 
the evils. The most serious defect remaining is probably found in our method of 
choosing party candidates for local and state offices. By this method the party 
"boss" is usually able to name the party candidate without consulting the 
party, and this is most detrimental to the securing of honest men to fill the 
offices. 

Inventions. — This period is also marked by the coming into practical opera- 
tion of various useful inventions. The telephone, invented simultaneously by 
Elisha Gray of Chicago and Alexander Bell of Boston, both of whom applied for 
a patent on the same day, and almost the same hour, came into practical use about 
1876. Since then hundreds of thousands of miles of telephone lines have been 
constructed, and conversation can easily be carried on between New York and 
Chicago, and even between cities still further apart. Few inventions have added 
more to the comfort and the business facilities of modern life than has the tele- 
phone. The electric light, invented by Brush and Edison, and many electrical 
appliances, are also the product of this post-bellum period. 

Among the engineering achievements of the time, the most notable are the 
Brooklyn Bridge, the great suspension bridge that spans East River between 
New York and Brooklyn ; the New York elevated railway, and the "jetty sys- 
tem " for deepening the channel at the mouth of the Mississippi River. A word 
further must be said of this last-mentioned work. As the current of the great 
river becomes more sluggish near its mouth, great quantities of mud are depos- 
ited, and the channel becomes so shallow as to impede shipping. Captain James 
B. Eads proposed the jetty system, long in iise in Europe, by which the river is 

1 The popular vote stood: for Cleveland, 5,556,533; for Harrison, 5,175,577; for 
Weaver, 1,122,045; for Bidwell, 279,191; and for Wlug, 21,191. The House and the 
Senate were both Democratic by large majorities. 



1 



NOTES 877 

made narrower, and the current deeper and swifter. In 1875 Congress made an 
appropriation, and Captain Eads began ttie work. It was completed in four 
years and lias been eminently successful. The channel was made deep enough to 
float the largest ocean steamers to New Orleans, and the advantage to that city 
and to the whole country is very great. 

In 1878 was established the government life-saving service. Such establish- 
ments had, in various parts of the world, been maintained by individuals, and in 
the United States, in a limited and local way, before this date. But by this act 
of 1878 the service was made general, and was placed as a subdivision in the 
treasury department. It is the first instance in the world of a life-saving service 
established and carried on wholly as a governmental institution. 

Exploring the Arctic Seas. — The first of the voyages in quest of the North 
Pole was fitted out by James Gordon Bennett, proprietor of the New York 
Herald, and was commanded by Lieutenant De Long. In the little steamer 
Jcannette, De Long with a company of thirty men, left San Francisco in July, 
1879. For two years the party battled with the frigid climate, when their little 
vessel, after being locked in the ice for many months, became a total wreck. 
After a dreadful journey of six hundred miles the party reached the coast of 
Siberia near the mouth of the Lena River. But relief was still far away, and 
the men perished from hunger and cold before succor could reach them. The 
bodies were recovered, and the diary of De Long, kept to the day of his death, 
told of the awful sufferings of himself and his party. In 1881 Lieutenant A. W. 
Greely of the United States army led an expedition of about twenty-five men to 
the far North at government expense. He established a post at a point 81° 44' 
north, farther than any point before attained. Nothing was heard of the 
party until July, 1884, when a relief party, under Commander W. S. Schley, 
found and rescued those who survived. Greely and six of his men alone 
were left alive. Since then Lieutenant Peary and others have made brave 
efforts to reach the pole, but without succeae. 



1 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

"WAR AND EXPANSION 

Groveb Cleveland was inaugurated President for the second 
time on the 4th of March, 1893. The Cabinet was a personal rather 
than a political one ; with two or three exceptions its members were in 
no sense party leaders. For secretary of state the President chose 
Walter Q. Gresham, a former member of the Cabinet of Arthur and 
a lifelong Kepublican until the campaign of 1892. John G. Carlisle 
of Kentucky became secretary of the treasury ; Daniel S. Lamont, 
secretary of war ; Richard Olney, attorney -general ; William S. Bis- 
sell, postmaster-general ; H. A. Herbert, secretary of the navy ; 
Hoke Smith, secretary of the interior ; and J. S. Morton, secretary of 
agriculture. 

HAWAII, SILVEE, AND THE WILSON TARIFF 

The first important act after his inauguration was the withdrawal 
by Mr. Cleveland of a treaty to annex the Hawaiian Islands to the 
United States, which had been sent to the Senate by Mr. Harrison. 
Hawaii was a tiny independent monarchy in the Pacific Ocean some 
2100 miles west of San Francisco, and the reigning queen was 
Liliuokalani. But the monarchy had long been tottering, and at 
length, in January, 1893, a party of revolutionists, chiefiy Americans 
or the descendants of Americans, rose against the government, 
deposed the queen, and set up a provisional government with San- 
ford B. Dole as president. The cause of the uprising was an 
attempt of the queen to set aside the new constitution, adopted in 
1887, and to restore the old one, by which the Americans and other 
foreigners residing on the islands would be deprived of their right 
to participate in the government. The revolution was approved by 
the minister from the United States, John L. Stevens, and through 
him Mr. Dole requested the United States to assume a protectorate 
ovor the islands. On the 1st of February the American flag was 

878 



THE PANIC OF 1893 879 



raised over the government building at Honolulu. A treaty of an- 
nexation to the United States was drafted and sent by special mes- 
sengers to Washington. Almost the entire American public, including 
President Harrison, favored annexing the islands in spite of the 
protests of the agents of the deposed queen, who had also reached 
Washington. Accordingly, on February 15 the President submitted 
the treaty to the Senate, but before that body could act he went 
out of office.^ 

Mr. Cleveland, who now became President, had ideas of his own. 
Without the slightest regard for public sentiment, he withdrew the 
treaty from the Senate and sent a commissioner to Honolulu to in- 
vestigate, and, on learning the facts, he sent another minister to 
supersede Stevens and to haul down the American flag. Cleveland 
acted on the old American principle, as he claimed, that we have no 
right to assume the government over a people without their consent, 
and this he declared had not been obtained. He even offered to 
restore Queen Liliuokalani to her throne if she would promise am- 
nesty to those who had dethroned her. But this she would not do ; 
and the government, under President Dole, continued and became 
stronger, and Mr. Cleveland recognized the islands as a constitu- 
tional republic. At length, however (July 7, 1898), when the Cleve- 
land administration had been succeeded by another, the Hawaiian 
Islands were formally annexed to the United States by a joint resolu- 
tion of Congress, as in the case of Texas.^ 

Scarcely had this administration come in when the finances of 
the country became greatly disturbed. The conditions of panic had 
been accumulating for many months, and a panic now seemed ready 
to break upon the country. There were about five hundred million 
dollars in currency notes outstanding and redeemable in gold ; but 
when once redeemed, they were not canceled. The law directed 
that they be reissued, and thus an endless chain prevented the gov- 
ernment from protecting its gold reserve. In addition to this the 
government was obliged by the Sherman Silver law to purchase four 
and a half million ounces of silver per month and to pay for it in notes 
redeemable in gold. The gold reserve had almost reached the danger 

1 The treaty provided among other things that the United States should assume 
the Hawaiian debt, some "|!3, 250,000, should pay the deposed queen $20,000 a year, and 
allow the heiress-presumptive. Princess Koiulani. the lump sura of iJfinO.OOO. 

2 The Hawaiian group comprises about 6640 square miles. The population in 1896 
was 109,000. As a naval station the islands are of great importance to the United 
States. 



880 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

limit of a hundred million dollars. President Cleveland believed 
with the majority that the repeal of the Sherman law would help to 
relieve the situation, and for this purpose he called an extl-a session 
of Congress to meet on August 7, 1893. 

But iu Congress, especially in the Senate, there was great opposi- 
tion to repeal. The House Avas dominated by the great states of the 
East, and in that body a motion to repeal the act was soon passed by 
a good majority composed of both parties. But in the Senate, where 
the sparsely settled mining states of the West had the same voting 
power as the populous states, the House bill was held up for many 
weeks. Meantime great commotion reigned throughout 
S'l^^ law ^^® country, and for once President Cleveland played 
the politician. He withheld the patronage from the 
opposing senators ; he brought all the force of the presidential 
office to bear upon the matter in his determination to have the Sher- 
man law repealed. And at last, on November 1, after a long and 
exciting session, the Senate yielded and the silver-purchasing clause 
of the act of 1890 was repealed ; but further legislation, as recom- 
mended by the President for the purpose of maintaining the gold 
reserve, which had now fallen to $80,000,000, was not secured. 

Bat it was too late to avert the coming panic. The business of 
the country was unsettled, and the industrial depression that fol- 
lowed, covering several years, was one of the most disastrous in our 
history. Many for political purposes, and others through sheer 
ignorance, blamed the Democratic party entirely for the "hard 
times," and in this the Democrats suffered only what they had 
heaped upon the Eepublicans twenty years before. The panic of 
1893, which had been gathering for many months before Cleveland's 
term began, was the resultant of many convergent forces — the finan- 
cial conditions, the hoarding of gold by the people, the uncertainty 
about silver, overproduction, and of others which elude the pen of 
the economist. 

At such a moment it was doubtless unwise for the Democrats to 
attempt a revision of the tariff; but on the tariff issue they had 
carried the election, and they were prompt to carry out their 
pledges. Mr. William L. Wilson of West Virginia, chairman of the 
committee of ways and means, brought a tariff bill into the House 
early in the regular session. This became known as the Wilson bill. 
It passed the House in February, 1894, and went to the Senate. 
The bill placed raw materials for the most part on the free list, as 



THE WORLD'S FAIR AT CHICAGO 881 

also coal and sugar, aud made many of the duties ad valorem instead 
of specific. In the Senate the bill was subjected to drastic treat- 
ment. A few Democrats, led by Senator Gorman, de- 
termined to change the bill, and so great were the altera- iaw^l^94" 
tions made that it could scarcely be recognized as the 
same that had passed the House. Henceforth it was called the Wil- 
son-Gorman Tariff. The Senate took coal and iron from the free 
list, placed a schedule of duties on sugar, and raised them on 
many other things; it also changed ad valorem to specific duties. 
The House bill had reduced the average duties of the McKinley 
Tariff, which had been about 50 per cent, to about 35 per cent ; but 
the Senate bill raised them to about 37 per cent. The House reluc- 
tantly accepted the Senate bill because no better was attainable, and 
it was sent to the President on August 13, 1894. Mr. Cleveland was 
so displeased with the Senate changes that he refused to sign the 
measure ; but, believing it an improvement over the McKinley bill, 
he could not veto it, and it became a law without his signature. 

This tariff measure carried with it a provision for an income tax, 
which, however, was pronounced unconstitutional the following May 
by the United States Supreme Court.^ 

THE "WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION 

Four hundred years had passed since the discovery of the New 
World by Columbus. In that period the transformation had been the 
most remarkable in history, and it was fitting now that the one great 
nation of the Western Hemisphere, with its vast wealth and its 
boundless resources, take the lead in celebrating the discovery of 
Columbus. It was decided that the celebration take the form of a 
gigantic exposition, and the prize was awarded to Chicago ; but as it 
was found impossible to make adequate preparation for holding the 
fair on the anniversary of the discovery by Columbus, the following 
year, 1893, was chosen in its stead. The site chosen was Jackson 
Park, an unimproved pleasure ground on the lake front near Chicago. 
The ground was intersected with marshy inlets and lagoons ; but 
these were transformed by the hand of art into canals and lakelets 
bounded by walks and lawns, until the park presented the beauty of 
a fairy land. 

The expense of the exposition was enormous. The cost of pre- 

1 This was a reversal of a former decision in favor of the income tax. 
3l 



882 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

paring the grounds and erecting tlie buildings aggregated nearly 
$20,000,000, raised chiefly by the citizens of Chicago, by a five-mil- 
lion loan by the city, and by a gift of the government 

?""!',. of nearly two millions in the form of half dollars, coined 

buildings. o ■, 1 -IT- mi 

for the purpose with a special design. ihe govern- 
ment expended also f 2,250,000 for a building of its own, foreign 
countries expended some six millions, and the several states over 
seven millions. Thus the grand total reached thirty-five mil- 
lions, and if to this be added the expense of private exhibitors, 
the cost of the great exposition footed up the enormous total of 
nearly $40,000,000. 

No attempt can be made to describe the buildings of the " White 
City," as the exposition came to be called. Most of them were 
composed of an iron framework covered with " staff," a composition 
that resembles white marble. The principal buildings, grouped 
around the Court of Honor, with its glittering lake, its stately col- 
onades, and its luxuriant foliage, presented a scene of splendor and 
magnificence that led the beholder to feel that he was in dreamland. 

The largest of the buildings, covering forty-four acres, was 
devoted to manufactures and liberal arts. The government build- 
ing, with its octagonal gilded dome was probably the most ornate 
and impressive of them all. Around these were grouped the agri- 
cultural building, the woman's building, machinery hall, buildings 
devoted to art, fisheries, mining, transportation, electricity, and 
others. The art building, Ionic in style, was probably the most per- 
fect in grace of design on the grounds, and the treasures within it 
represented the choicest of public and private collections in Europe 
and America. In the building devoted to the work of women was 
exhibited, as never before, the great part that woman has played in 
the growth of modern civilization. 

The exhibits of the great fair were bewildering in their attrac- 
tiveness and their numbers. Never before in the world's history 
had such a collection of the products of art, science, and manu- 
factures been made. It seemed that nothing was wanting of 
the best that the world could give from every nation and every 
clime. The Centennial Exhibition of 1876 had appealed chiefly to 
the artistic and the sentimental ; the World's Columbian Exposition, 
while equally artistic and far more extensive, aimed chiefly to show 
the progress of the human race during the preceding four hundred 
years. For example, in the transportation building were exhibited 



THE ATLANTA EXPOSITION 883 

the old Oonestoga wagon and the stagecoach of a hundred and fifty 
years ago, side by side with the best-equipped modern locomotive. 
So in many exhibits the old and the new were contrasted in such 
a way as to present most strikingly to the eye the wonderful prog- 
ress of modern times. 

The great exposition was open from the 1st of May to the 31st of 
October, 179 days, during which the paid admissions were 22,477,212. 
The receipts from all sources reached nearly $15,000,000, while 
more than 23,000 medals were awarded to exhibitors. After the 
close of the exposition the problem arose as to what should be the 
disposal of the buildings, but the problem was solved when fire 
broke out in the grounds and most of the gorgeous structures of the 
White City were laid in ashes. Thus ended the American dream of 
1893, and the people awoke to the endless duties of practical life. 

In the autumn of 1895, two years after the close of the exposition 
at Chicago, another one of a similar character, but on a much smaller 
scale, was opened at Atlanta, Georgia. The site was Piedmont 
Park, where, thirty-one years before, Sherman had planted his guns 
to shell the city of Atlanta. The main object of this exposition was 
to reveal the vast industrial possibilities of the South. Nothing is 
more striking in the industrial world than the progress made by 
that section since the days of reconstruction. In the 
year 1899 the South produced nearly 11,000,000 bales f^elouth"^ 
of cotton, 10,000,000,000 feet of lumber, and 750,000,000 
bushels of grain. A thousand million dollars had been invested in 
manufacturing.^ The cotton mills now run more than 5,000,000 spin- 
dles, and great iron furnaces equipped with the latest machinery are 
springing up in nearly every southern state. The southern mines 
of zinc, lead, pyrites, salt, manganese, and valuable clays are inex- 
haustible, and in recent years great deposits of petroleum have been 
discovered in Texas. Since the Civil War the energies of the South, 
after long slumbering under a false system of labor, have sprung 
into life, and the achievements of the present are excelled only by 
the promises for the future. 

TWO UNUSUAL OCCURRENCES 

Twice had President Cleveland startled the country with his great 
decision of character, and his singlar power in taking the initiative 

1 The Manufacturer's Record, December, 1899. Our cotton exports for 1903 
reached 3,622,000,000 pounds. 



884 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

on great questions without taking counsel with his party — in issuing 
his tariff message in 1887, and in withdrawing the Hawaiian Treatj 
in 1893. Twice more was he to do the same thing. In May, 1894, 
a formidable strike of the employees of the Pullman Car Company, 
of Chicago, took place, and in their violent efforts to prevent the cars 
from being used on the railways great damage was threatened. The 
governor of Illinois, John P. Altgeld, sympathized with the strikers, 
and made no effort to quell the disturbance. Thereupon President 
Cleveland, of his own motion, sent national troops to put down the 
Cleveland ^^^^' -^^^® Constitution makes no express provision 
sends troops for such an act on the part of the President, except 
to Chicago. when the government of the state in which a riot occurs 
calls for national assistance. President Cleveland was severely 
criticised for his action, and an acrimonious controversy ensued 
between him and Governor Altgeld. The Pres 'ent justified his 
action on the ground that the rioters were interfering with the mails 
and with interstate commerce, both of which it was his duty to 
protect. 

The second of these events was the most thrilling the country 
had experienced in many a year. The British government had for 
more than half a century been disputing with Venezuela concerning 
the boundary between that country and British Guiana. Again and 
again had Venezuela offered to leave the matter to arbitration, and 
the United States had urged that the dispute be settled in that way. 
But the British refused, nor did they propose any method by which 
a settlement could be reached. In the summer of 1895 Mr. Richard 
Olney, the secretary of state, informed Lord Salisbury, the British 
Premier, that in accordance with the Monroe Doctrine, the United 
States must insist on arbitration. Lord Salisbury replied by a flat 
refusal, and a declaration that he did not accept the Monroe Doctrine. 
Then it was that President Cleveland, in the belief that the Monroe 
Doctrine was about to be violated, startled the world with his vigor- 
ous message to Congress. In this message he declared that the time- 

honored doctrine "was intended to apply to every 
Venezuelan stage of our national life," that as Great Britain 
message, had refused for many years to submit the dispute to 

?»Q^™^^^ ^'^' ii^P^i^tial arbitration, nothing remained to us " but to 

accept the situation." He then proposed that a com- 
mission be appointed to determine the rightful boundary betweeo 
the two countries, and asked that Congress vote money to defray its 



THE VENEZUELAN MESSAGE 88d 

expenses. The message further declared that in case the disputed 
territory was found to belong to Venezuela, it would be the duty of 
the United States " to resist by every means in its power " the 
aggressions of Great Britain, the appropriation of lands that are 
' determined of right to belong to Venezuela. 

The country and the world were thrilled at the suddenness, 
the positive tone, of the message. Still more striking was the 
unanimity of the support given it. Congress forgot its party differ- 
ences and voted without division or debate $100,000 to defray the 
expenses of the commission to be appointed. It seemed for a time 
that the war cloud was lowering over the two great kindred nations ; 
but Lord Salisbury receded from his position, the boundary dispute 
was settled by arbitration, and the people on both sides of the sea 
rejoiced, for they had escaped a calamity the extent of which no man 
could have measured.'- 

THE SILVER ISSUE 

As the presidential election of 1896 drew near, it became evident 
that the free coinage of silver would become the chief issue. The 
mining interests of the West were greatly crippled by the steady fall 
in the price of silver, and the blame for this was laid chiefly on the 
repeal of the Sherman law. But there were other causes. In 1873 Ger- 
many had demonetized the white metal and had made gold the sole 
standard. Norway, Sweden, and Denmark immediately followed the 
example of Germany, and a great quantity of bullion from their melted 
coin was thrown upon the market. In 1878 the Latin Union closed their 
mints to free coinage, and Russia suspended silver coinage in 1879. 
In addition to all this, the world's annual production of silver more 
than doubled in the twenty years preceding the repeal of the Sher- 
man law. 

iThe result of the arbitration was decidedly favorable to the English claim, on 
the ground that tifty years' actual possession of a district constitutes a national title. 
One result of this episode was the establishing of the Monroe Doctrine more firmly 
than ever. It is also claimed that the message of President Cleveland, whose 
authority was coordinate with that of Monroe, extended the original meanijig of the 
doctrine, pronouncing it at the same time a permanent policy of the United States. 

Other notable events of this administration were an order in May, 1895, bringing 
thirty thousand more places within the Civil Service law, making eighty-five thou- 
sand in all, and the framing and signing of a general arbitration treaty between the 
United States and Great Britain, January, 1897. This most desirable treaty, however, 
failed to receive the requisite number of votes in the Senate, and it fell to the 
ground. 



»86 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

As we have noticed, the administration was launched in the midsl 
of an incipient panic. Failures in business began to multiply, and 
in addition to the financial and industrial depression, the crops of the 
West were short for several years. Many kinds of business were 
suspended, and armies of luiemployed men walked the streets of the 
cities.^ The gold reserve in the treasury ran dangerously low; and 
to replenish it, bonds to the extent of $263,000,000 were sold. Vast 
numbers of men believed that the government's treatment of silver 
was the chief cause of the distress, and that free coinage would be 
the cure. These men heartily disliked Cleveland because he was an 
enemy of free coinage. 

During this whole term the President and his party drifted 

steadily aj)art. But the silver question was not the sole cause of 

this. Cleveland exercised little tact in holding his party together. 

For his great courage and ability, for his independent character, his 

unswerving rule making principle the standard of action, for his 

abhorrence of demagogy in every form — for all these President 

Cleveland must be admired by all honest people. But in a country 

governed by parties, party leadership and unity of party action are 

necessary in carrying out great measures. Herein lay 

c eve S'^ s Cleveland's great weakness. He seemed to believe that 
want of tact. -r. . t i i i i 

a President should be non-partisan m serving the whole 

people ; he took little counsel with his party leaders, forgetting appar- 
ently that it was a party, and not the whole people, that made him 
President, and that for future usefulness the party needed guidance 
and leadership. Thus one of the most able and honest of American 
Presidents found himself almost without a party — chiefly through 
his own want of tact. 

At the beginning of 1896 it was certain that one of the great 
parties would pronounce for free silver, but which it would be 
was uncertain, for both were swarming with the friends of silver. 
At length the Republicans began to drift toward the gold standard, 
and the Democrats took the opposite course. The Republican con- 
vention met in June at St. Louis. For months before the meeting, 
it seemed evident that Mr. William McKinley of Ohio would be the 
choice of the convention. He had been a friend of free coinage in 

^ In the spring of 18&4, one Coxey of Ohio marched to Washington with a rabble 
of several hundred men, called the " Army of the Commonweal," to demand that 
Congress issue ^500,000,000 in greenbacks to be expended in public works for tha 
benefit of the unemployed. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1896 887 



former years, and many uow called on him to express himself on the 

great issue ; but he refused to reveal his convictions, if he had any, 

stating that he would stand on the platform of the 

party if nominated. He received the nomination with Zf m^k i°^ 

little opposition, and Garret A. Hobart of New Jersey 

was chosen as his running mate. 

William McKinley, like many of our public men, had risen by 
his own industry and strength of character from the lower walks of 
life. Valiantly he had served his country in the Civil War. Four- 
teen years he had served in the Lower House of Congress, had 
become a commanding figure in that body, and was the chief framer 
of the tariff bill that bore his name. He was twice elected gov- 
ernor of Ohio, and had for some years been looked upon as a coming 
candidate for the presidency. No Republican in the country had 
shown greater powers as a party leader than had Mr. McKinley. The 
platform on which he now stood pronounced for the gold standard, 
unless the silver standard could be adopted in conjunction with 
foreign nations. It also declared for protection and reciprocity, 
the American ownership of the Nicaragua canal, the control of 
Hawaii, and the purchase of the Danish West Indies. 

The Democrats met in Chicago a few weeks later. The party 
was swayed by the spirit of revolt against old standards. Never 
had a great party met to nominate a presidential candidate with less 
knowledge of what it would do. The silver issue had swept the 
country like a hurricane, and the one thing the convention was sure 
to do was to pronounce for free coinage. On this subject the party 
had taken fire, and nothing could stay the impetuous demand for 
unlimited coinage at the rate of sixteen to one; and this became 
the chief plank of the platform and the chief issue in the campaign. 
But who Avould be the candidate ? While this question was pend- 
ing, William J. Bryan, a meinber of the Nebraska delegation, 
addressed the convention in a brilliant, passionate outburst of 
eloquence that thrilled his hearers with admiration. Bryan was a 
man unknown to the people at large, and, though he had served two 
years in Congress, he had not been hitherto thought of as a national 
party leader. He was a man of pure and sincere per- 
sonal life ; his espousal of the cause of silver was born Qf^^y&n^^ 
of honest motives ; in his eloquence there was a spark 
of the divine fire that touches men's souls. The effect of his speech 
on the convention was magical, and the day after it was made he was 



888 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

nominated for the presidency of the United States. For second 
place Arthur Sewall of Maine was chosen. The Populist party held 
its convention a little later, and, being also devoted to free silver, 
it ratified the nomination of Bryan; but instead of Sewall it chose 
Thomas E. Watson of Georgia.^ 

The campaign of 1896 was one of the most exciting the nation 
has ever seen. At first it seemed that the country would be en- 
tranced by the brilliant young Nebraskan, as the Democratic con- 
vention had been. Mr, Bryan made a most heroic effort. He 
traveled in many states and electrified hundreds of thousands with 
his dramatic eloquence. But ere the summer had passed the people 
caught their breath. They began to reflect that if the country were 
thrown on a silver basis business would be greatly disturbed; and 
that it would not be dealing honestly with the creditor, if he were 
forced to accept cheaper money for payment than that intended 
when the debt was contracted. 

But old party lines were not strictly drawn. When the Eepub- 
lican convention adopted the gold standard, thirty-four of its dele- 
gates, led by one of the ablest Republican senators, Mr. Stewart of 
Nevada, seceded from the hall, and afterward indorsed Bryan. The 
Democrats suffered a still greater defection. Many conservatives of 
the party met in Indianapolis, called themselves the National 
Democratic party, and nominated John M. Palmer of Illinois and 
Simon B. Buckner of Kentucky, and adopted a gold standard 
platform. In addition to these defections, many thousands of 
Republicans voted for Bryan, and a far greater number of Demo- 
crats voted for McKinley. 

The election was held on November 3, and resulted in a signal 
victory for McKinley. He carried all the states east of the Mis- 
sissippi and north of the Ohio and the Potomac, also five states in 
the West, and Kentucky and West Virginia. McKinley received 271 
electoral votes while Bryan received 176.^ The campaign, though 
vigorous, was clean and dignified, both McKinley and Bryan being 
men of the highest personal character. Marvelously soon after the 

1 The Prohibitionists had met in Pittsburg in May, and had nominated Joshua 
Levering of Maryland and Hale Johnson of Illinois. The National party met in the 
same city, and chose C. E. Bentley and T. H. Southgate. The Socialist Labor party 
nominated Charles H. Matchett and Matthew McGuire. These parties were scarcely 
heard in the exciting campaign that followed. 

2 The popular votes were as follows: McKinley, 7,111,607; Bryan, 6,502,600; 
Palmer, 134,731; Levering, 123,428; Matchett, 35,306; Bentley, 13,535. 



SPAIN AND CUBA 



election the country was quiet; the defeated party accepted the 
result cheerfully in the true American spirit ; and now that tlie 
financial status was settled for the time, the business of the coun- 
try was awakened to new life and new enterprises. 

Immediately on his inauguration Mr. McKinley called Congress 
to meet in extraordinary session on the loth of March, for the 
purpose of providing additional revenue. Though the silver issue 
had been paramount in the campaign, it was understood by tlie 
Republicans that, if they won the election, their success would be 
considered a mandate from the people to enact a new tariff law. 
They now controlled the Executive and both houses, and they 
immediately addressed themselves to this subject, Thomas B. 
Eeed of Maine having been elected Speaker of the 
House. A tariff bill had been prepared during the fari.ff^l897 
winter and Mr. Nelson Dingley of Maine brought 
it before the House. Before the end of March it had passed the 
House and had been sent to the Senate, where it remained four 
months. It became a law on July 24, 1897. This tariff, known as 
the Dingley bill, is still (1904) in force. Its duties average about the 
same as those of the McKinley bill, but it differs from that measure 
in many particulars. On the whole it is a highly protective tariff — 
higher in its rates than any other in our history except that of 1890.' 

THE WAE WITH SPAIN 

For eighty-four years America had known no foreign war — save 
the brush with IVIexico in the forties — and never had we engaged 
with a great power, except with England. The year 1898 brought 
war with Spain, and wrought vast changes in that government and 
in our own. As stated in an early chapter of this history, Spain was 
long ago the greatest power in Europe or the world. The do- 
minion of Philip II was vast. He ruled Portugal, the Netherlands, 
Milan, and the Sicilies ; he was master of Cuba, Porto Rico, 
and almost all of Central and South America. His revenue was ten 
times that of Elizabeth of England, says Macaulay. But alas for 

1 The following winter some important financial legislation was enacted. The 
gold dollar was made the unit of value, and the gold reserve established at $150,000,000. 
Provision was made for refunding the national debt in 2 per cent thirty-year bonds ; 
and the national banking law was so amended as to permit a bank to be established 
on a capital of $25,000 and to issue notes to the par value of its bonds deposited in the 
treasury. 



890 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Spain ! With all her chivalry aud prid-e, she has fallen from among 
the great. Her thirst for gold and conquest was the thirst of the 
inebriate for drink, aud the political corruption it brought proved 
the ruin of Spain. 

At the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth century the pos- 
sessions of Spain in the AVestern Hemisphere were confined to the 
islands of Cuba and Porto Rico, with a few small adjacent islands, 
and her governmeut of these was one of unceasing corruption and 
plunder. Often had the people of Cuba revolted against the iron 
hand of Spain. A ten j^ears' war in the island, begun in 18G8, 
ended with promises ; but scarcely had the patriots laid down their 
arms when every promise was broken, and they were ruled by 
the same tyrannical hand as before. For seventeen years the matter 
slumbered when, in February, 1895, the Cubans again rose in rebellion 
against their oppressors. Spain sent an army to put them down, 
first under General Campos ; but he was too humane, and he was 
replaced by the cruel Weyler. 

Many of the Cuban peasants remained quietly on their farms 
and took no part in the war. These Weyler drove, at the point of 
the bayonet, from their homes and penned them up in the towns, 
that they might not furnish food for the rebels. Soon they were in 
a starving condition and the death rate was frightful ; but Weyler 
gave no heed ; his evident intention was to depopulate the island. 
Our people were deeply concerned. Why this long-drawn-out, 
wholesale murder right at our door, when we could easily prevent it ? 
President Cleveland hesitated. He was loath to offend a friendly 
nation ; but he warned Spain. In his annual message of 1896 he 
said, " It cannot be reasonably assumed that the hitherto expectant 
attitude of the United States will be indefinitely maintained." Then 
he went out of office, and Mr. McKinley followed the same policy, 
warning Spain in various ways, aud another year passed. 
Cuba^^ ^^^ Both these Presidents felt a responsibility in dealing 
with a friendly power that a j)rivate citizen cannot feel. 
But Spain refused to heed the warnings. The cry of distress from 
the unhappy island increased more and more, and it seemed as the 
voice of a brother's blood crying unto us from the ground — and the 
American public could endure it no longer.^ 

In the early spring of 1897 President McKinley demanded the 

1 Weyler's starvation policy is said to have cost Cuba 250,000 lives. 



WAR WITH SPAIN 891 



release of American prisoners in Cul^a, and this was heeded. In 
May he asked Congress for $rA),(H)0 for the relief of 
Americans in tlie island, and this was administered. In 
February, 1898, he sent the Maine, a fine second-class battleship of 
seven thousand tons, to Cuban waters to protect our interests. On 
the night of the 15th of February, while the crew were sleeping 
in fancied security, a mighty column of smoke and fire arose from 
the water, commingled with timl)ers and beams and the bodies of 
men. The Maine had been blown to fragments and 260 of her 
gallant crew had perished. When the news was flashed across the 
country, the people were shocked; and when, after waiting forty 
days for a board of naval officers to ascertain the cause of the ex- 
plosion, they were convinced that it was the result of Spanish 
treachery, their wi-ath broke forth into fury. 

The destruction of the Maine hastened, but did not cause, the 
approaching war. After proposing to Spain an armistice to continue 
till October 1, 1898, and receiving an unsatisfactory reply. President 
McKinley, on April 11, sent a message to Congress saying : " In the 
name of humanity, in the name of civilization, in behalf of endangered 
American interests . . . the war in Cuba must stop." This meant 
war, for Congress has no diplomatic relations; its only power in 
dealing with foreign nations is the war power. On the 19th of 
April — that ominous date in American history, the anniversary of 
the battle of Lexington, of the first bloodshed in the Civil War, and 
of the blockading proclamation of President Lincoln — on that day 
Congress resolved that Cuba must be free, authorized the ]*resident 
to use his war power in carrying out the resolution, and 
declared also that the United States had no intention to of^^^r* ^**° 
exercise sovereignty over the island. War was formally 
declared against Spain on the 25th. The Spanish minister at Wash- 
ington instantly left the country, and our minister at Madrid, Mr. 
Woodford, departed from Spain, At that moment no idea of terri- 
torial acquisition seemed to enter the American mind. The war was 
solely for the rescue of Cuba, and no war was ever waged for a 
nobler purpose. And yet, strange as it may seem, nearly all European 
countries, except England, displayed a popular feeling against the 
United States. 

The first notable battle of the war occurred in the Orient. Spain 
had possession in the East of the populous archipelago known as the 
Philippine Islands, so called in honor of Philip II of Spain, after their 



892 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

discovery by the dauntless Magellan in his famous world voyage. 
In the spring of 1898 Commodore, now Admiral, George Dewey was 
commanding a fleet in eastern waters. He was ordered to proceed 
to Manila Bay and there to attack the Spanish fleet. Manila Bay is 
one of the finest harbors in the world. At its mouth stand two 
small islands like sentries, rising five hundred feet above the water. 
These were bristling with Spanish cannon; but, on the night of 
April 30, Dewey passed them in safety, and at dawn of the next day he 
was ready to grapple with the Spanish fleet in the harbor. Here 
under the guns of Cavite, a town some miles from Manila, the 

capital of the islands, lay the enemy's vessels — and 
Battle of ^j^g q£ ^j^g most remarkable of naval battles immediately 

followed. The Spanish fleet, commanded by Admiral 
Montojo, consisted of ten vessels, while Dewey had nine, somewhat 
better on an average than those of the enemy. The apparent 
advantage of the Spaniards, owing to the support they had from the 
shore batteries, did not avail. The battle began in the early morn- 
ing hours. It was short and terrific, and wholly one-sided in its 
results. Five times the American fleet swung past the enemy pour- 
ing in its deadly broadsides. By one o'clock in the afternoon the 
enemy's fleet was totally destroyed and hundreds of the Spaniards 
were dead or wounded. Not an American was killed, nor was an 
American vessel disabled. Some months later the city of Manila 
was captured, with thirteen thousand Spanish soldiers, by a combined 
attack of the navy under Dewey and a land force sent from the 
United States under the command of General Merritt, and the 
entire archipelago was wrested from Spain. 

Meantime matters were preparing for equally great events 
nearer home. The President had called for 125,000 volunteers 
and the rush to arms was most gratifying.^ Admiral Sampson 
had been sent with a fleet to Cuban waters. Commodore Schley 
was also sent with a flying squadron. These two joined at the 
mouth of the harbor of Santiago, where a Spanish fleet, under 
Pascual Cervera, had taken refuge. This fleet was much stronger 
than that destroyed by Dewey. The fleets of Sampson and Schley, 
joined by the Oregon, after a fourteen-thousand-mile voyage from San 
Francisco around Cape Horn, watched and waited at the mouth of the 

1 The regular army was only 28,000 strong at the beginning of the war. It was 
soon increased to 61,000 by act of Congress. By the end of August 216,000 men had 
volunteered, the President having made a second call for 75,000 men. 



NAVAL AND MILITARY EXPLOITS 893 

harbor for Cervera. To prevent his escape at an unguarded moment 
a young officer, Richmond P. Hobson, with a few companions, 
steamed into the harbor under cover of the darkness and sunk 
an old collier, the J^errimac. But ere they had succeeded they 
were discovered, and they finished the work in the face of a tre- 
mendous fire from the enemy, after which they were picked up 
and made prisoners. 

The country was utterly unprepared for war, and many were the 
blunders and mishaps before an army could be put into the field. 
After much confusion, 15,000 men were embarked from the coast of 
Florida on June 14 for the vicinity of Santiago. They were landed 
sixteen miles south of the harbor and began their march by two 
mountain trails toward Santiago. There was an army of regulars 
commanded by Generals Wheeler and Young, while Colonels Wood 
and Eoosevelt led an irregular band of 534 men known as the 
Eough Riders. These two bodies, leaving the main army behind, 
pressed forward over the mountains, and encountered the enemy first 
at Las Guasimas. The Spaniards numbered some 2000 and the 
Americans less than 1000 ; but the latter won, driving the enemy 
before them and capturing their position. The rest of the army 
came up a few days later, led by Generrls Lawton and Chaffee, and 
it was decided to make an attack on El Caney, a fortified town near 
Santiago. After a siege of nearly a whole day the works were taken 
by storm, most of the surviving Spaniards being made prisoners. 

San Juan was captured on the same day in a brilliant assault led 
by Colonel Roosevelt. Other charges were also made on July 2 (some 
being continued into the next day) at various points 
near Santiago, and the combined engagements are known ^^^ j^^^ 
as the battle of San Juan. It was the most important 
land battle of the war. Some 16,000 Americans were engaged under 
the general command of General William R. Shafter. Of our army 
241 were killed and about 1400 wounded. 

While this was going on, Sampson and Schley were waiting at 
the mouth of the harbor for the egress of Cervera. On the morning 
of the 3d of July, a thin column of smoke was descried far up the 
bay, and the Americans saw that their long-looked-for enemy was 
approaching. Cervera, seeing that Santiago was about to fall, had 
determined to make a dash for liberty — and a wild, fatal dash it 
was. Admiral Sampson was absent on his flagship, and Commodore 
Schley had general charge; but, more strictly speaking, it was a 



894 HISTOKY OF THE UNITED STATES 

captain's figlit, as each commander was prepared and did what 
seemed best in his eyes. 

As the Spanish fleet emerged from the harbor, tlie American 
ships opened upon it, and in a wild running fight of a few hours the 
Battle of entire Spanish fleet was destroyed. The battle was 

Santiago, a repetition of that at Manila. But one American 

July 3, 1898. -^^Q^g killed and one wounded, while nearly 600 Spaniards 
Avere killed or drowned, nearly 1400, including the brave Cervera, were 
taken prisoners, and every one of their vessels was snnk or captured. 

Two weeks after this battle General Toral surrendered the city 
of Santiago to General Shafter, and practically the entire island of 
Cuba passed into the hands of the United States. 

The fertile island of Porto Rico, the smallest of the four Greater 
Antilles, lying some five hundred miles southeast from Cuba, was 
the next object of attack. On July 20 General Nelson A. Miles, 
the chief commander of the armies, embarked with an army for 
Porto Rico. The army landed at Ponce, soon had possession of the 
city, and began a march toward San Juan, the capital of the island. 
After several skirmishes, and the capture of several towns, not only 
by the army under Miles, but by two or three others operating in 
different parts of the island, all operations were suddenly brought to a 
standstill, on August 13, by news that a peace protocol had been signed 
the day before by the United States and Spain. 

The war was over ; it had been in progress but little over three 
months. The Americans had won in every engagement. It was 
the fall of mediaevalism before the onrush of modern progress. 
The naval power of Spain had been swept from the seas ; and now 
the proud old nation sued for peace. The conditions, as arranged 
in the protocol, were that Spain forever relinquish her sovereignty 
over Cuba, that she cede to the United States Porto Rico and her 
other islands in the West Indies, also an island in the Ladrones, 
and that the control of the Philippines be determined in a treaty 
of peace yet to be arranged. 

The war with Spain was not a great one, but measured by results 
it was one of the most important of modern times.^ It marked the 
end of Spanish rule in the Western Hemisphere, and of the Spanish 
Empire as a world power. But, after all, this war may prove a 
great blessing to Spain. Being no longer a first-class power, she 

1 'J'lic (lost to the United States was about $275,000,000; tlie uumber of Americana 
engaged was 274,717. 



TREATY OF PEACE 895 



will have little temptation to boast or to wage war, and if her peo- 
ple, now hemmed within their own peninsula, will turn their atten- 
tion to the arts of civilization, and to the education of the masses, 
they may yet become a great and happy people. 

Still greater was the change Avrought on the United States. 
During the century and a quarter of our national history, we have 
been content to remain in comparative isolation from the rest of the 
world ; we have taken pride in the fact that we had not and di<l not 
wish to have colonial possessions. But suddenly, unexpectedly, our 
policy has been changed, and we have expanded into a world power. 
No man planned or foresaw the change. It came probably because 
it was time for it to come. 

The treaty of peace was negotiated at Paris during the autumn of 
1898 by commissions from both countries, the American commission 
being headed by Judge "William R. Day, who had resigned the sec- 
retaryship of state. Aside from the provisions of the protocol, the 
one great question to be settled by the treaty was the disposition of 
the Philippine Islands. There was probably little thought on the 
part of the administration, when the protocol was signed, of forcing 
the cession of the islands by Spain. But the capture of Manila by 
the Americans on the day after the signing of the protocol (of which 
they had not heard, owing to the severance of telegraphic com- 
munication) placed the Philippine question in a different light. The 
American public now began to view the matter from the standpoint 
of national responsibility. It would be cowardly, it was argued, to 
turn the half-civilized Filipinos out upon the world to become a prey 
to foreign powers, or to hand them back to the misrule of Spain ; 
and the only other alternative was to accept them as a possession of 
the United States. This view was strengthened by a missionary 
spirit among the people, and President McKinley came to adopt it. 
Late in October he cabled our commissioners that the acceptance of 
the archipelago was the only " plain path of duty." Our commis- 
sioners thereupon demanded the cession to the United States of the 
entire group. The Spanish commissioners objected to this with 

great vigor and with many arguments ; but at length 

?, 1.1 • 1 ^ • n 1 i.1, I- 1,- 1° Cession of the 

they were obliged to yield, and the entire archipelago pi^iiippineg. 

was ceded to the United States in consideration of 
$20,000,000 to be paid to Spain by the United States. The 
treaty also provided that for a term of years Spanish ships and mer- 
chandise be admitted to the ports of the islands on the same terms as 



896 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

those of the United States. The treaty was signed on December 10; 
but it hung fire for weeks in the Senate, "being ratified on Febru- 
ary 6, 1899, with a single vote to spare. 

OUR ISLAND POSSESSIONS 

The Philippine Archipelago extends over sixteen degrees of lati- 
tude, almost from Borneo to Formosa, and lies wholly within the 
tropical zone. It comprises 3141 islands, hundreds of which are 
uninhabitable volcanic rocks, and 1473 are without names. The 
largest of the islands, Luzon (40,969 square miles), is about the size 
of Ohio ; the second in size is Mindanao with 36,292 square miles, 
Samar coming third with 5031 square miles. The entire land area 
of the archipelago reaches 115,026.^ The soil is fertile and the chief 
products are sugar, Manila hemp, tobacco, coffee, and indigo. 

The population of the islands, by the census of 1903, was 

7,635,426. Of this number, 6,987,686 are civilized or partially 

civilized, while 647,740 are known as the wild tribes. The people 

are divided into many tribes, the most enlightened of which are the 

Tagalogs, who number 1,460,000. The Visayan tribeds 
The natives 007 7 j j 

the most numerous, numbering 3,219,030; the Ilocanos 

number 803,000; the Bicols, 666,365; the Igorots, 211,520. All 

are of Malaj^ stock and are supposed to have occupied the islands in 

nlodern times only. The supposed aborigines are the Negritos, of 

whom 23,500 still exist. They are a timid, shy, dwarfish people 

who wander among the mountains, living on roots and small game. 

At the time of the American occupation probably 30,000 Euro- 
peans and 100,000 Chinese lived in the islands, and these were in 
control of nearly all the industries. 

Scarcely had the treaty of peace been signed when the Filipinos 
rose against the Americans, declaring that they had been fighting 
for independence, and not for a change of masters. The insurrection 
was headed by a strong young native leader named Emilio Aguinaldo. 
But it, was soon discovered that the Filipinos could not stand against 
an American army; they thereupon discarded the uniform, and began 
a guerrilla warfare against the Americans. This method, 
rnlpinos *^* which soon degenerated into pure brigandage, proved 
very distressing to the Americans. President McKinley 

1 These figures are given by the Census Report (Vol. I, p. 57) issued in April, 1905, 
but, as therein stated, some of the islands have not been measured with absolut* 
accuracy. 




noted with particular care.) 



THE PHILIPPINES AND THE ANTI-IMPERIALISTS 



897 



found it necessary to augment the army in the Philippines until it 
reached 65,000. These were scattered ; they occupied many posts, 
and their petty engagements with the natives numbered hundreds. 
Meanwhile the presidential campaign of 1900 had an important 
bearing on the Philippine AVar. This campaign was strikingly similar 
to that of 1896. The presidential candidates were the same, McKin- 
ley and Bryan, and the platforms were very similar to those of four 
years before. The Democrats, at the behest of Mr. Bryan, embodied 



^) f-^ O M I N I O N OF 




the Chicago platform, including its free-silver feature; but they 
added one important declaration, that against imperial- presidential 
ism, and pronounced this the paramount issue of the election of 
campaign. The Democrats declared against the con- 1900- 
tinned possession of the Philippine Islands, and in favor of their 
ultimate independence, with a promise on our part to protect them 
against foreign powers by means of an extension of the Monroe Doc- 
trine. The Filipino insurgents, learning that a great political party m 
the United States had pronounced in favor of their independence, 
exhibited great activity during the campaign. But the November 
election brought a signal victory for McKinley, who received 292 elec- 
toral votes to 155 for Bryan, and a marked subsidence in Filipino 
opposition was soon noted. 
8m 



808 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

To aid the array in governing the islands the President appointed 

on February 6, 1900, a board of civil commissioners with Judge 

William H. Taft of Ohio at its head. This board 

Phiiippme reached the Philippines in June, and began its duties 
commission. . ^^ , , . . ° 

in September. It had sole legislative and appointive 

power, while the military governor continued to be the executive 
head. The board soon issued codes of law for municipal govern- 
ment, for an electoral system, for the government of the provinces, 
and the like. A system of secular schools was established, and a 
thousand American school teachers went to the islands as volunteers 
to teach the natives. 

The insurrection was visibly waning. In March, 1901, Agui- 
naldo was captured by a clever though undignified strategy, and 
soon after this he took the oath of allegiance to the United States 
and issued a manifesto urging his fellow-countrymen to do the 
same. From this cause and other causes thousands of them did 
so, and by the close of the year 1901, 765 towns had peacefully 
accepted civil government, and the insurrection was practically 
at an end. It had cost the United States $170,000,000 to pacify 
the islands. Judge Taft became governor of the archipelago on 
July 4, 1901, when a new system was inaugurated. The civil govern- 
ment in part superseded the military.^ A commission to aid the 
governor was appointed, to consist of eight persons, three of 
whom were natives, and a supreme court was organized with four 
Americans and three native Filipinos. The natives had rebelled 
against Spain because of the friars, who had come to own a large 
part of the best land ; and they rebelled against the Americans in 
part, as they claimed, because of a provision in the treaty by which 
the United States promised to respect the rights of the friars. The 
question of the friars' lands was at length amicably settled between 
the United States government and the head of the Catholic Church, 
without doing injustice to the Filipinos; and when the latter saw 
that the Americans were disposed to deal justly and kindly with 
them, giving them a large share in their own government, they laid 
down their arms, and the islands are now comparatively quiet and 
peaceful. Governor Taft proved himself a man of great tact and 

1 It was not, however, till July 4, 1902, that the President proclaimed the insur- 
rection at an end, and thit the civil government fully superseded the military, 



GOVERNMENT OF PORTO RICO 890 

ability, and, after serving as governor for two and a half years, ha 
resigned, and in February, 1904, accepted the position of secretary of 
war in the Cabinet of the President. Mr. Luke E. Wright, who had 
been a member of the Philippine Commission, then became governor 
of the islands. 

Soon after the close of the war with Spain the country's atten- 
tion was turned also to Porto Rico, our new possession in the West 
Indies. The island had been under military government since the 
war, but in his annual message of December, 1899, President 
McKinley recommended civil government for Porto Rico and stated 
further that since the island had lost its preferential tariff with Cuba 
and Spain, " Our plain duty is to abolish all customs tariffs between 
the United States and Porto Rico." Accordingly on 
January 3, 1900, Senator J. B. Foraker of Ohio intro- ^°''^'' ^'°''- 
duced a bill in the Senate providing for free trade with the island, 
and making the inhabitants citizens of the United States with a 
representative in Congress. This bill encountered great opposition 
in the House, supposed to have originated with the sugar refiners, 
who feared competition with Porto Rican sugar. The debate that 
followed hinged upon a constitutional question. The Constitution pro- 
vides that all duties shall be uniform throughout the United States, 
and the Democrats, with some Republicans, took the ground that the 
Constitution follows the flag, that it extends of its own force to 
Porto Rico. The majority of the Republicans took the ground that 
Porto Rico is neither a state nor a territory, but a dependency, and 
that Congress has the right to legislate as it will concerning the island. 
The Republicans won by sheer numbers. A duty of 25 per cent of 
the Dingley tariff on goods going both ways between the United 
States and Porto Rico was proposed ; but a compromise on 15 per cent 
for two years was agreed to, and the law was passed. A law wa^s 
also passed that all duties collected in the United States on Porto 
Rican goods be appropriated to the expenses of the island. This 
15 per cent tariff was to continue for two years, only on condition, 
however, that the people of the island did not in the meantime 
establish a system of taxation for their own benefit.^ But they did 

1 In May, 1901, the Supreme Court rendered the first of its " insular decisions," 
DeLiraa vs. Bidwell, by which Porto Rico was pronounced a domestic territory of the 
United States. By this decision the duties levied on exports from Porto Rico to the 
United States were pronounced illegal and must be refunded. In a later decision, 
Dooley vs. the United States, it was decided that duties levied on goods from the 



eOO HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

this, aud on July 25, 1901, the President proclaimed absolute fyea 
trade between the United States and Porto Rico. 

Civil government was established in Porto Rico on December 3, 
1900, and Charles H. Allen of Massachusetts became the first gov- 
ernor. Mr. Allen was soon succeeded by W. H. Hunt of Montana. 
The governing power of the island consists of an American governor 
appointed by the President, an executive council, half of which shall 
be Porto Ricans, also appointed by the President, and a house of 
delegates, elected by the people. The Porto Ricans had welcomed 
the change of masters at the close of the war. Since then they 
have made great progress in popular education, in domestic prod- 
ucts and commerce, and, with some necessary economic readjust- 
ments, such as the securing of the American market for Porto Rican 
coffee, the prosperity of the island will be assured. 

Hawaii meantime had fared even better than Porto Rico. In 
April, 1900, a law was passed to extend the Constitution to the 
Hawaiian Islands, including the internal revenue, customs, and mari- 
time laws of the United States, and to make the islands a territory 
and the people citizens, with a representative in Congress. 

CUBA 

Scarcely less interesting than Porto Rico and the Philippines was 
Cuba, on account of which the war with Spain had come about. Con- 
gress in declaring war had resolved that the purpose was to rescue 
the Cubans from the misrule of Spain, after which they should have 
their independence. Many Americans, who would gladly have seen 
Cuba annexed to the United States, regretted this action of Con- 
gress ; but there stood the resolution ; the national faith was pledged, 
and, as the Cuban people displayed no disposition to enter the 
Union, there was nothing left but to fulfill our pledge. But the 
Cubans were not prepared for immediate self-government ; they must 
first be taught some important lessons under the tutelage of the great 
benefactor that had rescued them from the grinding heel of Spain. 
Accordingly our War Department took temporary possession of the 
island. General John R. Brooke became the first American governor, 
and he was followed, in December, 1899, by General Leonard Wood. 

United States to Porto Rico were illegal and must be refunded. The court decided 
also that Porto Rico is not an integral part, but a possession, of the United States, 
and that the treaty-making power, while it may acquire new territory, cannot incor« 
porate it into the United States. This may be done only by act of Congress. 



OUR RELATIOJIS WITH CUBA 901 

A number of commissions, composed of Americans and leading 
Cubans, were appointed to raise the legal and judicial systems to 
a higher standard, to organize city governments, to reform the 
methods of taxation, and to investigate the prisons. The educa- 
tional system of the island and the sanitary condition of Havana and 
other cities were improved in a remarkable degree, and, on the wliole, 
the transformation of the island in two or three years was little short 
of marvelous. 

Meanwhile a constitutional convention met at Havana on Novem- 
ber 5, 1900, and after three and a half months it brought forth 
(February 21, 1901) a constitution modeled closely after our Federal 
Constitution. But a certain distrust of the United States was ex- 
hibited in the convention and in various ways throughout the island. 
This feeling was increased by certain demands made upon Cuba 
by the American Congress in the form of the " Piatt Amendment," 
an amendment to the army appropriation bill offered by Senator Piatt 
of Connecticut. These demands were as follows : That 
no foreign power acquire or control any territory in Amon^ent 
Cuba; that naval stations be granted the United 
States; that no debt be incurred that could not be met by the 
revenues of the island ; that the United States be authorized to main- 
tain the independence of the island by force if necessary, and that 
the Isle of Pines, a small, fertile island south of western Cuba, be 
ceded to the United States. 

These requirements were moderate indeed in the light of the 
great sum of money spent and the many American lives sacrificed in 
the rescue of Cuba. The Cuban convention demurred at the Piatt 
Amendment, but after a long debate embodied it in the Constitution, 
June 12, 1901. The United States, however, decided later that the 
Isle of Pines be retained by Cuba.^ 

In December, 1901, the people of Cuba held their first general 
election, and Estrada Palm a was elected the first president of the 
new republic that was soon to come into existence. On May 20, 1902, 
the Cuban republic became a reality. General Wood was replaced 
by President Palma, and the occupation of the island by the United 
States came to an end. Cuba, however, is not an absolutely inde- 
pendent nation. The conditions of the Piatt Amendment reserve 
to the United States certain protective powers by means of which 
the Cubans, while enjoying all the benefits of self-government, are 
1 Or rather, a treaty with that end in view is now pending. 



902 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

restrained from certain excesses, among which are rebellions and 
revolutions, so common to the Latin- American countries. 

Our dealing with Cuba on the whole has been remarkable for its 
generosity. At the close of the war with Spain Cuba was utterly 
powerless in our hands. Our expense in delivering the island from 
Spain was enormous, and had we chosen to evade the terms of our 
congressional resolution and to make Cuba our prize of war, no hand 
could have prevented our doing so. But instead of this we have 
incurred great additional expense in placing the Cubans on their 
feet, — in cleansing their cities, in organizing their school system, 
in renovating their judicial and administrative systems, in voting 
$3,000,000 to pay the Cuban soldiers, — and after all this we have 
handed the island over to its inhabitants, with scarcely a word of 
gratitude for our services. The student of history must search long 
to find a parallel case, — such extraordinary treatment of a weak 
and helpless people by a great and powerful nation ; and we venture 
to hope that the time will come when the people of Cuba will place 
the true value upon the services of their great benefactor. 

During the years following the war with Spain a large part of the 
energy of the administration, as also of public attention, was directed, 
as we have noticed, to our new possessions in the Orient, to Cuba and 
Porto Rico. But there were also other public affairs of importance. 
President McKinley, in his annual message of December, 1898, 
recommended that the regular army be increased to 100,000 men 
and that fifteen new vessels be built for the navy. Congress 
soon afterward passed a bill to increase the regular army to 
65,000, to which should be added 35,000 volunteers, most of 
whom were to be sent to the Philippines. It also authorized the 
building of three new battleships and nine smaller vessels, and it 
restored the rank of admiral. Rear Admiral Dewey being commis- 
sioned to fill it.^ 

The Pifty-sixth Congress met on December 4, 1899. The Senate 
elected as its chairman W. P. Frye of Maine, Vice President Hobart 
having died on November 11, while D. B. Henderson of Iowa was 
elected Speaker of the House. Brigham H. Roberts of Utah was 
excluded from the House by a vote of 302 to 31, because he was an 
avowed polygamist. 

1 Hitherto but two persons, Farragut and Porter, had held this rank in the United 
States na\'y. On the death of Porter in 1891 the grade of admiral was allowed to 
lapse. 



ALLIED FORCES IN CHINA 



903 



During the summer and autumn of 1900 public attention was 
absorbed, not only by a presidential campaign and the affairs X)f the 
various islands, as noticed, but by an uprising in China. 
An anti-foreigner society, known as the Boxers, began a ^P"^^^^ "^ 
crusade against foreigners in China. The foreign dip- 
lomatic corps at Peking, including the American minister, Mr. E. H. 
Conger, demanded that the Boxers be suppressed, but they received no 
satisfactory answer. They then called on their respective countries 
for military aid, and the United States, with most of the European 
countries and Japan, responded. Marines were landed at Taku, 




CENTiER OF POPULA,TI0N 

AT THE CLOSE OF EACH DECADE FROM 

1700 TO 1900 



whereupon the rioters became more active than before. They killed 
the German minister, and for five weeks held the foreign legations in 
Peking isolated from the rest of the world. The allies seized the 
forts at Taku, upon which the Chinese government ordered retalia- 
tion. A fierce battle occurred on July 14 at Tientsin ; the city was 
captured by the allies, to whom Peking also surrendered in August, 
and the foreign ministers were rescued. At length the trouble was 
settled through an arrangement by which the Chinese government 
agreed to pay a large indemnity to the powers and to punish the 
leaders of the uprising. 

Another matter of great interest to Americans, and to the people 
of other countries as well, was the establishing of the 
international tribunal at The Hague. Suggested by the +ribunal^^ 
Czar of Russia, it soon found favor with most civilized 
nations. The first conference was held in May, 1899. This tri- 



y04 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

bunal is an international arbitration court, to which certain kinds of 
matters in dispute between civilized nations are to be brought for 
settlement without war. If it proves to be permanent and success- 
ful, as now seems probable, it must be pronounced one of the most 
important steps ever taken in the advance of modern civilization. 

Congress, during the winter following the presidential election, 
increased the House membership to 386, in accordance with the new 
census,^ reorganized the army, and, in deference to the temperance 
sentiment of the country, abolished the canteen. It also reduced war 
revenues by $40,000,000 a year, by lowering the stamp duties affect- 
ing the sale of beer and cigars, and removing those affecting various 
legal documents. The session ended with the 4th of March, the day 
that witnessed the second inauguration of McKinley." 

Every index seemed to point to a prosperous adminis- 
of McsSaev*^ tration. But a few months later the country was called, 
for the third time, to mourn the death of the chief 
magistrate at the hand of an assassin. On the 6th of September, 
while holding a public reception at the Pan-American Exposition 
at Buffalo, the President was shot twice by an anarchist named 
Czolgosz, who had concealed a revolver under a handkerchief, 
which appeared to cover an injured hand. One shot penetrated 
the stomach, but it was believed for some days that the President 
would recover. At length, however, he began to sink, and on the. 
14th he died. 

No President since Andrew Jackson had, after a four years' 
service, been so popular with all classes as was McKinley. 
It is hardly probable that history will pronounce him a states- 
man of the first rank. His great popularity doubtless rested 
on a twofold basis : first, he possessed surpassing ability as a politi- 
cian and party manager, and he had the skill to conceal this fact 
from the public ; second, he was personally a man of sincere, pure life, 
of a great, generous heart, and of upright motives. It may be added 

1 The population by the census of 1900 was, including Hawaii and Alaska, 
76,303,387. Of these the native born numbered 65,843,302 ; the foreign born, 10,460,085. 
The white population numbered 66,990,788 ; negro, 8,840,789; Chinese, 119,050; Japan- 
ese, 86,000 ; Indian, 266,760. See Census Report, Vol. I, Part I, pp. 482, 483. 

2 The old Cabinet was retained. The members were John Hay, secretary of state ; 
Lyman J. Gage, secretary of the treasury ; Elihu Root, secretary of war ; John D. 
Long, secretary of the navy ; Ethan A. Hitchcock, secretary of the interior ; James 
Wilson, secretary of agriculture; John W. Griggs, attorney-general; and Charles 
Emory Smith, postmaster-general. Mr. Griggs soon resigned and was succeeded by 
P. C. Knox. 



COAL MINERS' STRIKE 905 

further that his tact in winning friends, and his power to grapple 
them to his soul with hooks of steel, would be difficult to parallel. 

On the day of McKinley 's death Theodore Roosevelt, who had been 
elected Vice President, took the oath of office at Buffalo as Pre:: i lent 
of the United States, Mr, Roosevelt had attracted public attention as 
a fearless public official in his native state of New York and in Wash- 
ington, and as a dashing soldier in Cuba. He now declared his 
intention to carry out the policy of the late President on the great 
questions of the day, and he requested the members of the Cabinet 
to retain their respective places. They all agreed to do so; but 
various changes were made within the following two or three years. 

The summer of 1902 will be long remembered on account of the 
great miners' strike in the anthracite regions of Pennsylvania. 
The strike, which involved 147,000 workmen, was made 
to secure an advance in wages, a reduction of the hours ^^i t^'ii* 
of labor, and the recognition of the Miners' Union. 
The mines of the entire anthracite region were practically closed 
for more than five months, and the coal famine brought distress to 
every class of society. Manufactories were closed, prices rose, and 
yet as the summer passed no sign of a settlement seemed in sight. 
At length President Roosevelt interposed, and appealed to both 
parties to submit their differences to arbitration. To this they 
agreed, and a commission of seven men was appointed by the Presi- 
dent to adjust the differences after making a thorough investiga- 
tion. Pending the investigation the strike was declared off, and the 
miners returned to work on the 24th of October. 

Few events of national interest occurred in 1903, aside from 
those pertaining to the proposed isthmian canal. On the 14th of 
February a bill became a law creating a ninth Cabinet position, the 
Department of Commerce and Labor, and George B. Cortelyou be- 
came the first to fill the new office. A treaty of reciprocity with Cuba 
was before the United States Senate in March ; and a coterie of sena- 
tors interested in the manufacture of sugar, fearing that the impor- 
tation of Cuban sugar would cheapen sugar in this country, opposed 
the treaty. But the American public, out of a kindly feeling toward 
Cuba, whose trade was in a deplorable condition, were clamorous for 
the ratification of the treaty. The Senate therefore made a pretense 
of complying with the public demand. It ratified (March 19), but did 
so on such conditions that the treaty would be inoperative until an act 
to put it into operation should be passed, which, it was well known, 



906 HISTOKY OF THE UNITED STATES 

_ — _ . _ — ■ » 

could not be done at that session. Thus the matter was left over, and 
the President in consequence called Congress to meet in extra session 
on November 9 to complete the ratification of the treaty. This was 
done, but not until after the opening of the regular session in Decem- 
ber. The buildings of the World's Fair, to be held at St. Louis in 1904, 
were dedicated on April 30, the hundredth anniversary of the signing 
of the treaty of sale in Paris. The Alaskan boundary commission, 
sitting in London, decided (October 17) the dispute between the 
United States and Canada concerning the western boundary of 
British Columbia, in favor of the United States, except two small 
islands in the Portland Channel, which went to Canada 

THE ISTHMIAN CANAL 

One of the great public questions of recent years is that concern- 
ing the construction of a sliip canal across the istlimus at some point 
between North and South America. For more than fifty years this 
subject has engaged the attention of the United States and, to some 
extent, of all civilized nations. The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty was 
framed with reference to this great project.^ But in the early fifties 
the slavery question came to absorb public attention in the United 
States, and this, followed by the Civil War and reconstruction, 
caused the canal project to lie dormant for many years. In 1870 
the United States government again turned its attention to the canal 
project. Two exploring expeditions, one to Darien and the other to 
Tehuantepec, were sent out that year; but their reports were not 
acted on, and the su])ject was left for ten years longer. 

In 1881 Mr. Blaine, while secretary of state under Garfield, had 
a sharp controversy with Lord Granville concerning the Clayton- 
Bulwer Treaty. Blaine contended that the interoceanic canal 
should be under the political control of the United States, that the 
United States wovild view with grave concern the interference of 
any European power, and that the treaty of 1850 should be so modi- 
fied as to conform with the changed conditions. Secretary of State 
Frelinghuysen, under President Arthur, went still farther, and 
claimed that the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty was obsolete and not bind- 
ing on either power. Great Britain denied this, and refused to yield 
her rights under the treaty. After this correspondence little was 
done on the part of the United States for a number of years, and 

1 See swpra, p. 560. 



THE ISTHMIAN CANAL 907 

meantime a Fieucli company made strenuous but fruitless efforts to 
"join the two oceans at Panama. 

The French company was organized by Ferdinand de Lesseps. 
Terms were made with the government of Colombia, and the work 
was begun in 1881. But the company, after expending more than 
770,000,000 francs and failing to obtain a loan of 600,000,000 more, 
went into liquidation in 1889. A new company was formed, how- 
ever, and in 1894, the Colombia government extended its concessions 
for ten years longer on the condition that the work be immediately 
prosecuted. Some 3000 men were then employed to continue the 
work, mainly in reducing the Culebra hill. But this company which, 
with its predecessor, had expended a vast sum of money, found the 
work of constructing the canal too onerous, and suspended operations. 

While the French were operating at Panama, the United States 
had focused its attention on Nicaragua. A private Nicaragua com- 
pany was organized in 1887. The government seemed inclined to 
aid this company, and two bills passed the Senate to that end ; but 
at length the attention of Congress was again turned toward govern- 
ment ownership. For some years the subject had been before Con- 
gress and various commissions had been appointed. In June, 1897, 
President McKinley appointed the Walker-Haupt commission, with 
Admiral John G. Walker at its head, and Professor Lewis M. Haupt 
as one of its members, to examine the Nicaragua route. While this 
commission was making a survey in Nicaragua, attention was 
directed to Panama, by the collapse of the French company, and by 
an offer of that company to sell its interests to the United States for 
$109,000,000. In March, 1899, those favoring the Panama route 
secured the passage of a bill in Congress appropriating f 1,000,000 
for a new survey. Thereupon a new commission was appointed, or 
rather, the old one was enlarged, to examine every available point, 
and to determine the most feasible one for a canal. This included 
Panama. But the commission, in a preliminary report (November 
28, 1900), recommended the Nicaragua route ; and three days later 
protocols of agreement with Nicaragua and Costa Rica were signed. 
The commission reported again (December, 1901) for the Nicaragua 
route ; and a bill, known as the Hepburn bill, passed the House in 
1901, and again in January, 1902, authorizing the government to 
construct the canal by this route. But the Senate failed to act on it. 

In reporting as it did, however, the commission made it clear 
that the Panama route would be preferable, but for the excessive 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



price at which the French held their interests, the real value of which 
the commission estimated at $40,000,000.^ The French company- 
then, fearing that it might lose all, reduced its price to this figure. 
Thereupon the commission made a report in favor of the Panama route. 
This important turn in the affair led the United States to give 
serious attention to Panama. The Panama route was, for various 
reasons, considered preferable. Though over 300 miles 

Nicaragua or f^^^^^^ f^om the United States, the canal at Panama 
Panama s 

would be but 49 miles in length, while at Nicaragua 

it would be 184 miles — more than 100 of which, however, would be 

through Lake Nicaragua and the channel of the San Juan River. The 

cost of a canal at Panama was estimated at $144,000,000 plus the 

$40,000,000 to be paid the French company; while the cost of a 

canal at Nicaragua was estimated at about $190,000,000, with an 

additional expense for its operation of more than $1,000,000 a year 

in excess of the same at Panama. It was claimed, also, that 

Nicaragua lies more nearly in the volcanic belt than Panama, and 

that it would be less desirable on that account. 

But the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty stood in the way. With that 
treaty in force, the United States could not act with a free hand at 
any point. Accordingly, Secretary of State Hay arranged Avith Lord 
Pauncefote (February, 1900) a treaty by which Great Britain re- 
nounced all right to joint construction and ownership, and the United 
States agreed to unite with England iu guaranteeing the neutral- 
ity of the proposed canal. But the United States Senate, in ratify- 
ing the treaty in December of the same year, added to it such 
amendments as to render it unacceptable to England, and that coun- 
try rejected it in March, 1901. But Mr. Hay and- Lord Pauncefote 
proceeded to frame a second treaty, which was signed in November, 
1901. This proved acceptable to both countries, was duly ratified, 
and went into operation in February, 1902. 

By this Hay-Pauncefote Treaty the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 
1850 is superseded, and the neutrality of the canal is secured, while 
The Hay- ^^® United States becomes the sole builder, owner, and 

Pauncefote protector. The treaty further provides that the canal 
Treaty. shall never be blockaded, and that no act of war shall 

be committed within it. Though the vessels of a belligerent may 
use the canal, they shall not take on stores or provisions, except what 

1 Less than $90,000,000 of the vast sum spent by the French had been actually 
spent on construction ; the remainder went tx> promoters, politicians, and newspapers 



THE PANAMA PROPOSAL 909 

may be necessary, while passing through it, nor remain more than 
twenty -four hours within three miles of either terminus. 

The report, made by the commission in favor of Panama, was 
sent to Congress Ly President Roosevelt on January 20, 1902. At 
length, late in June, a bill was passed authorizing the President to 
purchase the French interests for $40,000,000, and to construct tlie 
canal at Panama at a cost not exceeding $130,000,000 additional ; or, 
in case the French company could not give a clear title, or in case 
the necessary territory and jurisdiction could not be secured from 
Colombia, the President was directed to construct the canal at 
Nicaragua, at a cost not exceeding $180,000,000. 

After a careful examination, Attorney-General Knox reported 
that the Panama Company could convey a good title, and it was 
decided to accept its offer, subject to the mutiial rati- xhe Hay- 
fication of a treaty between the United States and Herran 
Colombia. Secretary Hay and Dr. Herran, the Colom- Treaty, 
bian commissioner, after some months of negotiation, signed the 
Hay-Herran Treaty on January 28, 1903, and it went before the Senate 
on the 3d of February. But owing to opposition, led by Senator 
Morgan of Alabama, who preferred the Nicaragua route, the treaty 
had not been ratified on the 4th of March, when the Fifty-seventh 
Congress expired. The President, therefore, called an extra session 
of the Senate for March 5, and on the 17th the treaty was ratified by 
a large majority. This treaty proposed to authorize the Panama 
Company to sell its franchise and all its interests to the United States, 
and to provide for the lease to the United States by Colombia, for the 
term of one hundred years, with the privilege of perpetual renewal, 
of a zone across the isthmus six miles in width. The United States 
was to pay Colombia the sum of $10,000,000 on the ratification of 
the treaty by both countries, and, beginning nine years later, an 
annual rental of $250,000. The work was to begin within two 
years, and the canal was to be opened within fourteen years, unless the 
work should be delayed by certain specified obstacles. The sover- 
eignty of the canal zone was to remain with Colombia. 

The arrangements on the whole were very favorable to Colombia, 
for the canal would become a wonderful stimulus to Colombian pros- 
perity, and that country could well have afforded to Colombia 
grant the privileges free, rather than miss the opportu- rejects 
nity. But a strong opposition to the treaty soon devel- treaty, 
oped in the Colombian Senate, the motive of which, as generally 



910 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

believed, was purely mercenary. On August 17 the treaty was 
rejected by a unanimous vote of the Colombian Senate sitting at 
Bogota. The cause of this action was quite plain when, in October, 
Colombia practically offered to make a new treaty if the ten million 
bonus be raised to twenty-five millions. It was also discovered that 
the Bogota politicians were planning to extort a portion of the forty 
millions from the French company ; or to take over the entire French 
works on the expiration of the ten years' grant, made in 1894. 

But scarcely had the Colombian Congress adjourned when the 
people of Panama, who greatly favored the canal project and who 
_. ,. . had been restive under Colombian rule for many years, 

Panama, rose against their government and set up a provisional 

November 3, government, proclaiming Panama an independent repub- 
^^^^- lie. The United States had expected the movement; 

and but three days after the revolt our government recognized the 
new republic. Colombia saw her blunder when too late ; her wail of 
despair was unavailing, ' She offered to grant all canal concessions 
free if the United States would permit her to send troops to subju- 
gate Panama ; but the United States had taken the infant republic 
under its protection, and the offer was declined. The administration 
was severely criticised by many for such precipitate action ; but the 
people generally approved, not only because of an intense desire to 
secure the canal, but also because of the contempt felt for the tri- 
fling, mercenary methods employed by Colombia. Why should this 
insignificant government, in which half a hundred revolutions had 
occurred in as many years, now in the hands of a clique of venial 
politicians, be permitted to hold up for an indefinite time this vast 
work in the line of progress and modern civilization ? The criti- 
cisms of the administration were greatly softened by the fact that 
France, England, and other powers were also prompt in recognizing 
the new republic of Panama. 

The next move in the rapid progress of events was the framing of a 
treaty with Panama. This was soon done by Secretary Hay and M. 
Bunau-Varilla, who represented Panama. The treaty was signed on 
The Hay- November 18, and was ratified by Panama on December 2. 

Bunau-Varilla It is very similar to the Hay-Herran Treaty; the 
Treaty. game bonus of $10,000,000 is to be paid to Panama 

that was offered Colombia, while the French company will receive 
its $40,000,000. The independence of Panama is guaranteed by the 
treaty. 



THE HAY-BUNAU-VARILLA TREATY 911 

The treaty is in one respect far more satisfactory to the United 
States than was the Hay-Herran Treaty : it grants to the United 
States practical sovereignty over the canal belt (ten miles wide in- 
stead of six) across the isthmus. This fact is highly important in 
view of the frequent revolutions in the Latin- American states. 

President Roosevelt discussed the subject at length in his annua] 
message in December ; and again in a special message on the reas* 
sembling of Congress on January 4, 1904 (the Hay-Bunau-Varilla 
Treaty being then before the Senate), he defended the course ol 
the administration with great force. He declared that the United 
States had nothing whatever to do with bringing about the revolt in 
Panama, that it simply recognized the new nation, as it had a right 
to do, that " he would not for one moment discuss the possibility oi 
the United States committing an act of such baseness as to abandon 
the new republic," and that the only question now to be considered 
was whether to build the canal or not to build it. After some weeks' 
debate the United States Senate ratified the treaty on February 23; 
1904, fourteen votes being cast against it. In April a bill passed 
Congress for tlie government of the canal zone, almost identical with 
that of 1803 for the government of Louisiana.^ 

The Panama Canal when finished will be a work of incalculable 
benefit to the commercial world. The distance by sea from New 
York to San Francisco, now 13,714 miles, will be reduced to 5299, a 
saving of 8415 ; the gain f ram Liverpool to San Francisco will be 6046 
miles, and from New York to Sydney, Australia, about 4000 miles. 

1 See pp. 386, 387. 



CHAPTER XXXV 

THE T-WENTIETH CENTURY 

SECOND TERM OF ROOSEVELT 

The second term of President Roosevelt will not be remembered ' 
in history for its legislature record, but rather for the steady prog- 
ress on the Panama Canal and for certain unusual events, such as 
the life insurance probe in New York, the destruction of San 
Francisco by an earthquake (April, 1905), the Treaty of Portsmouth 
between Russia and Japan (August, 1906), and the anti- Japanese 
crusade in California. 

It had long been suspected that the great life insurance com- 
panies of New York City were not strictly observing the law in the 
j^fg management of their finances. An ofiicial investigation 

insurance was ordered and took place in the summer of 1905. It 
probe. ^Q^Q revealed that these giant institutions, managed by 

a coterie of men who had not been required to make an accounting, 
had been recklessly mismanaged. The result was that many cul- 
pable ofiicials were dismissed and more stringent laws were passed 
for the regulation and supervision of the life insurance business. In 
the end public confidence was strengthened rather than weakened. 
Life insurance was more than ever recognized as a great beneficent 
institution, and was placed on a higher and safer commercial basis. 

The whole country was startled on April 18, 1905, by the news 
from the Pacific Coast that the city of San Francisco had been de- 
Earthquake stroyed by an earthquake, the most destructive yet 
at San known in North America. In the early morning the 

Francisco. sleeping city was awakened by seismic tremors soon 
followed by falling buildings and crashing timbers. Fires quickly 
caught in the wreckage and the conflagration swept over the ruins 
and completed the work of destruction. A great portion of the 
beautiful city of the Golden State was swept out of existence. 

Many people lost their lives in the great catastrophe, but the 
percentage of casualties as compared with the population was very 

912 



CALIFORNIA AND THE JAPANESE 913 

small. During the coming weeks thousands of the people, losing all 
sense of rank and station, camped in the streets and public parks 
and laid plans for rebuilding their ruined city. Within the next few 
years a new city, more beautiful and more substantial than the old, 
rose rapidly on the site, and ten years after the earthquake, when 
the Panama Exposition was held at San Francisco, there was little 
to remind the visitor of the calamity through which it had passed. 

Again, the year following the great earthquake, the Pacific 
Coast drew the attention of the whole country, owing to an anti- 
Japanese agitation centering in San Francisco. At the 
passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1892 the jananese 
Japanese on the western coast were few in numbers 
and the act was not made applicable to them. But as the years 
passed they began to come in considerable numbers and the American 
inhabitants raised against them the same sort of cry that had 
brought about the exclusion of the Chinese. The incident that 
brought the matter into international prominence was the passing of 
an ordinance by the San Francisco school board excluding Japanese 
children from schools attended by white children. This was in vio- 
lation of a treaty we have with Japan which guarantees that 
Japanese residing in this country are entitled to the same treatment 
accorded our own people. 

President Eoosevelt was much exercised lest the incident cause com- 
plications with Japan. He sent a member of his Cabinet to California 
to investigate. It developed that a molehill had been made into a 
mountain. Fewer than a hundred Japanese children had . . 
been attending the San Francisco schools. The school 
board at length agreed to rescind its order and the administration 
agreed to take steps toward prohibiting the continued coming of the 
Japanese to America. This proved an easy task. It was embodied in a 
treaty that the President be authorized to refuse admittance of laborers 
into this country from the Panama Canal zone or from our island 
possessions. This was applied to the Japanese and it solved the prob- 
lem for the time at least, for the Emperor of Japan does not issue 
passports authorizing his people to come directly to the United States. 

The Japanese are an admirable and courageous people, but their 
ideals and civilization are so unlike our own that the two peoples 
cannot blend into one. In this respect they must be classed with 
the Chinese, and if they were to come to our shores in great num- 
bers the result would be a race problem more serious than the Indian 



914 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

and the Negro problems. Not on economic but on racial grounds we 
owe it to the future of America to refuse the admission of large 
numbers of Orientals to this country. 

The ending of the great war between Russia and Japan was an 
event of primary interest to the whole world. For two years these 
mighty powers had battled up and down Manchuria 
Peace of ^^^ Korea and on the sea with frightful destruction of 

life and property. Both were ready for peace and the 
President of the United States furnished the occasion. In accord- 
ance with a provision of the Hague Conference of 1899 he dispatched 
identical notes to Russia and Japan urging them to agree to make 
peace and tendering his services in selecting a time and place for a 
conference. Both nations accepted the proposal and Portsmouth, 
New Hampshire, was chosen as the place of meeting. The agents 
of the two belligerents met as agreed and peace was concluded in 
August, 1905. For bringing about this meeting President Roose- 
velt was highly praised and in 1906 he was awarded the Nobel 
prize.^ 

The Congressional elections of 1906 revealed no serious discon- 
tent with the administration. It is true that in the House of Repre- 
sentatives the Democrats made gains, but the Repub- 
f T^onfi' ^ licans retained a comfortable working majority in the 
new House. Of almost greater interest than the national 
election was the choosing of a governor of New York. The Repub- 
licans put in nomination Mr. Charles E. Hughes, a lawyer of great 
ability, who had made himself a national reputation by his masterly 
management of the life insurance probe. The Democrats nominated 
Mr. William R. Hearst, proprietor of a chain of newspapers reach- 
ing from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Mr. Hearst had organized a 
new party, the Independence League, which first named him for 
governor, and the Democrats, having no strong leader and fearmg 
that Hearst would draw heavily from their party, ratified the nomi- 
nation. The great significance of this state campaign lay in the 
fact that if Hearst had been elected, he would have become the 
logical Democratic leader of the whole nation and would have al- 
most surely won the nomination for the presidency two years hence. 

^The Nobel prizes are a series of five, averaging $40,000 each, which are awarded 
each year for important inventions, discoveries in science, literary productions, serv- 
ices in the interests of peace, etc. They are derived from the interest of a fund of 
$9,000,000 left for the purpose by Alfred B. Nobel (1833-96), a Swede, the inventor of 
dynamite. 



LAWS OF 1906 915 



But he was defeated by Mr. Hughes and the continued leadership of 
the Democracy remained in the hands of Mr. Bryan. 

The year 1906 was marked by the enactment of a few very im- 
portant laws. The most notable of these was the Hepburn Law 
dealing with the railroads, express companies, and the 
like. The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 created J^^.-^®^^'^^ 
the Interstate Commerce Commission of five members 
and gave it power to inquire into railroad rates, but not to control 
them. The law forbade rebating and discriminating in rates, but for 
many years it was almost a dead letter. The railroads went on 
doing as they had done before. The Sherman Law of 1890 forbade 
contracts, combinations, and conspiracies in restraint of trade, but 
the exact meaning of " in restraint of trade " was never defined and 
the Sherman law was little more effective than its predecessor. 

The Hepburn Law of 1906, however, was more explicit. It in- 
creased the Interstate Commerce Commission to seven members, 
gave it power to reduce unreasonable rates and extended its juris- 
diction to pipe lines, express companies, and so forth. The law 
compels the railroads to publish uniform freight rates and prohibits 
the giving of passes except to their own employees. Senator La 
Follette of Wisconsin urged an amendment providing for the phys- 
ical valuation of the railroads as a basis for rate-making, but both 
the President and Congress refused to accept his proposal. Seven 
years later, however, in 1913, the Wisconsin senator had the satis- 
faction of seeing his measure enacted into a law. 

The Pure Food Law, of June 1906, was passed because of a 
general public demand that the government protect the people from 
adulterations of food and drugs. The law was brought 
about largely through the untiring efforts of Dr. Harvey -^^^ 
W. Wiley, who had been in the government's service for 
many years. It met with great opposition from fake patent medicine 
concerns, many of which were forced to go out of business. It prohibits 
the misbranding or the adulterating of foods, drugs, medicines, and 
liquors by persons and corporations engaged in interstate commerce. 
The law has been fairly well enforced and no doubt has saved many 
thousands of lives. A companion law to this one, passed the same 
• year, provides for the inspection of meats by government officials.^ 

1 These laws, the laws regulatin.fj railroads, and many others including all our 
tariff laws, are authorized by the clause in the Federal constitution (Art. I, Sec. 8), 
which gives Congress power " to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among 
the several states." 



916 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Two other laws of importance, enacted in the latter part of 
Roosevelt's administration, were the Employers' Liability Law which 
Emnlovers' enables employees of common carriers engaged in inter- 
Liability state commerce to collect damages for injuries sus- 
^^^- tained while in service, and a law limiting the hours of 
trainmen and telegraph operators. This latter law was intended 
not only to secure humane treatment for the men who run the trains 
and send the telegrams, but also to protect the traveling public from 
disastrous railroad accidents, caused in many cases by overwork, by 
long and sleepless hours of toil. Railroad accidents are still too 
frequent, but no doubt they have been reduced in number by this 
salutary law. 

One of the most disastrous financial panics in our history struck 
the country like a cyclone in the fall of 1907 and it was soon fol- 
lowed by an industrial depression throughout the 
ffl07° country. Banks refused to cash checks, business was 

greatly disturbed, and hundreds of thousands of men 
were thrown out of employment. This condition continued far into 
the next year when gradually the business of the country resumed 
its normal state. 

The most conspicuous world event of 1907 was the meeting of 
the Second Hague Conference, the first having been held in 1899 at 
Second ^^® suggestion of Czar Nicholas II of Russia. The 

Hague sessions continued during the summer and autumn 

Conference. and within that period the cornerstone was laid for a 
magnificent Peace Palace at The Hague, due to the generosity of the 
American philanthropist, Mr. Andrew Carnegie. This second con- 
ference included representatives from nearly fifty nations. It at- 
tempted to do many things which for want of sj^ace cannot here be 
enumerated. The ultimate purpose of the tribunal was to reduce 
armaments, to establish universal peace, and to foster the spirit of 
brotherhood among the nations ; but the coming of the great Euro- 
pean War in 1914 proved most disheartening to the lovers of peace 
throughout the world. 

The administration of President Roosevelt was drawing to a 
close. Roosevelt was a unique figure in American history. A more 
interesting and versatile personality would be ditticult 
Eoosevelt to find. Loquacious and irascible, courageous and vin- 
dictive, he pleased and often amused the public with 
his unexpected caprices. His weaknesses were human and natural 



PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES, 1908 917 

and therefore condoned, but he made many enemies as well as 
friends. He took the lead in the tidal wave of reform that swept 
over the country during the first decade of the century. Vast num- 
bers of people believed in him and accepted him as their leader ; 
but he was not without his merciless critics who questioned his sin- 
cerity and declared that he had a secret understanding with the 
great trusts and predatory interests to the end that they should not 
take too seriously his public railings against them. His critics point 
to the facts that very few reformatory laws were enacted during his 
administration and that he refused to prosecute many trusts that 
were known to be violating the law. The severest of Roosevelt's 
critics within his own party was Senator La Follette of Wisconsin. 

In spite of Roosevelt's many enemies he held his party as in a 
leash and would have received the nomination for reelection in 1908 
had he desired it ; but he preferred to hunt lions in 
Africa and selected William H. Taft, a member of his J^j^xift^*^'"' 
Cabinet, as his party's candidate. Mr. Taft had served 
his country as governor of the Philii3pines and later as secretary of 
war. He was a man of ability and high character, but it is doubtful 
if he would have received the nomination but for the preponderating 
influence of his chief. When the convention met in Chicago in June 
he was chosen on the first ballot and James S. Sherman of New 
York was nominated for second place. 

The Democrats met in national convention at Denver early in 
July. The disastrous defeat of Parker four years before had caused 
the party to swing back to Mr. Bryan. His nomination at Denver 
was a foregone conclusion. The mention of his name be- 
fore the convention brought enthusiastic cheers that ^^ ryan- 
continued for more than an hour before order could be restored. His 
nomination followed on the first ballot by an almost unanimous vote. 
John W. Kern of Indiana was chosen as his ruim.ing mate. The 
platform was very definite and very radical in its anti-trust planks. 

Several minor parties were in the field as usual in this campaign. 
The Socialists named their well-known leader, Eugene V. Debs, for 
the presidency, and the moribund Populist party chose the brilliant 
Georgian, Thomas E. Watson, for the same office. The Prohibition 
party named Eugene W. Chafin of Illinois as its standard bearer. 
But the minor party attracting most attention at first was the Inde- 
pendence League founded a few years earlier by William R. Hearst 
of New York. Mr. Hearst, however, did not deem it wise to become 



918 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

a candidate and in a convention of his party Thomas Hisgen of 
Massachusetts was named for first place and John Temple Graves 
of Georgia was chosen for the vice presidency. 

The campaign was clean and dignified. All the leading candidates 
" took the stump," each presenting his case as best he could. Mr. 
Taft made a good impression wherever he went, the people believing 
him a man of sound judgment and ability ; but he was no match for 
Mr. Bryan in handling a great audience. As a platform orator Mr. 
Bryan has no peer among living men. But great numbers of his 
admirers who listened to him gladly, voted straightway for Mr. Taft, 
believing him a safer man to fill the great ofiice. 

Each party in its platform promised a revision of the tariff, but 
the Republicans had not designated whether it should be an upward 
or a downward revision. The Democrats promised also that the 
government should guarantee bank deposits and Mr. Bryan made 
much of this in his speeches. 

The election brought a great victory for Taft who secured 321 
electoral votes to 162 for Bryan ; no votes were received by any of 
the minor party candidates. Taft's popular plurality exceeded a 
million and a quarter. Thus for a third time, Mr. Bryan led a great 
political party to defeat. 

Between the election and the inauguration a spectacular cruise of 
the American fleet around the world was completed (February, 
The fleet 1909), the final run having been made direct from Gi- 

sail round braltar to Hampton Roads. The fleet had left Atlantic 
the world. waters in December, 1907, passing around Cape Horn to 
California. Thence it sailed across the Pacific to the Orient, visiting 
Australia and Japan, returning by way of the Suez Canal and call- 
ing at various European ports. The applause with which it was 
received in all parts of the world was a matter of gratification to 
the American people. 

THE TAFT ADMINISTRATION 

In the midst of the greatest snowstorm of the winter Mr. Taft 
was inaugurated on March 4, 1909. The usual street parades were 
held with the greatest difficulty and trains bearing thousands of 
people were stalled in the snow and they reached the capital city 
only after the ceremonies were over. The new President retained 
but two of the members of his predecessor's Cabinet, one of whom 



THE LAST REPUBLICAN TAEIFF 919 

was Mr. James Wilson, secretary of agriculture. For secretary of 
state Mr. Taft chose one of the ablest men in the country, Senator 
Philander C. Knox of Pennsylvania. 

The first great problem to be solved by the new administration 
was the tariff. The Dingley Tariff had been in force for twelve 
years. It was out of date. The country was clamoring for a 
revision, which had been promised by both great parties during the 
campaign. President Taft thereupon called Congress to meet in 
special session on March 15 to grapple with this knotty problem. 

The new President, like most new presidents, had well-defined 
ideas of the separate duties of the legislative and executive branches 
of the government. He took little part in the shaping of the new 
tariff. He played golf and enjoyed the exhilaration of his new 
office. Eepresentative Payne of New York, chairman of the Ways . 
and Means Committee, soon brought in a tariff measure that was 
passed, by the House and which elicited praise from 
all parts of the coimtry. It cut the steel and lumber ^^j.^^^^ 
duties in half and put leather on the free list. It re- 
duced the duties on many necessaries of life and provided for an 
inheritance tax. Had it become a law it would have become a tower 
of strength to the Eepublican party. 

But that was not to be. The pampered " interests " that had 
grown fat on the protective tariff became alarmed and set their lobby 
to work on the Senate, under the leadership of Senator 
Aldrich of Khode Island. The Payne Tariff bill was 
warped and twisted into the Payne-Aldrich Tariff, one of the most 
highly protective measures that ever passed an American Congress. 
The differences between the two houses were adjusted and the new 
tariff measure became a law on August 5, 1909. The President was 
not pleased with the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Law, but signed it, declar- 
ing that it was the best that could be had at the time. It was not 
passed in Congress, however, without fierce opposition from such 
leading Eepublicans as Senators La Follette of Wisconsin, Dolliver 
and Cummins of Iowa, Beveridge of Indiana, and Bristow of Kansas. 
These men, all of whom voted against the new tariff measure in 
defiance of party regularity, were called Insurgents. This episode 
may be considered the beginning of the progressive movement that 
was to wreck the Republican party a few years later. 

In June of the following year (1910) a law was passed at the 
recommendation of the President establishing a system of postal 



920 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

savings in connection with the post offices. This proved very 

popular, especially among the laboring classes, and within a few years 

many millions of dollars had been entrusted with the 

Postal government for which the depositors received two per 

Sd.viii&fs 

cent interest. This law was followed by another es- 
tablishing a system of Parcel Post, by which the government 
carries parcels in the mails at a moderate cost. Such a system had 
long been in operation in nearly every civilized country. In the 
United States it had been contemplated for many years, but the 
unrelenting opposition of the express companies had 
prevented it from becoming a law. But this opposition 
was borne down at last and the will of the people was enacted into 
law. The Parcel Post Law, passed in August, 1912, became operative 
on January 1, 1913. It has proved immensely popular, as shown 
by the fact that during the few days preceding Christmas, 1916, 
one hundred and twenty-five million parcels were delivered through 
the mails. 

Mr. Taf t made a noble effort to bring about conditions to ensure 
universal peace among the nations. He arranged treaties of arbitra- 
tion with France and Great Britain. Both were signed 
p^°®. on the same day, August 3, 1911, one at Washington 

and the other at Paris. But they could become opera- 
tive only when ratified by the United States Senate and by that 
body they were so emasculated with amendments that they became 
worthless and were abandoned. 

The anti-trust cases attracted more than usual attention during 
the year 1911. Mr. Taft used fewer words than Mr. Eoosevelt, but 
was more vigorous in action. Within the first three years he secured 
nearly twice as many indictments as his predecessor had done in 
seven and a half years. The Sherman Anti-Trust Law was somewhat 
obscure as to its meaning ; for many years after its passage, in 1890, 
it was not fully enforced and the trusts multiplied greatly. More 
and more the people demanded the enforcement of the Anti-Trust 
Law. 

The President determined to force to a finish the two famous 

cases against the Standard Oil Company and against the American 

Tobacco Company, both of which had been pending for 

de'Sionf y^^^^' I^ ^^^y' 1^1^' *^® Federal Supreme Court 

handed down decisions in favor of the government, 

dissolving both these great corporations. But the victory was a 



FALL OF MR. CANNON 921 

barren one. The constituent parts into which these gigantic con- 
cerns were dissolved by the court were expected to reestablish 
competition with one another. But no such result followed. The 
various parts continued to work in harmony as before and no reduc- 
tion in prices was visible. Indeed, oil and its products rose in price 
to levels never reached before. It was evident that the law was 
incapable of reaching and correcting the evil. 

The Taft administration was not popular and the signs of Ke- 
publican disintegration were unmistakable. The results of the 
elections of 1910, preceded by the overthrow of Speaker Cannon, 
were ominous of the future. Joseph G. Cannon, speaker of the 
House of Representatives, had built up a machine by which the 
entire business of the House was gathered into the hands of a few 
leaders. The speaker appointed all committees and designated 
their respective chairmen. Thus he controlled legisla- 
tion by having smothered in committee any measure c^nnon^ 
distasteful to him. He could refuse the privileges of 
the floor to any one and the younger members of his own party 
were treated with scant courtesy until they yielded themselves to 
" party discipline." All this was extremely obnoxious to a consider- 
able number of insurgent Republicans, chiefly from the West, who_ 
at length determined on heroic measures to break the chains that 
boiind them. In March, 1910, they succeeded in getting before the 
House an amendment to the rules providing for the election of the 
committees by the House and for the excluding of the speaker from 
the Rules Committee. Mr. Cannon ruled the motion out of order, 
but an appeal from his decision, supported by Insurgents and Demo- 
crats, resulted in his defeat. The speaker of the House was there- 
upon shorn of a large portion of the power that he had wielded 
since the founding of the government. The speakership of Mr. 
Cannon came to an end on the following fourth of March and the 
sturdy Missourian, Champ Clark, was chosen to fill the office. 

The autumn elections of 1910 revealed an irresistible current 
toward the Democratic party. The Republicans, on the defensive, 
put forth every possible effort to stem the rising tide of 
Democracy. Former President Roosevelt, having re- of^/gio^* 
turned from a year's hunting trip in Africa, threw him- 
self into the campaign with all his well-known vigor, but in vain. 
The Democrats made notable gains in nearly every section of the 
country. The Republican majority of fifty in the House was 



922 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

replaced by a Democratic majority of sixty, and in seven of the 
Northern States Republican governors were succeeded by Democrats. 
Perhaps the most striking personal victory was that of Dr. Woodrow 
Wilson, president of Princeton University, who was elected gov- 
ernor of New Jersey by a majority of fifty thousand. 

To an observer who could view the matter from a non-partisan 
standpoint the result of the elections was gratifying. The two 
great political forces of the nation were equalized and the Demo- 
crats, out of power for sixteen years, would have at least an equal 
chance with their great rival in the next presidential contest. Noth- 
ing is more unwholesome in politics than an abnormal preponderance 
of any political party over its nearest rival. 

The growing discontent with the party in power was due, not to 
the personality of Mr. Taft, for he was a genial man, but chiefly 
to the increasing conviction that the party was dominated by the 
great moneyed interests and not by the rank and file. The Payne- 
Aldrich Tariff, dictated by these interests and for these interests, as 
the majority of the people believed, was a standing monument of 
the popular conviction. 

To offset the discontent with the tariff, the President, in the early 
months of 1911, arranged a Reciprocity agreement with Canada, by 
* . which the duties on several hundred articles of trade be- 

tween the two countries were removed or reduced. The 
agreement received the sanction of Congress, with the aid of Demo- 
cratic votes. Canada, however, more Democratic in this instance than 
the United States, referred the matter to the people in a general elec- 
tion (September, 1911), and it was defeated by a large majority, — 
and another of the President's fondest dreams failed of realization. 

Singularly unfortunate was President Taft in the failure of 
every important project on which he had set his heart. Under his 
guidance and for the first time in sixteen years the Republicans lost 
control of the House of Representatives. The treaties of peace 
with the great powers of Europe were destroyed in our own Senate, 
Reciprocity met with a like disaster in Canada, and even the anti- 
trust decisions failed to bring the results that had been expected. 
Except for these failures the name of Mr. Taft would mean more to 
the historian of the future than it will ever mean. But the crown- 
ing failure was yet to come — in the complete disruption of his 
party in the presidential election of 1912. 

President Taft and Mr. Roosevelt, like Jackson and Calhoun, had 



REPUBLICAN SPLIT 923 



been fast friends for many years. But they became estranged and 
grew apart until they were bitterly hostile. The great party to 
which both had always belonged was torn by their rivalries and 
while they contended with each other the enemy stole in and 
captured the prize for which they fought. 

We have noted that certain restive Republicans, known as Insur- 
gents, had opposed the Payne-Aldrich Tariff. These same men 
early in 1911 organized the National Progressive Re- LaFollette 
publican League and their leader was Senator Robert and Koose- 
M. La Follette. They attacked President Taft for '^el*' 
signing a bill revising the tariff upwards and for praising it 
later as the " best tariff ever enacted," and for many other things. 
Mr. La Follette was set forth by this faction as the next Republican, 
presidential candidate. But there was a discordant note. Some of 
the followers of the doughty Wisconsin Senator seemed half-hearted in 
their allegiance, and it was suspected that they longed for Roosevelt as 
their leader, if only he could be induced to join the movement and 
to agree to enter the lists for the presidency. The suspicion proved 
to be well grounded. The growing estrangement between Mr. Roose- 
velt and the President, the espousing by Mr. Roosevelt of the most 
radical doctrines of the Progressives, and finally, in February, 1912, 
the petition of seven Republican governors, urging him to yield to the* 
demands of his friends, — all these tended to break down his resolu- 
tion not to be a candidate and he threw his " hat into the ring." 

It was evident that the Progressives, as they came to be called, 
meant to capture, if possible, the regular Republican nomination. 
In various states preferential primaries were held and in nearly all 
of them Mr. Roosevelt received a far greater vote than did Mr. Taft. 
There is no doubt that Mr. Roosevelt was the popular choice of the 
party. But the administration had received many delegates from 
the non-Republican states of the South and when the convention 
met early in June in Chicago, the old-line ]-v.epu])lican leaders were 
in control. Contested delegations were decided in favor of Taft and 
Ms nomination was assured. 

Mr. Roosevelt, with most of his followers, seceded from the con- 
vention, declaring that it had won by fraud and that any one accept- 
ing the nomination of such a body would forfeit the 
right to ask the support of any honest man. The jtooggygj^; 
methods em])loyed by the convention were high-handed 
beyond a doubt ; but they were the same as those employed four 



924 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

years before by Roosevelt himself in securing the nomination of 
Taft. Senator La Follette, the sometime leader of the Progressives, 
remained in the Republican camp, declaring that the reactionary 
policies of Taft were preferable to the " mock heroics " of Roosevelt. 

The Democratic convention met Jn Baltimore on the twenty-fifth 
of June. Leaving out Mr. Bryan, who had little hope of capturing 
Democratic ^^® nomination this year, there were four strong men 
Convention available as candidates : Governors Wilson of New 
of 1912. Jersey and Harmon of Ohio, Mr. Champ Clark, speaker 

of the House, and Mr. Oscar Underwood, the Democratic leader on 
the floor. For seven days the convention was dead-locked ; no one 
could foretell the outcome. The four leading candidates were re- 
duced to two — Governor Wilson and Speaker Clark. Mr. Clark 
would probably have been nominated but for the opposition of 
Mr. Bryan. Convinced that Clark was too favorable to the conserv- 
ative wing of the party, Bryan espoused the cause of Wilson. He 
was by far the strongest leader in the convention and with consummate 
skill he swayed the members and on the forty-sixth ballot brought 
about the nomination of Wilson — the greatest victory of Bryan's 
life. Thomas R. Marshall of Indiana was chosen for second place. 

Governor Wilson proved a happy choice. For many years he had 
been a student of politics and writer on governmental subjects. As 
reform governor of New Jersey he had made a conspicuous record, 
but he was almost new in public life and his enemies were few. 

Mr. Roosevelt determined to organize a new party. It was called 
Progressive. It met in convention at Chicago on the fifth of 
;nig August. Eighteen of its members were women and 

Progressive the famous Jane Addams of Chicago made one of the 
party. key-note speeches. Mr. Roosevelt, after making an 

address radical in its progressiveness, called his ''Confession of 
Faith," was nominated unanimously on the first ballot. 

Space forbids us to follow the campaign. All the candidates, 
including Mr. Eugene V. Debs, the nominee of the Socialists, entered 
the lists and made speaking tours. Many weeks before the Novem- 
ber election it was clear to all that the great schism in the Re- 
publican party would be fatal to the success of either faction and 
that Governor Wilson would be elected. He won by a great majorit}^ 
in the electoral college — 435 to 81 for Roosevelt and 15 for Taft. 
But Wilson's popular vote fell far short of a majority of the whole.^ 
1 The popular vote was as follows : Wilson. fi,292,718 ; Roosevelt, 4,057,429 ; 
Taft, 3,369,221 ; Debs, 812,731 ; Chapin (Pro.), 170,62(5 ; Reimer (Soc. L.), 17,312. 



WILSON AND HIS CABINET 925 



FIRST TERM OF PRESIDENT WILSON 

The newly elected President had long been a student of great 
questions ; as a writer on governmental subjects he had no superior 
in America. He had spent many years of his life as professor and 
later president of Princeton University ; and for only two years, as 
governor of New Jersey, had he been in the political arena. He 
had awakened few antagonisms and a universal shout of welcome 
greeted him at his inauguration. 

The fourth of March, 1913, was a beautiful day and the crowd 
that gathered, estimated at half a million, was one of the greatest 
that ever filled the streets of the capital city. The brief inaugural 
address closed with these words : 

" This is not a day of triumph ; it is a day of dedication. Here 
muster, not the forces of party, but the forces of humanity. Men's 
hearts wait upon us ; men's lives hang in the balance ; men's hopes 
call upon us to say what we will do. Who shall live up to the great 
trust ? Who dares fail to try ? I summon all honest men, all 
patriotic, all forward looking men, to my side. God helping me, 
I will not fail them, if they will but counsel and sustain me." 

As expected by every one. President Wilson chose William 
Jennings Bryan, for many years the acknowledged leader of the 
Democratic party, as his secretary of state. William 
G. McAdoo was chosen secretary of the treasury. 
Mr. McAdoo was southern born, but a resident of New York. He 
was widely known as the builder of the Hudson tunnels connecting 
New Jersey and New York City.^ 

A special session of Congress was called to meet on April 7. Its 
chief purpose was to enact a new tariff measure. Grover Cleveland 
on becoming President a second time had waited till the regular 
session of Congress to revise the tariff and it was not completed 
until the summer of 1894, but a few months before the next Con- 
gressional election. The people were therefore called to pass judg- 

1 The other members of the Cabinet were, Lindley M. Garrison of New .Jersey, 
secretary of war ; -Josephus Daniels of North Carolina, secretary of the na\Tf ; Frank- 
lin K. Lane of California, born on Prince Edward Island, secretary of the interior; 
Albert S. Burleson of Texas, postmaster general ; David F. Houston of Missouri, 
secretary of agriculture; James C. McReynolds of Kentucky, attorney general; 
William C. Redfield of New York, secretai-y of commerce; and William B. Wilson of 
Pennsylvania, born in Scotland, was chosen as the first to fill the newly created 
Cabinet position, the department of labor. 



926 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

ment on the new tariff before it had had time to adjust itself to the 
business of the country. Mr. Wilson took the wiser course. He 
disposed of this troublesome question more than a year before the 
next election, thus giving the people time to see it work, time also 
to get interested in other public questions so that the tariff need not 
be the sole issue in the next election. 

President Wilson broke the custom of a hundred years by reading 
his message in person to Congress instead of sending it to be read 
by a messenger. 

Champ Clark was reelected speaker of the House and Oscar W. 
Underwood was the floor leader of the House and Chairman of the 
all-important Committee of Ways and Means. Mr. 
wood Tariff Underwood was therefore the chief framer of the new 
tariff, which in history will bear his name. His ability 
and his extraordinary knowledge of the subject could not be ques- 
tioned. His House Report giving a general survey of the subject is 
pronounced by experts one of the greatest papers on public finance 
ever produced in this country. 

The Underwood Tariff after months of debate passed both houses 
and on October 3, 1913, was signed by the President. When it was 
before the Senate the " interests " made their usual efforts to influence 
that body, but through the direct interference of the President 
the lobby was expelled from the capital and the new tariff bore 
scarcely a trace of its sinister influence. The duties were greatly 
lowered on most woolen and cotton goods, also on silk and iron 
products and a great many other things. The free list was extensively 
enlarged. It included wheat and flour (except when imported 
from a country placing a duty on our wheat and flour), cattle, swine 
and most of their products, hides, leather, lumber, coal, harvesting 
machinery, and a large number of food products. 

The McKinley Tariff of 1890, the Dingley, and the Payne- Aldrich 
tariffs had all averaged on dutiable goods about 50 percent; the 
Underwood Tariff averages 26 percent. While far from a free trade 
measure, the new tariff marked a sharp reverse to the prevailing 
policy of the country since the Civil War. The result of the elec- 
tion of 1916 insured to the Underwood Tariff a period long enough 
to test thoroughly its revenue-producing and protective qualities, 
provided that the European War, still raging at this writing (April, 
1917), does not too long continue. 

One of the important features of the Underwood Tariff measure 
was the provision for an income tax, which had been made possible 



NEW BANKING ACT 927 



l)y the 16th amendment of the Constitution. It provides for a tax 
of one percent on incomes in excess of $4000 for married persons and 
in excess of $3000 for single persons. The tax is graduated or pro- 
gressive. Those having an income above $20,000 must pay more 
than one percent, and so on up to half a million. Those having an 
income exceeding $ 500,000 must pay seven percent on the excess.^ 

Another great measure, comparable to the Underwood Tariff, the 
Federal Reserve Banking Law, was chiefly the work of this special 
session of Congress, though it did not pass finally until ^h^ Federal 
after the regular session had begun. The debates on it Reserve 
continued through the summer and fall simultaneously Banking Law 
with those on the tariff. On the passing of the tariff bill President 
Wilson had declared that only half the journey had been traversed, 
that this measure had freed the country from a condition making 
monopoly easy, that it must next be freed from the financial power 
that creates monopoly. This great measure, which replaces the out- 
worn banking system of Civil War times, having passed both houses, 
was signed by the President on December 23, 1913. Only a brief 
outline of its main provisions can be given here. 

The Federal Reserve Banking system is under the control of a 
board of seven directors, mcluding the secretary of the treasury, the 
comptroller of the currency, and five members appointed by the 
President. The term of service is ten years and the salary is 
$ 12,000. Instead of one central bank there are twelve *' regional 
reserve banks " located in as many cities scattered over the country. 
Each of these banks is in the center of a large district. Every 
national bank is required to join the system and each one is obliged 
to subscribe for stock in the regional bank of its district to the 
amount of six percent of its own capital stock and surplus. State 
banks may also join the system, but are not forced to do so. A 
regional bank is under the control of nine directors, subject to the 
central board of seven whose headquarters are at Washington. 

One of the great purposes of the new system is to supply the 
financial needs of any section of the country in time of special 
requirement, as in crop-moving time in the Middle West, or cotton- 
harvesting time in the South. A regional bank is supplied with 
large government deposits and with enormous supplies of its own 

1 In the general revenue law of September 8, 1916, the income tax law was amended, 
an increased tax being laid on incomes above $20,000. An inheritance tax law was 
also passed affecting estates of deceased persons exceeding $50,000. 



928 HISTORY OF THE UKITEB STATES 

reserves. It is prepared at all times to supply its member banks 
with what money they need. It makes loans to them on a safe 
basis, discounts notes, drafts, bills of exchange, and " prime commer- 
cial paper." The regional banks also issue " paper money " in the 
form of Federal reserve treasury notes. Their redemption is care- 
fully provided for and the law is such that they will increase in 
volume automatically when business needs of money are greatest and 
contract when the need subsides. 

This law is one of the greatest financial measures ever enacted. 
Hitherto Wall Street had controlled the " money market " and where 
business needs were greatest the interest rates were highest. By the 
Federal Reserve Law the control of the nation's finances was wrested 
from the hands of the " money kings " of Wall Street and placed in 
the hands of the government. The new law provides an elastic cur- 
rency ; its volume will expand when most needed and contract when 
least needed. It seems improbable that a financial panic in this 
country will ever again occur. 

Hard upon the passage of the two great laws above noted — the 
Underwood Tariff and the Federal Eeserve act — Congress addressed 
itself to the framing of anti-trust laws. Nearly all party platforms 
for many years promised the peoi^le relief from the growing power 
of the trusts. The Democrats now determined to fulfill their 
promise, to supplement the defective law of 1890, and to define the 
limits of business enterprise as it had not been defined before. 

In a special message to Congress on January 20, 1914, the Presi- 
dent outlined a program for trust legislation, declaring at the same 
time that the business of the country should be dis- 
leeislat"on turbed as little as possible. Congress responded by 
introducing several measures. These were boiled down 
to two, which after many months of debate were enacted into laws 
in October. The Federal Anti-Trust act, known as the Clayton bill, 
goes much farther than the Sherman law and is more definite in its 
meaning. It prohibits the selling of commodities at different prices 
to different purchasers (with certain exceptions) when such dis- 
crimination tends to lessen competition ; it forbids a manufacturer 
from binding a dealer not to handle goods of other manufacturers ; 
it forbids one corporation from holding the stock of another for 
the purpose of controlling its business. This law also provides 
that decrees in government trust suits shall constitute prima facie 
evidence for private suits against a trust for damages. 



LONGEST SESSION OF CONGRESS 929 

The Trade Commissiou act, the second of these measures, creates 
a commission of five members whose powers in the business world 
are similar to those of the Interstate Commerce Commission in the 
field of transportation. The Trade Commission's duty is to inquire 
into business methods. It can order a hearing in cases of apparent 
unfair competition and it may require annual or special reports from 
any corporation. It may be called on by the President, by either 
house of Congress, or by the attorney general to make special investi- 
gations. In fact, the powers of this commission to investigate and 
scrutinize the corporations are such that it is difficult for any one of 
them to violate the anti-trust laws without being discovered. 

Various other measures of importance were enacted into law 
during this long session of Congress, only one of which, the repeal 
of the Panama Canal tolls bill, will here be noticed. 
When the canal bill was passed in 1912 it provided canartolls 
that American vessels engaged in coastwise trade be 
exempted from paying tolls. On its face it seemed to be a patriotic 
law for the benefit of the American people. But there was much 
opposition to it and early in 1914 President Wilson set about with 
his usual energy to have it repealed. In a special message on 
March 5, 1914, he urged Congress to repeal the law, declaring that it 
was in " plain contravention of the treaty with Great Britain " (the 
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of November 18, 1901) and that " the large 
thing to do," was to retrace our steps and set ourselves right before 
the world. Another fault found with the tolls-exemption law, 
though not mentioned in this message, was the belief that its 
benefits would accrue only to the shipping monopoly. 

The bill for repeal met with great opposition in Congress, but was 
at length passed and signed by the President. The debate was non- 
partisan. Senators Root and Lodge favored rej)eal while Speaker 
Clark and Representative Underwood strenuously opposed it. 

The longest continuous session of Congress in the history of the 
country came to a close on October 24, 1914, just before the biennial 
autumn election. The extraordinary session, which had begun on 
April 7, 1913, had merged without a break into the regular session 
in December, and so it continued on until the following autumn, 
covering in all eighteen months and seventeen days. 

The great legislation that had been accomplished was due chiefly 
to one man, — the President, who had proved himself a leader of 
unusual power. The tariff bill would have been Aldrichized in the 



930 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Senate but for the timely direct attack by the President on the 

lobbyists, putting them to flight. The Federal Reserve act as it 

passed the House was attacked by the vast concentrated 

Wilson's money power of the United States and would have been 

leader Biiip. '' ^ 

torn to pieces but for the inflexible determination of 

President Wilson. Never before since the founding of the nation 
had a chief magistrate held so firmly for so long a period the alle- 
giance of the dominant party in Congress, nor could the loftiness of 
his motives be questioned even by the enemies he had made. 

The elections of November, 1914, indicated no great discontent 
with the administration. The Democrats gained three United 
States senators from the Republicans, i but in the House their 
abnormal plurality of 167 was reduced to 40. The most striking 
result of the election of this, the 64th Congress, was the falling 
off of the Progressive party ; its representation in the House was 
reduced from nineteen to seven and it lost heavily in the state 
elections. The Socialists and Prohibitionists also lost ground, but 
the Republicans showed unmistakable signs of reviving strength. 

During the Wilson administration our foreign relations were the 
most complicated and most difficult in the history of the country. 
In treating this subject, as in our domestic affairs, our 
exico. brief narrative must be confined to the larger aspects. 

The first perplexing foreign problem, inherited from the Taft ad- 
ministration, was the Mexican situation. A successful revolt in 
that country had deposed and driven out Diaz, the dictator of 
thirty years. Francisco Madero was elected President of Mexico. 
He was a man of gentle spirit and possibly not of the type neces- 
sary to bring order to the distracted republic. But he was given no 
chance. Soon after Madero was installed into his office, the power was 
usurped by Victoriano Huerta. Madero was murdered and the crime 
was laid at the door of Huerta. President Wilson refused to recog- 
nize the usurper and his downfall was inevitable. He followed the 
example of Diaz and fled to Europe. The policy adopted by Mr. 
Wilson was one of " watchful waiting " ; he determined to avoid 
war if possible with this weak southern neighbor. 

Soon after the flight of Huerta, Carranza and Villa, two of the 
leading men who had opposed him, disagreed and became leaders of 
opposing factions. At length the United States recognized Carranza 

1 This was the first general election in which senators were chosen by popular vote 
in accordance with the seventeenth amendment. 



RELATIONS WITH MEXICO 931 

as the de facto chief of the Mexican government. This angered 
Villa beyond measure and he reverted to what is said to have been 
his vocation of earlier days, — that of bandit and outlaw. In re- 
venge for our recognition of his enemy and in the hope, no doubt, of 
provoking the United States to declare war on Mexico, he made raids 
across the border and murdered American citizens in their own 
homes. In one of these border raids, at Columbus, New Mexico 
(March 9, 1916), Villa, with a desperate band of 1500 men, killed 
seventeen people. It was clear that Carranza had no power to keep 
order in Mexico. 

President AVilson thereupon determined to send forces not only 
to the border, but into IMexico to hunt down the bandits ; he called 
out the organized militia for the purpose (June 18). For months 
thereafter the American forces, aided at times by the Carranza 
forces, made futile efforts to capture or destroy the raider and his 
troopers. But Villa and his marauding bands knew the mountain 
passes well and always succeeded in eluding their pursuers. Late 
in the year the President began to withdraw the American forces, 
leaving only a few thousand to guard the border. 

The Mexican imbroglio has in one respect proved an advantage 
to the United States ; it has been the occasion of establishing better 
relations between us and the South American republics, south 
While dealing with Huerta our President found oc- American 
casion to occupy Vera Cruz with American marines, republics. 
War seemed imminent. Thereupon the three leading South Ameri- 
can republics, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, addressed a joint pro- 
posal to the United States offering to act as mediators between this 
country and Mexico.^ 

For nearly a century the South American peoples have resented 
the assumed superiority of the United States as implied in the 
Monroe doctrine, but it was clear that they assumed their equality 
in offering mediation to the President. Instead of resenting their 
offer, or of reminding them that we are able to take care of our own 
affairs, he quickly and cordially accepted their offer. 

In view of the fact that we have long been anxious for better re- 
lations with our Latin neighbors, the action of the President was a 

^ The agents of the American powers met in the spring of IMi, at Niagara Falls, and 
it was no doubt partially through their efforts that the danger of war between the 
United States and Mexico was averted. But the internal troubles of Mexico still 
continued. It seemed that no outside agency could restore peace and quiet to that 
unhappy land. 



932 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

true stroke of statesmanship. The editor of the Springfield Repub- 
lican declared that " the incident is worth hundreds of tours of 
South American capitals by our Secretaries of State, with innumer- 
able banquet speeches on Pan-American solidarity. It is worth 
dozens of Pan-American conferences ... it establishes a prec- 
edent ; possibly it opens an era." 

Again the President made a master stroke when, on January 6, 
1916, he spoke before the Pan-American Scientific Congress at 
Washington and proposed that the American republics should unite 
in guaranteeing to each other political independence and territorial 
integrity. Such a union if brought about would render the Monroe 
Doctrine needless and obsolete. The proposal was especially pleas- 
ing to the small republics, as it placed them on a plane of equality 
with the great nation whose President had made it. 

The outbreak of the Great War in Europe during the last week in 
July, 1914, changed the whole aspect of our foreign relations in 
that direction. That such a gigantic conflict deeply and vitally af- 
fects neutral nations admits of no question. The United States was 
the only great power in the world not involved in the war, and to 
keep out of it and at the same time to maintain our honor and our 
rights was a most difficult task. 

The President issued proclamations of neutrality as is usual in 
such crises and Congress passed a law permitting, under certain con- 
ditions, the registering of foreign-built ships under the 
The Grea American flag. It also passed an emergency revenue 

law and, strange as it may seem, for once cut down the 
Rivers and Harbors appropriation. The original bill, calling for 
fifty-three million dollars, was cut to twenty million, thanks to the 
filibustering of Senator Burton of Ohio, aided by Senator Kenyon 
of Iowa. On the whole, however, the Democratic party has not kept 
faith with the people by fulfilling its promise to reduce the expen- 
ditures of the government. 

To return to our war subject, our first contention due to the war 
was with Great Britain. It was most natural that England with 
her great fleet would attempt to blockade the ports of 
^^? . her enemies. But almost from the beginning of the war 

she took account of the fact that the ports of Holland 
and of other neutrals were receiving far more goods from the United 
States than usual. It was assumed, therefore, that much of this 
was finding its way into Germany and the remedy lay in refusing to 



SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA 933 

permit these ports to carry on a greater foreign trade than that 
to which they had been accustomed before the war. England 
began, thereupon, to detain American vessels bound for neutral 
ports. Against this practice President Wilson registered a decided 
protest. The British government replied that there was no in- 
tention to annoy neutrals and that any injury done them would be 
repaired. 

The controversy continued at intervals for more than a year 
longer and meantime the detention of American ships and cargoes 
went on. A most vigorous protest was finally made by the United 
States on October 21, 1915, declaring the blockade '' ineffective, 
illegal, and indefensible," and that " the American government can- 
not submit to a curtailment of its neutral rights." This was 
more effective and with a further readjustment about interference 
with American mails the two nations have managed to get along 
fairly well. 

More serious were our relations with Germany during the first 
two years of the war. In no former war had submarines played 
much part. Their extensive use in this war was sure Germany 
to give rise to new questions of international law. Un- and the 
able to cope with the British fleet, Germany could ^"«''«"'«- 
attack British and French shipping only by means of underseas 
craft. In February, 1915, the German government issued a declara- 
tion that the waters around the British Isles should constitute a 
war zone and that her submarines would attack all merchant ships 
within the zone. The United States immediately took notice and 
informed Germany that she would be held to a " strict accounta- 
bility " in case American vessels were attacked or American lives lost. 
Various notes were exchanged, but nothing was settled when on May 7 
the world was startled with the news that the great Cunard steam- 
ship, the Lusitania, had been torpedoed and sunk off the Irish Coast 
by a submarine. The loss of life was 1152 and of these 114 were 
American citizens. 

A few days later a note was received from Germany expressing 
regret that American lives were lost and throwing the blame on 
England for having attempted to starve the civilian population of 
Germany through the blockade. This note did not soften the pro- 
test of President Wilson, sent on the 13th. In it he pronounced the 
act a breach of international law, declared that neutrals had the 
right to travel on the high seas in unarmed vessels, and he called on 



934 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

Germany to disavow the act, to make reparation as far as possible, 
and to take immediate steps toward preventing a recurrence of such 
an act. In her answer Germany modified her " war zone " policy, 
declaring that neutrals would not knowingly be attacked even within 
that zone and that if mistakes should occur the Imperial govern- 
ment would assume responsibility and make reparation. The Ameri- 
can President determined to yield nothmg to his former demands 
and at this juncture Mr. Bryan, an avowed pacifist, resigned from 
the Cabinet because he could not agree with the President. Mr. 
Robert Lansing succeeded Mr. Bryan as secretary of state. 

The next note of the President renewed in more vigorous lan- 
guage the demands made in the earlier one. Germany haltingly yielded 
as the mouths passed and at length promised definitely that no more 
liners should be attacked without warning and without giving the 
passengers a chance to save their lives. Various other vessels of 
lesser note than the Lusitania that had been attacked were also the 
subjects of this controversy. A controversy with Austria in the 
early autumn of 1915 resulted in the recall of Dr. Theodore Dumba, 
Austro-Hungarian ambassador to the United States. His offense 
was an attempt to foment strikes among his countrymen who worked 
in American munition factories, the object being to cripple the sale 
of munitions to the Allies. 

American opinion was divided with respect to the German- 
American controversy. German sympathizers believed that the 
President was too harsh in his demands on Germany and also that 
he showed his sympathies with the Allies in that he refused to favor 
a prohibition of the sale to them of munitions of war. They also 
criticized him for refusing to warn Americans against traveling in 
vessels belonging to belligerents, while he warned American citizens 
in Mexico to seek safety by leaving the country. 

To a communication from the Austrian government protesting 
against the sale of munitions, the President made answer that the sale 
of munitions in times of war to either belligerent had al- 
neutrals ways been recognized as a right by all nations and if the 

customs were to be changed it would be an unneutral act 
for one nation to make such change in time of war. If such a change 
in international custom were to be made it should be made in times 
of peace by a general agreement. Against such change, however, 
the President argued, saying that if no nation could buy ammunition 
in time of war, every nation would be obliged to keep in stock a vast 



THE ARMY BILL 935 



supply of its own at all times, a needless burden, especially to small 
countries. As to warning our citizens to quit Mexico and refusing 
to warn them not to sail in ships of belligerents, it was answered 
that the high seas are public property and should be open to all 
neutrals at all times, while Mexico, like any other country, is not 
public property and foreigners have rights there only in so far as 
Mexico sees lit to grant them. 

The session of Congress just preceding the presidential election 
of 1916 was responsible for several very important laws. Chief among 
these are the new Army Law, the Rural Credits Law, and 
the Child Labor Law. The new Army bill, approved by Trm^T 
the President on June 3, provided for a regular army 
which should not exceed 175,000 men (excluding the Philippine 
Scouts and certain other classes) except in case of actual or threatened 
war. The Militia of the United States shall consist of all able-bodied 
male citizens and others having declared their intention of becoming 
citizens, between the ages of eighteen and forty-fi ve • years. The 
National Guard is that portion of the militia which is organized, 
armed, and equipped. To secure an adequate national guard the act 
provides that within one year of its passage there shall be in each 
state two hundred enlisted men for each Senator and Representative 
in Congress and that each year thereafter the number shall be 
increased by fifty percent, until 800 for each Senator and Represent- 
ative be reached. The number in the territories and in the District 
of Columbia shall be determined by the President. It will be seen 
that the number of trained militia will be about half a million. The 
expense of equipment and so forth shall be borne by the Federal gov- 
ernment and shall be prescribed by the secretary of war in ratio to 
their numbers. The men under proper officers must meet for drill 
and instruction at least forty-eight times and shall spend fifteen days 
in encampment each year. This law marks a notable step in the 
direction of our much heralded preparedness. 

The Federal Farm Loan act became a law in July, 1916. It 
creates a Federal Farm Loan Bureau in connection with the treasury 
department and under the control of a Federal Farm 
Loan Board of five members at whose head is the secre- -^qI^j^ ^^ 
tary of the treasury. The country is divided by this board 
into twelve districts in each of which is established a Federal Land 
Bank. The purpose of these banks is to do business with farmers, 
to make loans to them for the purpose of developing agriculture, on 



936 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

first mortgage security. The act has been highly praised and it has 
been criticized as a dangerous precedent.^ 

The Child Labor Law was approved on September 1, 1916, and it 
takes effect one year after its passage. It is based on the interstate 

commerce clause of the Constitution. It debars from 
T 3^^ * interstate commerce all products from mines and quarries 

in which children under sixteen are employed, and all 
products from factories, mills, and workshops in which children under 
fourteen are employed. And in such factories, if children between 
fourteen and sixteen are employed, they must not work more than 
48 hours a week nor be employed before six o'clock in the morning 
nor after seven in the evening. .Penalties of fines and imprisonment 
for violations are provided in the act. 

The campaign preceding the presidential election of 1916 
was one of interest and considerable excitement. The torch- 
light procession feature of our campaigns has passed into the 
bygones, but public speaking still holds a prominent place, though 
perhaps with diminishmg power in these days of voluminous 
printing. As the time for making nominations for the presi- 
dency approached, the Republicans discussed various possible can- 
didates among whom the most prominent were Justice Charles 
E. Hughes of the Supreme Court, former Senator and Cabinet 
member, Elihu Root of New York, and former Senator Theodore 
Burton of Ohio. The Progressive" party as a party had lost 
heavily in the last four years, but a coterie of Progressive leaders 
made a most determined effort to capture the Republican nomina- 
tion for their idol, former President Roosevelt. The convention 

met at Chicago, on the 7th of June. The old line 
^f°Ru^h*^°^ Republicans determined to prevent the selection of 

Roosevelt and succeeded. The choice fell upon Jus- 
tice Hughes with Charles W. Fairbanks as his running mate. Many 
of the Progressives accepted the result of the convention, but a large 
number of them refused to do so, met in another hall, and nominated 
Roosevelt. Mr. Roosevelt, however, declined to make the race, and 
later joined the followers of Hughes. 

The Democrats had no second choice. The united party demanded 
the renomination of President Wilson, regardless of the one-term 

1 A scathing criticism by Myron T. Herrick is found in the Atlantic Monthly for 
February, 1917. The writer pronounces the system " a hodge-podge of blunders — 
wrong from any angle of vision." 



THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE OF 1916 937 

plank in the platform of 1912. The convention met in St. Louis on 
the 14th of June and ratified, with a single negative 
vote, the choice of the people. For Vice President of'wilson'" 
Thomas E. Marshall was also renominated. 

Mr. Hughes and President Wilson are both men of the highest 
personal character and intellectual attainments ; both are self-reliant, 
independent in thought and both are somewhat reserved and wanting 
in the suave cordiality, the personal magnetism so often looked upon 
as an essential qualilication for a successful political career. Each 
was probably the strongest man that his party could have chosen. 

During the months preceding the time of the meeting of the con- 
vention Mr. Hughes remained silent, though his possible candidacy 
was widely discussed. On receiving the nomination, however, he 
resigned from the Supreme Court and entered on a most vigorous 
campaign. He crossed the continent from ocean to ocean on speaking 
tours, meeting vast numbers of people. He was on the road for 
nearly five months and traveled 28,000 miles. 

Mr. Wilson declined to " take the stump " as undignified for a 
President, but he accomplished the same end by making carefully pre- 
pared speeches at intervals to visiting delegations at Shadow Lawn, 
New Jersey, where he spent the summer. The Socialists had named 
for the presidency Mr. Allan L. Benson of New York and the Pro- 
hibitionists former Governor Frank A. Hanley of Indiana. But these 
minor parties made little impression in the battle of the giants, the 
grappling of the two mighty political forces of the nation. 

The Republicans attacked the administration unsparingly. They 
condemned Wilson's vacillating policy in the Mexican affairs, his 
weakness in dealing with the European war situation, and called for 
a restoration of the protective tariff. The Democrats retorted with 
the taunting question, " What would you have done ? " They 
pointed with pride to the constructive legislation of the past three 
years and referring to the President they declared, " He kept us 
out of war," reiterating the statement millions of times throughout 
the land. For the first time in twenty-four years it was impossible 
to forecast the result of the election with any degree of certainty. 

The election was held on November 7. On the night of the 
election the word was flashed over the country that Mr. Hughes had 
won. Next morning all the great Democratic dailies had con- 
ceded his election. Hughes had carried all New England (except 
New Hampshire), New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, 



938 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

aud Illiuois, "With such a lead for Hughes it was taken for granted 
that Wilson had no chance. But the Great \\'est had not been fully 
Second heard from, and as the returns came iii during the day 

election of (November 8) a serious doubt began to be cast over the 
Wilson. early reports of the election of Hughes. For several days 

the result of the election hung in the balance and at length the final 
decision was left to be made by California. It voted for Wilson 
aud he was elected for a second term.^ It is believed that about 
one fifth, possibly one fourth of the Progressives who left the 
Republican party with Roosevelt in 1912 refused to return and 
voted for Wilson. 

For the first time in our history the election went against the 
combined vote of the great, often pivotal, states of New York, New 
Jersey, Indiana, and Illinois, Hughes had swept every northern 
state east of the ^lississippi, except Ohio and New Hampshire. 
These gave him a long lead over Wilson with his Solid South, when 
they met at the line of the great river to contend for the Great 
West. Here were nineteen states (excluding Texas and Arkansas 
as part of the south), constituting the entire western half of the 
country. The majority of them were normally Republican, but in 
order to win the election Mr. Wilson had to secure about three 
fourths of these states. He won fifteen of them, Mr. Hughes secur- 
ing only Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Oregon. Never before 
had the West played so great a part in an election. 

If it be conceded that the Senate must remain Democratic (and 
the Republicans did concede this), the defeat of jNIr. Hughes is a 
matter of congratulation to him and his party. As President Mr. 
Hughes could not have repealed a single Wilson law nor secured 
the enactment of one of his o^vn for at least two years, while at the 
same time he would have inherited the most difficult, the most 
loiotty aud complex foreign relations in, the history of the country. 
Under such conditions no man however strong could make a record 
for himself or his party. 

Two of the most prominent public questions of recent years 
are Woman Suffrage and Prohibition. In 1869 sparsely-settled 
Wyoming, as if in a half-jesting mood, established woman suffrage, 

1 The total vote for President in 1916 was 18,529,406. The respective candidates 
received: Wilson, 9.127.748: Hughes, 8.5ir),7()0; Benson. 590,322; Hanley, 216,W9; 
Eeimer (Soc. L.), 13.1.S2. Wilson received 581,983 votes more than Hughes. In the 
Electoral college he received 277 to 254 for Hnghes. As compared with the vote of 
1912 the Prohibitionists gained about 6000 and the Socialists lost over 220,000. 



1 



WOMAN SUFFRAGE AND PROHIBITION 939 

though there were few women in the _territoiy. Thus began what 
was destined to grow into a great movement. Twenty-four years 
passed when Colorado followed the exauiple of Wyoming 
(1893) ; Utah and Idaho did the same in 189G. ^"^^'^e 
After another interval Washington, in 1910, joined 
the suffrage states. It was rapidly followed by others until all the 
states west of C'olorado and Wyoming had granted full suffrage to 
women ; Kansas also granted full suffrage and Illinois i)artial suf- 
frage, not by popular vote but through the legislature. 

The movement, however, has received many serious checks. In 
every state east of the Mississippi where the question has been 
submitted to a vote of the people it has been defeated. In some 
states, as Ohio and Michigan, the adverse majority was far greater 
when a second attempt was made than at the first. It is certain 
that the women are by no means united in their desire for the 
ballot. A vigorous organization of women in favor of suffrage is 
balanced by an organization opposed to it. Both have their head- 
qugirters in New York and both have local organizations in nearly 
all parts of the country. 

The wave of prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxi- 
cants has swept the country during the decade ending with 1916. 
About half the states in the Union have become " dry " territory 
and, through local option, large sections of other states. The 
Southern and Western states have taken the lead in this reform. 
South of Kentucky and Maryland every state except Texas and 
Louisiana has adopted prohibition and west of the Mississippi all 
except two or three have done so. 

This great reform movement is due to various causes. The 
continuous cry of the little Prohibition party against the evil of 
the land, for forty years, has had its effect and the 
splendidly-organized Anti-Saloon League has done much 
in piloting the movement. Religious and moral sentiment has 
played a minor part, and the prohibition move is not based on a desire 
of one class of people to regulate and control the personal habits of 
others. More potent are the facts that the saloon has -become a 
nuisance and a law-breaker, that the liquor interests have got into 
politics and have controlled elections and legislatures wherever 
possible, and that the use of strong drink even in a moderate degree 
makes for inefficiency in every walk of life. 

The great interoceanic Canal at Panama was opened for traffic on 



940 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

August 15, 1914, nearlj' a year earlier than had at first been ex- 
pected. During the first year after the opening 1008 
Panama vessels passed through it. But the second year the 

number was only 787, owing to a great landslide that 
closed the canal from the middle of September, 1915, to the middle 
of April, 1916. The time required for a ship to pass through, a 
distance of fifty miles, is about ten hours. The total cost of the 
canal was about $375,000,000. This includes the forty millions 
paid for the French claims and ten millions paid to Panama, but 
does not include about fifteen millions appropriated for fortifica- 
tions. The canal will be of immense advantage to the commercial 
world, but it is doubtful if its tolls will pay a fair interest on the in- 
vestment for many years to come. 

A few words about this great waterway and its construction will 
here be in place. The first great conquest at Panama was made by 
the Sanitary Commission at the head of which was Colonel "William 
C. Gorgas, a surgeon of the United States army. The French had 
perished by the thousands at Panama owing to the deadly ravages 
of yellow fever. It was at first thought that the Americans would 
be obliged to abandon the work on accomit of this dread malady. 
But Dr. Gorgas had discovered that the disease is wholly due to the 
bite of a certain kind of mosquito and with 2000 assistants he set 
about to exterminate it at Panama. They drained swamps and 
jungles and forced the natives to adopt sanitary modes of living. 
The residt was marvelous. Within a year the yellow fever had 
vanished and to-day the canal zone is qiiite as healthful a place to 
live in as other parts of the world. 

The two great features of the canal are the Gatim Dam and the 
Culebra Cut. The water level is 85 feet above sea level. The 
Gatun Dam, toward the Atlantic side of the isthmus, dams up 
the little Chagres River, closing the gap between two lines of hills, 
and forming Gatun Lake. The dam is a mile and a half long, the 
crest being 115 feet above the level of the sea and 30 feet above the 
level of the Lake. Ships are raised or lowered to or from the lake 
by means of great triple locks. Through Gatun Lake a ship passes 
for about twenty-four miles to the Culebra Cut, recently renamed 
Gaillard Cut. 

Culebra Hill, 330 feet above sea level at its highest point, is one 
of the lowest points in that vast mountain chain extending from the 
Straits of ]\Iagellan to the Bering Sea. For several years many 



PANAMA 941 

thousands of men were engaged in cutting the channel through this 
hill, a distance of nine miles. The minimum width of the bottom 
of the canal is 300 feet and the minimum depth is forty feet. The 
actual cut at the highest part of Culebra was 285 feet. 

The one man above all men to whom the able and efficient 
management of the great work at Panama is due is Colonel George 
W. Goethals. On the completion of the canal Colonel Coethals was 
appointed the hrst civil governor of the canal /.one. On his resigna- 
tion the President appointed, in January, 1917, Colonel Chester 
A. Harding to the governorship. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

LATEST INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND INVENTIONS 

INTEGRATION OF INDUSTRIES 

The Civil War brought almost an economic and industrial 
revolution to the United States. The great demand in war time 
for products of the factory, coupled with a high protective tariff, 
had proved a mighty stimulant to many industries and to the ex- 
tension of railroads. During the half century between 1860 and 
1910 the number of wage earners engaged in manufacturing in- 
creased from 1,311,246 to 6,615,046 and, owing to the continuous 
improvements in machinery, the proportionate increase in the value 
of the output was far greater. This economic change brought about 
many social changes, the most important of which was the phe- 
nomenal growth of cities. Armies of laboring men, from the farms 
and from Europe, settled in the cities to earn their daily bread in 
the great factories. 

These extensive factories, with their vast and complicated 
machinery, grew up in many cities. At first they were in competi- 
tion with one another ; but at length they began to 
fSs**^°" °^ ^°^™^ combinations called trusts. A trust may be de- 
fined as a combination of similar industries under one 
management, partially for the better production and marketing of 
goods, but chiefly for the purpose of securing higher prices for their 
products by eliminating competition. 

The first of the great trusts to be formed was the Standard Oil 

Company, organized in 1882. The many uses of petroleum ren- 

«. , ^ «., dered it one of the greatest of commercial commodities 
Standard Oil. , . ^ „ i ^ j. ^- ■<. f 

and many companies were formed tor extractmg it from 

the ground, refining it, and marketing the products. The Standard 

Oil Company was a combination of various independent companies, 

brought about by John D. Rockefeller and a few associates, for the 

purpose of controlling the market. As the years passed the Stand- 

942 



GREAT CORPORATIONS 943 

ard Oil absorbed more and more of the independent companies, often 
by unfair means, until it controlled the major part of the business. 
As noted on a preceding page, it was dissolved by the Supreme 
Court in 1911. 

A few years after the Standard Oil Company was formed, the 
Whiskey Trust, the Sugar Trust, and others were formed. In some 
states action was brought against various trusts and 
they were so roughly handled in the courts that a new olggi * *° 
device was resorted to in some instances : the stocks of 
the independent companies were purchased outright and thus the 
competing companies would fall under a siugle management. The 
most colossal of all trusts, if such it may be called, is the United 
States Steel Corporation, formed in 1901. It acquired the capital 
stock of many other companies including the Carnegie Steel Com- 
pany. Its interests are so vast as almost to stagger the imagination.^ 
The trusts multiplied slowly at the beginning, but the first decade 
of the present century witnessed a great increase in their numbers, 
until they came to control the greater part of the manufacturing 
and commercial business of the country. 

In at least two other respects, — in addition to raising prices for 
the consumers, — the trusts offended the American people : first, by 
unfair, not to say criminal, methods employed in ruining and crush- 
ing weaker rivals, and second, in watering their stock and selling it 
at high prices to the unsuspecting public. The effect was an anti- 
trust crusade resulting in a number of laws. Federal and state, for 
the regulation of the trusts. 

About two thirds of the states had passed laws to this end. But 
these laws had not proved very effective from the fact that no state 
could regulate a trust except within its own boundaries, nor prevent 
a trust outside the state from shipping its goods mto the state. 
The Federal Anti-Tmst Law of 1890 has been noted on a preceding 
page (869). Its effect was not great and the trusts in spite of it and 
of the state laws continued to multiply. Under the law of 1890 
but thirty-two prosecutions were brought against the trusts up to 
1906, and the majority of these were dropped. Perhaps the chief 
reason why the law was so meffective lay in the fact that it was not 

1 The following statistics are from Moody's " Analysis of Investments," 1916. 
The United States Steel Corporation owns 112 iron mines, 131,459 acres of coking 
coal lands, 96,618 acres steam coal lands, 178,7:34 acres of mineral interests and sur. 
face coal territory. It controls many railroad properties. The company's assets 
on December 31, 1915 were $1,848,541,8()1 and its revenues for 1915 were 3 726,685,589. 



944 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

carefully drawn up. It declared illegal "every contract, combina- 
tion in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of 
trade " ; but it did not define clearly what trusts are nor what was 
meant by " restraint of trade." Senator La Follette and others at- 
tempted on various occasions to have this law amended and made 
more definite, but without success. It was left for the Wilson ad- 
ministration, in 1915, to pass supplementary laws that promise to 
be effective, 

THE LABOR MOVEMENT 

During the first decade following the Civil War the laboring 
masses, becoming more conscious of their power and their needs, 
began to form into trade unions. Such unions had long existed 
in England, but in this country they were merely local before the 
war and of little influence. Between 1860 and 1870, however, 
unions of various crafts, as the bricklayers, the cigar makers, the 
engineers, and others, organized in unions. The general purpose 
was to iin^ruve the conditions of employment and to be helpful to 
one anotn:,! 

The first general organization of labor, including all classes, 
skilled and unskilled, was the Knight5 of Labor, founded in 1869. 
It was at first a semi-secret society, but as its member- 
of L b ^ ^ ^^^P increased, reaching almost a million in the eighties, 
all attempts at secrecy were abandoned. The character 
of the Knights of Labor, composed of all classes and conditions of 
workingmen, was not conducive to the best interests of American 
society, and the order gradually gave way to the more compact and 
permanent order. The American Federation of Labor. This organi- 
zation, founded in 1881, took its present name in 1886. It has been 
for many years the most conspicuous and important labor body 
in America. Samuel Gompers, a native of England, one of the 
founders of the American Federation of Labor, has been its presi- 
dent, with the exception of one year, since 1882. 

The American Federation of Labor, comprising many inter- 
national unions, state, city, and local associations, has a membership 
American ^^ about two million. It has stood for the most part 
Federation on a safe and sane basis and has done much for the 
of Labor. general uplift of the laboring classes. It has refrained 

from going into politics, though its leaders, including INIr. Gompers, 
have not hesitated to espouse the cause of a political party and 



IMMIGRATION AND TRANSPORTATION 945 

to lead as many of its members as possible to do the same 
thing. 

With the passing of the Knights of Labor the Socialists have 
become the most formidable rivals of The American Federation 
of Labor in the industrial world. The Socialist party 
is political and economic and its cardinal doctrine is ^ ^'^^^ ^^ ^' 
government ownership of the chief industries. Under the able 
leadership of Eugene V. Debs it made steady gains for many years, 
reaching almost 900,000 votes in the election of 1912 ; but the 
election of 1916 showed a decided falling off of the Socialist vote. 

The labor question in the United States has been greatly affected 
since the Civil War by immigration. Soon after the war was over 
the human stream floAving to our shores from European 
lands was swollen to a river. The year 1883 witnessed 
the coming of almost 800,000, The newcomers of this period were 
nearly all from the countries of Northern Europe, but better condi- 
tions at home caused a great falling off in the immigrants from 
these countries. Then came the rising tide of immigration from 
Southern Europe, especially from Italy and Hungary, and during 
the year ending June 30, 1913 our newcomers footed up the enormous 
total of 1,197,892.^ Congress passed immigration bills under 
Cleveland, Taft, and Wilson, all of whom vetoed the measures be- 
cause of the literacy test. But the fourth of these, the second 
under Wilson, was passed over the President's veto, February, 1917. 

TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION 

On an earlier page it was noticed that before the introduction of 
steam navigation the means of transportation 'had improved but 
little for 2000 years — since the days of Csesar and the introduction 
of Christianity. During the first half of the 19th century steam 
power came into use on land and sea and the way was opened for 
the revolutionizing of the means of travel and transportation. 
Since 1850 improvements have been so great and so rapid as to 
bring about a second revolution. 

Man had sailed the seas for thousands of years when, in 1839, 
the first steamship crossed the Atlantic. Improvements were rapid 

1 Of tliis number 269,988 could neither read nor write. Of the whole number 
the Italians led with 27i,147, the Poles coming second with 174,365, while 101,330 
were Jews. 



946 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

thereafter. The first really great steamship was built in London 
in 1858, — the Oreat Eastern, a vessel 692 feet in length with a 
displacement of 28,000 tons. But the Great Eastern 
was forty years before her time. The first vessel there- 
after to surpass this ship in dimensions was the Oceanic, of the 
White Star line, built in 1899.^ 

During the same period warships have kept pace with ships of 
commerce. Soon after the duel between the Monitor and the 
Merrimac in 1862 every navy in the world was rebuilt on the basis 
of the ironclad. A first class battleship of to-day could have de- 
stroyed all the Greek and Persian ships at the battle of Salamis, 
could have sunk the Spanish Armada, or could have put out of 
action every vessel engaged in the battle of Trafalgar. 

Railroad building has shown great improvements in the past 
half-century though less marked perhaps than those in ship-build- 
ing. Among the most important are the substitution 
railroads ^^ ^ better system of lighting passenger cars, the 
abolishing of wood and coal stoves and the heating of 
cars by steam from the engine, the introduction of the sleeping car 
(1864), of the Westinghouse automatic air brake (1869), the substi- 
tution of steel for wooden cars, and the electrifying of many steam 
roads in and near the large cities. 

A marvelous story yet to be written, full of romance, adventure, 
and self-sacrifice, is the story of the building of the American rail- 
roads, especially those of the West where the population was sparse. 
There were broad rivers to be spanned, wide prairies to be traversed, 
and innumerable hills and mountains to be climbed or tunneled. 
But indomitable American energy prevailed and to-day there 
are many lines of railway linking together the eastern and western 
portions of the continent. At the close of the Civil War there were 
35,000 miles of railways in the United States ; in 1914 our railroad 
system had reached the stupendous total of 253,000 miles. 

The railroads were financed in various ways, — by large grants 

1 Since then "ocean greyhounds" have multiplied, among the greatest being 
the Kaiser Wilhelm II, 101 feet in length, with 40,000 horse power engines; the 
Lusitania and Mauretania of the Cuuard line, each 707 feet long, 70,000 horse power 
and a displacement of 44,500 tons ; the Olympic and Titanic of the White Star line, 
each 883 feet long, with a displacement of 52,000 tons ; the Hamburg-American ship, 
Imperator, 909 feet long, 54,000 tons displacement and 60,000 horse power. But the 
most gigantic vessel afloat is the Vaterland, launched in 1914, also of the Hamburg- 
American line. This mighty sea monster is 950 feet in length, displaces 56,000 tons 
and her engines represent 75,000 horse power. 



MEANS OF TRAVEL 947 



of lands and money by the government, by European capital, by the 
sale of stocks and bonds to the public, and by large grants by states 
and municipalities through which the railroads passed. But many 
of the investments proved worthless, largely through frauds and 
dishonest manipulation of land grants. The most notorious of the 
scandals was that known as the Credit Mobilier, which has been 
noted on an earlier page. 

The high water mark in railroad gambling was reached in the 
early seventies. Many roads were wrecked by rate wars and crooked 
financing, and the business of the country was demoral- 
ized by rebating and secret rate cutting. A favorite „amblh^ 
method of the big financiers, among whom were Jay 
Gould, Russell Sage, and Cornelius Vanderbilt, was to purchase a 
bankrupt road, water the stock recklessly and then sell it to a 
gullible public. The financiers amassed vast fortunes, often selling 
all their stock and leaving the railroad with a crushing debt to be 
managed by others. 

The high-financing of railroads, the stock-watering, rebating, and 
over-charging led to many attempts at state regulation, to the 
passing of the Anti-Eebate Law of 1887 and finally to the Hepburn 
act of 1906. In 1913 a law was passed by Congress providing for 
the physical valuation of railroads, which had long been a dream of 
Senator La Follette. The Interstate Commerce Commission with its 
enlarged powers granted by the Hepburn Law, having power over 
rate-making, has rendered a great service to the public and on the 
whole a vast improvement over the chaotic conditions of the 
seventies has been achieved. 

A marvelous impetus to modern road travel has come with the 
automobile and the manufacture and sale of this vehicle has grown 
to astonishing dimensions. The power-driven road 
vehicle dates back more than a hundred years. But automobile 
the early auto-driven machines, propelled by steam 
power, were clumsy and impractical and after half a century or 
more of experiment they were thrown aside by the public as a 
useless invention. In England the opposition to their use on 
the highways was so great that a law was passed forbidding a speed 
of more than four miles an hour and requiring that each power- 
driven machine be preceded by a man waving a red flag.^ 

The present era of automobiles had its beginning in the eighteen- 

1 See the Scientific American, June 5, 1015, p. 521. 



948 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

eighties, though it is true that the transmission gear, the clutch, the 
differential, and the pneumatic tire had all been invented before 
1850. But nearly forty years were yet to pass, before the gasoline 
engine was perfected, and the future of the automobile became 
assured. Mr. E. Olds built a self-driven machine in 1887, using 
steam produced by gasoline.^ In 1892 Charles E. Duryea completed 
an automobile, having developed a spray carburetor and a spark 
ignition, and Edward Haynes the following year built a gasoline 
engine of a different type. These- were the pioneers of the present 
automobile era, but each one used freely many inventions of earlier 
date. It is clear therefore that the automobile is a gradual growth, 
covering many years. About 1895 the " auto-craze " struck the 
public. Eor the first time it was realized that thfe self-propelled car 
was an invention of great value and in the following twenty years 
literally millions of them were purchased. The great majority 
of them are used for pleasure and recreation, but the auto-truck 
and later the farm tractor have come to be of great practical use on 
the city streets and on the farm. 

Almost simultaneously with the automobile came the electric 
trolley car. The chief inventor of the trolley was Frank J. Sprague, 
who first installed a city electric line at St. Joseph, 
tJSl?^^*"*' Missouri, in 1887, and a year or two later at Richmond, 
Virginia. The electric current that furnished the power 
for each car was received from a stationary power plant. AVith this 
early beginning the electric trolley was assured for the future. 
It came into general use with a bound. Cities throughout the 
country adopted the new system and within a few years the old 
horse car and the cable car had for the most part passed out of 
existence. There have also been built many hundreds of miles of 
interurban trolleys which have secured a large portion of the pas- 
senger traffic that formerly went to the railroads, and have greatly 
enhanced farm values. 

The beginnings of the flying machine, as distinguished from the 
navigable balloon, date from 1889. There are many forms of air- 
craft, the chief of which perhaps is the aeroplane. 
machine "^^^^ machine is propelled horizontally by a powerful 

motor and it rises by the pressure of the air on its 
under side, the plane being fixed at a small angle with the air. The 

1 The father of the modern automobile was Gottlieb Daimler, a German, who 
built a successful car in 1883. 



GREAT INVENTIONS 949 



chief inventors were Professor S. P. Langley and the Wright brothers. 
All civilized countries have adopted the flying craft in various forms 
and they have played a considerable part in the Great War in 
Europe, especially in reconnoitering. Through this invention man, 
denied the power of flight by nature^ has overcome his limitations 
to a marvelous extent. He can rise to astonishing heights and can 
sail through the air for thousands of miles. It is probable that the 
flying machine may be extensively used in future for carrying the 
mails and the like, but it is doubtful if it will ever become a popular 
means of travel. 

OTHER IMPORTANT INVENTIONS 

As noted on a former page the period just preceding the Civil War 
produced wonders in the world of invention. To that age we owe 
the telegraph, the modern printing press, the sewing machine, the 
harvester, and many other improvements of enduring value. The 
period following was equally fruitful. It gave us the typewriter 
(first put on the market in 1874), the telephone, 1876, the dynamo, 

1877, the Edison multiplex system in telegraphy, and a great number 
of other useful inventions. 

The decade of 1875-1885 was perhaps the most wonderful of all 
decades in the development of the uses of electricity. One of the 
marvels of the time was the invention of the incandes- 
cent lamp by Thomas A Edison, " The Wizard of Menlo ^^^g* "^'®^" 
Park " ; another was the arc light by Charles F. Brush, 

1878, and many electrical inventions, including the electrical meter, 
by Edward Weston. One of the most brilliant of Edison's inventions 
was the phonograph, which appeared in 1877, The linotype machine, 
1888, and the monotype, which came a little later, have proved to be 
of very great usefulness in the publishing of books and periodicals. 

Wireless telegraphy was made a practical thing for communication 
in 1895 by the Italian, Marconi, and he first signaled across the 
Atlantic in 1901. Other means of communication also have been 
greatly improved in recent years. The Pupin coil, invented by 
Prof. M. I. Pupin, has proved a great improvement to the telephone 
and has made possible telephonic communication over long distances. 
In 1915, with the aid of this invention, a telephone line was estab- 
lished between New York and San Francisco. 

In few lines of invention has there been greater progress made in 



950 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 

recent decades than in photography. The two most striking achieve- 
ments are the taking of photographs in natural colors, which has 

reached its present state after half a century of develop- 
pictures. ment, and the motion picture invention. The first public 

moving picture entertainment was given in Philadelphia 
by Mr. Henry Heyl in 1870. Since then the motion picture machines 
and the films have been standardized and the business of entertaining 
and amusing the public by means of the " movies " has grown to 
wonderful proportions and in it are invested hundreds of millions of 
dollars. 

Vast numbers of most useful inventions cannot even be named 
here. The prince of American inventors and perhaps the most pro- 
lific inventor of all time is Thomas A. Edison. The patents granted 
to him exceed 900. Other leading American inventors of our time 
are Elihu Thomson, Alexander G-. Bell, Edward Weston, and George 
Westinghouse, each of whom has many patents to his credit. Per- 
haps the most revolutionizing of all modern inventions is the steam en- 
gine by James Watt, a Scotsman, and next to it in usefulness stands the 
telephone. The steam engine transformed the industrial and com- 
mercial world and made modern conditions possible ; but it is 
believed that the days of the steam engine are numbered, that the 
strange, subtle, inexhaustible something in nature that we call 
electricity, which produces light and heat as well as power, will 
eventually occupy the whole field. 



INDEX 



Abercromble, General, 184; defeated by Mont- 
calm, 167. 

Abrahatu, Plains of, scaled by Wolfe, 191. 

Acadia, Nova Scotia, first settlements in, 160 
note; incorporated with Massachusetts, 126; 
ceded to France, ItU; bounds of, in dispute, 
171 ; English expedition to, ISl. 

Acadians, remain true to France, ISl ; dispersed 
by the English, 1S2 ; later history of, 1S3 ; 
comments on dispersion of, 183. 

Adams, Charles Francis, minister to England, 
668 ; protests against English-built cruisers, 
819 ; before Liberal convention, 824 ; on Genev* 
Commission, 821. 

Adams, John, in First Continental Congress, 235 ; 
names 'Washington commander of army, 243 ; 
offers resolutions, 252 ; 258 ; signs Treaty of 
Paris, 312 ; at London, 822 ; elected first Vice 
President, 833 ; inaugurated, 339 ; on Ames's 
speech, 359 ; elected President, 863 ; sends X. 
Y. Z. correspondence to Congress, 865; ap- 
points new minister to France, 867 ; defeat, 
retirement, character of, 373. 

Adams, John Quincy, in Monroe's Cabinet, 454 ; 
signs treat}' purchasing Florida, 456 ; elected 
President, 468 ; notice of, 469 ; unpopularity of, 
470 ; retires, 431 ; champions right of petition, 
512. 

Adams, Samuel, revolutionary leader, 230 ; in 
First Continental Congress, 235 ; escapes the 
British, 233 ; leads for independence, 252 ; op- 
poses the Constitution, 335 ; is converted to 
new Union, 836. 

Adet, French minister, 860. 

Aguinaldo, Emilio, leader of the Filipinos, 896 ; 
capture of, 893. 

Airy, Mount, fighting at, 282. 

Aix-la-Cliapelle, Treaty of, 169. 

Alabama, becomes a state, 456 ; secedes, 629 ; 
under carpetbag government, 300. 

Alabama, the. building and career of, 777 ; de- 
stroyed by the Kearsarge, 777, 778. 

Alabama claims, the, settlement, 819-321. 

Alamo, massacre of the, 517. 

Alaska, purchase of, 812 ; boundary of, settled, 
906. 

Albany (Fort Nassau, F»rt Orange), settled by 
the batch, 138. 



Albemarle colony, founded, 83 ; declines, 85. 

Albemarle Sound, settlements about, 83, 85. 

Albert, Prince Consort, 666. 

Alert, the, defeated by the Essex, 421. 

Alexandria, Virginia, troops collected at, 654; 
death of Ellsworth at, 654 note. 

Algiers, preys on American shipping, 35.5. 

Algonquin Indians, 33 ; side with French, 177. 

Alien and Sedition Laws, 363. 

Allen, Charles H., governor of Porto Rico, 900. 

Allen, Ethan, leads "Green Mountain Boys" 
against New York, 119 ; captures Ticonderoga, 
240 ; captured by British, 249 ; note on, 267 ; 
316. 

Allen, "William H., surrenders the Argus, 424. 

Allen, WiUiam, governor of Ohio, 388. 

Allouez, Father, explores lake region, 160. 

Alston, Mrs., see Burr, Theodosia. 

Altgeld, John P., governor of Illinois, 884. 

Amendments, constitutional, 340 ; Thirteenth 
Amendment, 798 ; Fourteenth, 796, 793 ; Fif- 
teenth, 798, 799; Fourteenth and Fifteenth 
inoi)erative at the South, 804; Fourteenth 
limited by Supreme Court, 818. 

American party, see Know-nothing party. 

Ames, Fisher, in First Congress, 843 ; great 
speech of, in the House, 859 ; 389. 

Amherst, Jeffrey, commands troops against 
Louisburg, ISG ; British commander in chief, 
takes Ticonderoga, 189 ; receives surrender of 
Montreal, 198. 

Anderson, Eobert, abandons Fort Moultrie, 638 ; 
surrenders Fort Sumter, 642, 643 ; in command 
at Louisville, 669 ; relieved bj' Sherman, 679 
note ; hoists flag again at Sumter, 778. 

Andr^, Major John, plots with Arnold, 299 ; is 
caught, 800 ; executed, 301. 

.Vndros, Sir Edmund, governor of Virginia, 73; 
sent to govern New England, 125 ; downfall of, 
126. 

Annapolis, convention at, S24. 

Anne, queen of England, sustains Dissenters in 
South Carolina, 90 ; succeeds, AViUiam and 
Mary, 16.5. 

A ntietam, battle of, 708 sq. ; effect of, on the 
a.lministration, 712. 

Anti-federalist party, opposes the Constltutioo, 
335 • dissolution of, 848. 



INDEX 



Anti-Masonic party, 492. 

Appomattox, Lee's surrender at, conditions of 
surt-ender, 772. 

Archdale, Jolin, governor of the Carollnas, 86, 89. 

Arctic explorations, .877. 

Argall, Samuel, governor of Virginia, 67. 

Argus, the, captured by the Pelican, 424. 

Arista, Mexican general, defeated by Taylor, 527. 

Arkansas, admission of, 534; secedes, 645; lost 
to Confederates at Pea Eidge, 704; accepts 
Lincoln's plan of reconstruction, 788 ; conten- 
tion for governorship of, 829. 

Arlington, army collected at, 054. 

Armada, the Spanish, sent out by Philip II, 57 ; 
defeated by the Eiiglish, 58 ; effect of defeat on 
American history, 59. 

Armstrong, John, captures Kittanning, 184; in 
expedition against Fort Duquesne, 188 ; issues 
Newburg addresses, 321 ; secretary of war, 
plans invasion of Canada, 427. 

Arnold, Benedict, joins continental army, 240 ; 
wounded at Quebec, 249 ; sent to Hudson 
Valley, 270 ; at' Saratoga, 273, 274; strategy of, 
288; in command at Philadelphia, accused by 
enemies, 298 ; plans to betray West Point, 299 ; 
escapes, 301 ; in Virginia as British commander, 
309; harasses Connecticut, 310. 

Arthur, Chester A., nominated for vice presi- 
dency, 852 ; becomes President, notice of, 854. 

Ashe, General, defeated at Briar Creek, 302. 

Assembly, the colonial, 211, 212. 

Assumption of state debts, 845, 340. 

Atchison, David E., on importance of Kansas to 
slavery, 586 ; leads Missourians Vnto Kansas, 
587. 

Atlanta, campaign against, 758 sq. • taken by 
Sherman, 760 ; exposition at, 854, 883. 

Australian ballot, the, 876. 

Ayllon, De, explores Atlantic coast, 54. 

Babcock, Thomas S., speaker of Confederate Con- 
gress, 705. 

Bacon, Nathaniel, character of, leads rebellion 
against Berkeley, 71 ; 72 ; effect of rebellion 
of, 72. 

Bahama Islands, first discovered by Columbus, 16. 

Bainbridge, William, commands the Constitu- 
tion, 422. 

Baker, Edward D., 659; killed at Ball's Bluflf, 
692. 

Balboa, discovers Pacific Ocean, 25 ; 887. 

Ball's Bluff, battle of, 692. 

Baltimore, Lord, see Calvert. 

Baltimore, Maryland, saved from capture by 
British, 437 ; national conventions at, 518, 519, 
610, 762 ; troops fired on at, 650. 

Bancroft, George, in Polk's Cabinet, minister to 
England, 524 and note 1 ; writes History of the 
United States, 619. 



Bank, the United States, first chartered, 846; 
recharter defeated, 443 ; second chartered, 452 ; 
third charter vetoed by Jackson, 493 ; removal 
of deposits of, 494. 

Bank Act, the National, 731, 732 ; importance of, 
732. 

Banks, Nathaniel P., elected speaker of the 
House, 581 ; appointed to command of an army, 
656 ; 694 note 2 ; defeated by Jackson, 696 ; at 
Cedar Mountain, 707 ; at Port Hudson, 739. 

Baptists, in Pennsylvania, 204; growth and mis- 
sion work of, 620. 

Barclay, Commodore, commands British fleet on 
Lake Erie, 427 ; defeated by Perry, 428. 

Barclay, Eobert, governor of New Jersey, 148. 

Barlow, Joel, author, 378. 

Barnburners of New York, 523 ; support Van 
Buren, 538. 

Barney, Joshu.a, at Bladen sburg, 435, 436. 

Barre, Isaac, opinion of, on American resistance, 
226. 

Barron, James, in command of the Chesapeake, 
397 ; is suspended, 398. 

Barry, William T., in Jackson's Cabinet, 482. 

Bates, Edward, 611 ; in Lincoln's Cabinet, 641. 

Baum, Friedrich, in command at Bennington, 
271, 272. 

Bayard, Thomas F., in Cleveland's Cabinet, 862. 

Beauregard, P. G. T., commands Confederates 
at Charleston, 643 ; at Bull Eun, 655, 656 ; takeg 
command at Shiloh, 686. 

Beocher, Henry Ward, defends Abolitionists, 
510 ; opposes coercing the South, 638 ; sup- 
ports Cleveland, 859. 

Belknap, W. W., impeached by the House, 827. 

Bell, Alexander, inventor of the telephone, 876. 

Bell, John, nominatea for President, 612 ; decides 
for secession, 644, 645. 

Bellomont, Earl of, governor of Massachusetts, 
sends Kidd against the pirates, 97 ; governor 
of New York, 145. 

Belmont, battle at, 679. 

Benjamin, Judah P., in Davis's Cabinet, 682. 

Bennington, battle of, 271, 272. 

Benton, Jessie, Mrs. Fr6mont, 530, 584. 

Benton, Thomas H., 449 ; defericls Jackson in 
Senate, 495 ; narrowly escapes death, 518 ; 
quarrel of, with Foote, 545. 

Berkeley, Lord, purchases portion of New Jersey, 
146 ; sells to Quakers, 147. 

Berkeley, Sir William, becomes governor of Vir- 
ginia, character of, 69 ; tyranny of, rebellion 
against, 71 ; flees before Bacon, is restored, 
executes his enemies, is degraded, dies, 72 ; 
report of, to commissioners in England, 74. 

Bernard, governor of Massachusetts, dissolves 
the assembly, 230. 

Biddle, Nicholas, 493. 

Bidwell, John, nominated for President, 874. 



INDEX 



it 



Bienville, founds New Orleans, 16T. 

Big Black River, battle of, 737. 

Birney, James Q., Free Soil candidate, 521. 

Bissell, William 8., in Cleveland's Cabinet, 878. 

Black Friday, 830. 

Black, Jeremiah S., in Buchanan's Cabinet, 633; 
change of attitude, 034; 663. 

Black Warrior, the, 615. 

Bladeusburg, battle of, 486. 

Blaine, James G., elected Speaker of the House, 
816 ; before Cincinnati convention, 835 ; power 
of, as a leader, 849 ; quarrels with Conkling, 
849, 850 ; defeated in convention, 851 ; in Gar- 
field's Cabinet, 852 ; nominated for the presi- 
dency, 857 ; compared with Clay, 860 ; in 
Harrison's Cabinet, 868 ; resigns, 874 ; corre- 
spondence of, concerning the proposed isth- 
mian canal, 906. 

Blair, Francis P., 4S3 ; saves Missouri from se- 
ceding, 652 ; nominated for vice presidencv, 
815. 

Blair, Montgomery, in Lincoln's Cabinet, 641 ; 
665. 

Blake, Joseph, governor of the Carolinas, 89. 

Bland-Allison law, the, S;33 ; repealed, 869. 

Blennerhassett, Harman, in Burr's conspiracy, 
392. 

Block, Adrian, discovers Connecticut River, 111. 

Blockade, proclaimed by Lincoln, 650, 051 ; ef- 
fect of, 651; 708. 

Blockhouse, the New England, 202. 

Bloomfleld, Joseph, 416. 

Blue Licks, battle of, 292. 

Blue-light Federalists, 424. 

Bobadilla, sends Columbus to Spain in irons, 21. 

Bonaparte, »ee, Napoleon Bonaparte. 

Bonhomme Richard, commanded by Jones, 295. 

Boone, Daniel, plants first settlement in Ken- 
tucky, 291 ; at battle of Blue Licks, 292. 

Booth, John Wilkes, assassinates Lincoln, 773 ; 
escane, capture, and death of, 785. 

Boscawen, commands fleet against Louisburg, 
186. 

Boston, founded by John Winthrop, 106 ; one of 
four largest cities, 198 ; tea landed at, 283 ; 
evacuated by Howe, 250. 

Boston Massacre, 230. 

Boston Port Bill, 234. 

Boston Tea Party, 233. 

Bouquet, Colonel, in expedition against Fort 
Duquesne, 188. 

Boutwell, George S., in Pe.ace Congress, 685; 
659 ; in Grant's Cabinet, 816. 

Boxer, the, captured by the EnterpriKe, 424. 

Boyd, General, succeeds Pike, 427. 

Braddock, Edward, arrives in Virginia, 178 ; 
leads an army toward Duquesne, 179 ; is sur- 
prised and defeated, 180 ; death and burial of, 
181. 



Braddock's Field, defeat of English on, 180. 

Bradford, William, governor of Plymouth, 101 ; 
Bcnds'gunpowder to C'anoiiicus, 101." 

Bradsti-eet, John", capture Fort Frontenac, 187. 

Bragg, Bra.xton, at Shiloh, 684"; is driven across 
Kentucky by Buell, fights at Perryville, 716, 
717 ; at Chickamauga, 748, 749 ; defeated at 
Chattanooga, 750, 751 ; settles at Dalton, 751. 

Brandy wine, battle of, 281. 

Brant, Joseph, Mohawk chief, 293, 294. 

Breckenridge, John C, nominated for Vice Presi- 
dent, 583; for President, 610;' 652, 659; at 
Stone River, 720. 

Brewster, William, leads the Pilgrims Oi the 
Mayflower, 99. 

Briar Creek, battle at, 802. 

Bright, John, M.P., quoted, 663. 

Bristow, Benjamin, e.xposes whiskey ring, 827; 
recommends Resumption Act, 833. 

British Empire, beginning of its greatness, 59. 
See England. 

Brock, Sir Isaac, forces surrender of Michigan, 
417 ; death of, 418. 

Broke, Captain, captures the Chesapeake, 423, 
424. 

Brooke, John R., governor of Cuba; 900. 

Brookfleld, attacked by Indians, 122. 

Brooklyn Heights, battle of, 256. 

Brooks, Preston, assaults Sumner, 590. 

Brown, B. Gratz, nominated for Vice President, 
825. 

Brown, Brockden, author, 878. 

Brown, Jacob, at Ogdensburg, 420 ; in command 
at Lundy's Lane, 432. 

Brown, John, leads massacre in Kansas, 590, 
591 ; seizes Harpers Ferry, 604 sq. ; capture 
and e.xecution of, 606 ; estimate of, 607. 

Brownlow, William G., in the Senate, 817. 

Bryan, William J., nominated for President, no- 
tice of, 887, 888 ; defeated a second time by 
McKinley, 897. 

Bryant, William Cullen, 476, 619. 

Buchanan, Captain, in command of the 3ferri- 
mac, 674. 

Buchanan, James, 515 ; in Polk's Cabinet, 523 ; 
503 ; issues Ostend Manifesto, 572 ; nominated 
for President, 583; elected, 5S5; appoints 
Walker governor of Kansas, 592; refuses to 
sustain him, 593 ; urges Lecompton Constitu- 
tion for Kansas, 593, .594 ; attitude of, toward 
secession, 638, 634 ; character of, 634 ; comes 
out for the Union, 643. 

Buckner, Simon B., 652 ; surrenders Fort Donel- 
son, 6S2 ; joins Bragg at Chickamauga, 74S, 
749 ; nominated for the vice presidency, 888. 

Buell, Don Carlos, in command at Louisville, 
679 ; occupies Nashville, 083 ; arrives at Pitts- 
burg Landing, 686 ; marches to Louisville, at 
Perryville, 717 ; is dismissed, notice of, 718. 



JV 



INDEX 



Buffalo, New York, burned by the British, 427. 

Btiford, John, opens battle at Gettysburg, 741), 
742. 

Bullock, J. B., secures the building of the Ala- 
bama and other vessels, 776. 

Bull Run, battle of, 050, ()."i7 ; effect of, on the 
North, G5S, 669 ; on the South, 669 ; second 
battle of, 70S. 

Bunker Hill, battle of, 245 sq. 

Burgesses, House of, first meeting of, in Virginia, 
66, 67. 

Burgoyne, John, arrives in Boston, 245 ; suc- 
ceeds Carleton, 268 ; notice of, 269 ; captures 
Ticonderoga, 269; at Saratoga, 278, 274; sur- 
render of, 275 ; 2SS, 289 ; estimate of, 315, 316. 

Burke, Edmund, on tea tax, 241 ; 543. 

Burlingame Treaty, the, 841. 

Burns, Anthony, 552 and note. 

Burnside, Ambrose E., makes expedition to 
Eoanoake Island, captures New Berne, 671 ; 
joins McClellan, 672 ; at Antietam, 710 ; ap- 
pointed commander of the Army of the Poto- 
mac, 712 ; defeated at Fredericksburg, 721, 722 ; 
resigns, 722 ; arrests Vallandigham, 729 ; at 
Knoxville, 751. 

Burr, Aaron, in expedition to Canada, 249 ; be- 
comes Vice President, 871, 372 ; Federalist 
candidate for governor of New Toi'k, defeated, 
889 ; kills Hamilton, 390 ; flees, 391 ; conspiracy 
of, 392 ; arrest and trial of, 393 ; later life and 
death of, 394, 406. 

Burr, Theodosia, 392, 406. 

Butler, Benjamin F., occupies Baltimore, 650 ; 
at Fortress Monroe, 655 ; leads expedition to 
Pamlico Sound, 671 ; at New Orleans, 688, 690, 
702 ; refuses to send negroes back to masters, 
712 ; nominated for President, 857. 

Butler, John, at Wyoming, 293. 

Butler, Walter, in Cherry Valley massacre, 294. 

Butler, WiUiam 0., candidate for vice presidency, 
538. 

Butler, Zebulon, at Wyoming, 293. 

Cabinet, the, created by Congress, 843 ; present 
composition of, 344 note 1 ; department of 
commerce created, 906. See under the various 
presidents. 

Cabot, George, 889. 

Cabot, John, birthplace of, removes to England, 
receives grant from king to seek western 
lands, 28 ; discovers North America, explores 
coast, 24. 

Cabot, Sebastian, plays false to the memory of 
his father, 24. 

Cabral, discovers Brazil, 26. 

Calhoun, John Caldwell, enters Congress, 413 ; 
in Monroe's Cabinet, 454; favors internal im- 
provements, 462 ; candidate for the presidency, 
466 ; elected Vice President, 467 ; parallel of, 



with Jackson, 485 ; quarrels with Jackson, 
486, 487 ; disappointment of, becomes champion 
of slavery, 4S7 ; opposes Jackson's bank policy, 
495 ; pronounces slavery a positive good, 511 
and note ; last speech, death, character of, 541 
542. 

California, offer to purchase from Mexico, 526 ; 
conquest of, 529 ; ceded to the United States, 
534 ; frames free state constitution, 539 ; ad- 
mitted to the Union, 546, 024. 

Calvert, Benedict, fourth Lord Baltimore, 82. 

Calvert, Cecilius, second Lord Baltimore, receives 
charter for and founds colony of Maryland, 77 ; 
establishes religious liberty, 78 ; appoints Prot- 
estant governor, SO ; death of, 81. 

Calvert, Charles, becomes governor of Maryland, 
then third Lord Baltimore, 81. 

Calvert, Charles, fifth Lord Baltimore, 83. 

Calvert, George, Lord Baltimore, founds colony 
in Newfoundland, 76 ; receives promise of 
charter for Maryland, dies, 77. 

Calvert, Leonard, first governor of Maryland, 79. 

Cambridge, Massachusetts, seat of Harvard Col- 
lege, Washington meets army at, 247 ; flag first 
used at, 254. 

Cameron, Simon, 611 ; in Lincoln's Cabinet, 641. 

Campbell, William, at King's Mountain, 306. 

Campos, General, Spanish commandant in Cuba, 
890. 

Canada, first settlements in, 160 and note ; con- 
quest of, by the English, 192 ; ceded to Eng- 
land, 193 ; insurrection in, 340, 508 ; fisheries 
dispute with, S47 sq. ; reciprocity with, 847. 

Canal, the Erie, 473 ; other canals, 474 ; the 
isthmian, 560, 906 sq. See Panama. 

Canby, Edward R. S., receives the surrender of 
Mobile, 761 ; killed by Captain Jack, 828. 

Canonicus, chief of Narragansetts, sends snake- 
skin of arrows to Plymouth, 101 ; befriend* 
Roger Williams, 115. 

Cape Breton Island, seat offortressof Louisburg, 
167. 

Capital, national, locating of, 845, 346 ; removal 
to, 375 ; captured and burned by British, 43C. 
See Washington, city of. 

Capitol, the, corner stone of, laid, 875 ; burned by 
the British, 430. 

Carleton, Sir Guy, defends Quebec, 249 note ; 
256. 

Carlisle, John G., in Cleveland's Cabinet, 878. 

Caroline Afiair, the, 340, 508. 

Carpetbaggers, the, 799. 

Carpetbag governments, the, 799 sq., 888. 

C'arroU, Charles, in First Congress, 342 ; death 
of, 508. 

Carteret, Sir George, purchases New Jersey, 
sends colonists, 140. 

Carteret, PhiUp, governor of New Jersey, 146; 
arrested by Andros, 148. 



INDEX 



Cartier, Jacques, explores St. Lawrence, -54. 

Carver, John, first governor of Plymouth, 100. 

Cass, Lewis, stationed at Detroit, 431 ; in Jack- 
son's Cabinet, 483 ; nominated for the jirosi- 
dency, 537 ; defeated, 538 ; anecdote of, 562 ; 
563 ; in Buchanan's Cabinet, 586 ; resigns, 
633. 

Caswell, Richard, commands at Moore's Creek, 
255. 

Catharine II, empress of Paissia, refuses troops 
to George III, 251 note. 

Cathay, gee China. 

Catholics, Koman, settle in Maryland, 78; de- 
nied religious liberty in Maryland, 81 •,■* do- 
barred from Georgia, 94; in Canada, 174, 175 ; 
in Pennsylvania, 204 ; growth and mission 
work of, 620. 

Cavaliers, the, in England, defeated by Cromwell, 
69 ; e.xodus of, to Virginia, 70. 

Cedar Creek, battle of, 758. 

Cedar Mountain, battle of, 70T. 

Centennial, the, 833 sq. 

Cerro Gordo, battle of, &il. 

Cervera, Pascual, in Santiago Harbor, 893 ; 
captured in battle of Santiago, 894. 

Chadd's Ford, battle at, 281. 

Chaffee, Adna E., in Cuba, 893 ; military gov- 
ernor of the Philippines, 898 note. 

Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, burned by Mc- 
Causland, 757. 

Champion Hill, battle of, 737. 

Chauiplain, Samuel do, explores St. Lawrence, 
founds Quebec, 160 and note. 

Chancellorsville, battle of, 723, 724. 

Channing, William EUery, defends abolitionists, 
510. 

Chantilly, battle of, 708. 

Charles I, king of England, defeated and be- 
headed, 70 ; grants Massachusetts charter, 104 ; 
hostility to Massachusetts, 107. 

Charles II, king of P2ngland, character of, at- 
titude toward Virginia, 70 ; degrades Berkeley, 
72 ; grants Carolina charter, 8;3 ; cancels Massa- 
chusetts charter, 111; grants Connecticut 
charter, 115; offended at declaration of rights, 
123 ; and other acts, 124 ; gives New York and 
New Jersey to his brother, 138 ; his right to 
New Amsterdam, 139 ; death of, 142 ; grants 
charter to William Penn, 152. 

Charleston, South Carolina, founded, 88 ; attacked 
by French and Spanish iJeet, 90 ; burned and 
rebuilt, 92 ; early importance of, as a seaport, 
93 ; one of the four largest cities, 198 ; is de- 
fended against Clinton, 255; surrenders to 
British, 302 ; landing of Genet at, 352 ; anti- 
aboHtion riots at, 512; meeting of Democratic 
convention at, 609 sq. ; burning of, 769 ; cele- 
bration at, 778. 

Charter granted : to Gilbert, to Raleigh, 59 ; 



to London and Plymouth companies, 61 ; 
second to Virginia, 64; third, 06; to Calvert, 
77 ; to Carolina, 83 ; for Georgia, 94 ; to Council 
for New England, 104; to Connecticut, 115; 
to Willi.ams, 116; to Gorges, 119; second to 
Massachusetts, 126; to Dutch West India 
Company, 132 ; to WilHam Penn, 152. 

Charter oak, 126. 

Chase, Justice, Samuel, impeached, 382. 

Chase, Salmon P., writes appeal of independent 
Democrats, 575 ; leads opposition to Douglas, 
576 ; 577 ; governor of Ohio, 584 ; 61 1 ; in Peace 
Congress, 635 ; in Lincoln's Cabinet, 641 ; 
originates national banking system, 731, 73ii 
aspirant for the presidency, 762 ; presides at 
Johnson's trial, 808 sq. ; chief justice, aspires 
to Democratic nomination for the presidency, 
814, 815. 

Chatham, earl of, ,,6e Pitt. 

Chauncey, Commodore, 418. 

Cheeves, Langdon, 414. 

Cherbourg, France, fight of Alabama and Kear- 
ftarge at, 777. 

Cherry Valley massacre, 294. 

Cherubusco, battle of, 533. 

Chesapeake, the, fired on by the Leopard, 397. 

Chestnut Hill, fighting near, 282. 

Chicago, 478; national conventions at, 610, 764, 
851, 857, 874, 887 ; great fire at, 841 ; world's 
fair at, 881 sq. ; railroad strike in, 884. 

Chickahominy River, the, operations on, 696. 

Chickamauga, battle of, 749. 

Chickasaw Bayou, Sherman's defeat at, 735. 

Chile, dispute with, 873. 

China, European trade with, 2 ; employs Bur- 
lingame, makes treaty, 842 ; Boxer uprising 
in, 903. 

Chinese immigration, origin of, 842; great in- 
crease of, 846 ; laws to check, 846. 

Chippewa, battle of, 431. 

Choate, Rufus, 568. 

Chrystler's Field, battle of, 427. 

Church, Ben, in King Philip's War, 123, 

Cincinnati, named by St. Clair, 379 ; " Queen 
City," 478 ; national conventions at, 823, 835. 

Cincinnati, society of, 326. 

Civil Rights Bill of 1866, 796; of 1875, 803; pro- 
nounced unconstitutional, 804. 

Civil service reform, 855, 856, 862, 885 note. 

Civil War, the, 647 sq. ; causes of, 624 sq. ; first 
shots of, 638, 643; first bloodshed of, 650; 
magnitude of, 780 ; cost of, 781 ; great leaders 
of, 782 ; results of, 782, 783. 

Clarendon colony, founded by Tearaans, 83 ; de- 
clines, 85. 

Clark, George Rogers, devastates Indian country, 
conquers Illinois country, 292 ; 319. 

Clark, William, in expedition to Northwest, 887| 
388. 



INDEX 



Clay, Cassius M., opposes Grant's renomination, 
823. 

Clay, Henry, 418 ; early life of, elected speaker 
of the House, 414 ; connection of, with the 
Missouri Compromise, 460, 461 and note 1 ; 
favors " American system " of protection, 465 ; 
candidate lor presidency in 1S24, 406; duel of, 
■with liaiidolpj, 468 ; becomes secretary of state, 
408 ; promotes Panama Congress, 470 ; arranges 
tariff compromise, 491 ; defeated by Jackson; 
498, 494 ; opposes Jackson's bank policy, 495 ; 
founds the Whig party, 502 ; defeated by Harri- 
son in convention, 500 ; opposes Tyler, 515 ; 
nominated for presidency by Whigs, 518 ; 
campaign blunders of, 520, 521 ; defeat of, by 
Polk, 521 ; refuses to support Taylor, 537 ; 
Introduces compromise measures, 541 ; anec- 
dotes of, 501 ; last illness and death of, 500 ; 
character of, compared with Webster, 567 ; 
compared with Blaine, 860. 

Clayborne, William, settles on Kent Island, re- 
sists the Maryland people, 79. 

Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, 560, 906, 907 ; superseded 
by Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, 561, 909. 

Clayton, John M., 560. 

Cleveland, Grover, 515 ; nominated for President, 
857 ; early life of, 858 ; election of, 860 ; vetoes 
Dependent Pension bill, 863 ; issues tariff 
message, 866 ; defeated by Harrison, 867 ; re- 
nominated, 874 ; reelected, 875 ; Cooper Union 
letter of, 875 ; second inauguration of, with- 
draws Hawaiian Treaty, 878, 879 ; urges repeal 
of Sherman law, 880 ; sends troops to quell 
Chicago riot, 884 ; sends Venezuelan message 
to Congress, 884, 885 ; becomes estranged from 
his party, want of tact of, 886 ; warns Spain, 890. 

Cleveland, Ohio, Fremont nominated at, 762. 

Clinton, De Witt, defeated for the presidency, 
453 ; projector of Erie Canal, 473. 

Clinton, George, opposes the Constitution, 385 ; 
elected Vice President, 394 ; 408, 409. 

Clinton, Sir Henry, arrives in Boston, 245 ; is 
sent South, 254; returns, 250; moves up the 
Hudson, 274 ; supersedes Howe, 285 ; leaves 
Philadelphia, 285 ; arrives at Savannah, 302 ; 
captures Charleston, 308 ; returns to New 
York, 304 ; estimate of, 815, 316. 

Cobb, Howell, elected Speaker of the House, 540 ; 
in Buchanan's Cabinet, 587. 

Cochrane, Admiral, blockades Baltimore, 437 ; 
commands fleet at New Orleans, 489. 

Cockburn, Admiral, blockades American coast, 
425 ; in Washington campaign, 485. 

Cockburn, Sir Alexander, on Geneva tribunal, 
821. 

Coddington, William, settles in Rhode Island, 
founds Newport, 115; obtains a charter, 110. 

Coffee, John, aids Jackson against the Creeks, 
489 ; at New Orleans, 4iO. 



Coffin, Levi, president Underground Railroad, 
554, 555. 

Colden, lieutenant governor of New York, 227. 

Cold Harbor, battle of, 755. 

Colfax, Schuyler, nominated for vice presidency, 
813. 

Collamer, Jacob, 059. 

Colombia, issues grant to French company, 907 ; 
rejects Hay-Herran Canal Treaty, 910. 

Colorado, organized as a territory, 037. 

Columbia, South Carolina, burning of, 769. 

Columbian Exposition, at Chicago, 881 sq. 

Columbia River, explored by Captain Grey, by 
L^vis and Clark, 887. 

Columbus, Christopher, early hfe, education of, 
voyages on the Mediterranean, 7 ; removes to 
Lisbon, personal appearance of, conceives idea 
of sailing westward to find Indies, 8 ; denied 
aid in Portugal, goes to Spain, 9 ; obtains hear- 
ing at Spanish court, 10 ; begins great voyage, 
11 ; discovers land, 15 ; names natives Indians, 
17; embarks for Spain, 18; reception of, in 
Spain, 19 ; makes second voyage, 20 ; sent to 
Spain in irons, 21; dies at Valladolid, 22; im- 
portance of work of, 23 ; fatalities in life of, 25 ; 
burial places of, 22 note. 

Committees of Correspondence, 234. 

"Common Sense," written by Paine, 252. 

Commonwealth, of England, relations to Vir- 
ginia, 69. 

Compromises : of the Constitution, 880, 831 ; the 
Missouri, 456 sq. ; on the tariff, 491 ; of 1850, 
or Omnibus Bill, 541, passing of, 546, character 
of, 547 ; 567. 

" Concessions," the, granted for New Jersey by 
C!arteret, 146. 

Concord, flght with British at, 2.39. 

Confederacy, the Southern, formed, adopts Con- 
stitution, 630 ; moves seat to Richmond, 645, 
704 ; notice of, 704-706. 

Confederate Congress, authorizes raising troops, 
670 ; doings of, 705, 706 ; methods of raising 
money, 706. 

Confederate Constitution, adopted, compared 
with the Federal Constitution, 630 ; provisions 
of, 630, 031. 

Confederation, Articles of, framed and adopted, 
318; defects in, 820, 321. 

Confederation, New England, formed, object of, 
120 ; provisions of, 121. 

Confederation, the national, formed, 313 sq. ; 
merges into national Union, 838. 

Confiscation acts, 061, 713. 

Conger, E. H., minister to China, 908. 

Congregational Church, state church in New 
England, 206; growth and mission work of, 
620. 

Congress, the, captured by the Merrimac, an4 
sunk, 674. 



INDEX 



W 



Congfress : first colonial, 144 ; Stamp Act, 227 ; 
First Continental, 235; provincial, in Massachu- 
setts, 237 ; Second Continental, 243 ; doings of, 
243, 244 ; assuiues sovereign powers, 252 ; de- 
generation of, 318. 

Congress, of Confederation, want of power of, 
320, 323 ; attempts to tax the states, 821, 822 ; 
flees before soldiers, 322 ; passes ordinance of 
1787, 324 ; approves Constitutional Convention, 
825 ; sends Constitution to the states, 384 ; 
ceases to exist, 838. 

Congress, the national, ratifies Ordinance of 
17S7, 324; first session of, 839; composition 
and responsibility of, 842 ; passes tariff and 
creates Cabinet, 343 ; sends fleet to Mediterra- 
nean, 854 ; prepares for war with France, 365 ; 
lays embargo, 400 ; declares war, 414. See 
various acts. 

Conkhng, Roscoe, quarrel of, with Blaine, 849 sq. ; 
attempts to nominate Grant for third term, 
851 ; resigns from the Senate, 853 ; refuses to 
support Blaine, S60. 

Connecticut, colony of, founded by Thomas 
Hooker, 112; produces first written constitu- 
tion, government of, 118 ; secures charter, 115 ; 
joins in confederation, 120 ; saves charter from 
Andros, 125 ; claims and settles Wyoming 
Valley, 292, 293. 

Connecticut, state of, claims western lands, 319 ; 
claims Wyoming Vallev, quarrels with Penn- 
sylvania, 321 ; refuses militia for War of 1812, 
416; emancipates slaves, 458. 

Constantinople, trade of, with East, 1 ; captured 
by Turks. 2. 

Constitution, the, defeats the Guerriere, 420, 
421 ; captures the Java, 422. 

Constitution, the Federal, framed at Philadel- 
phia, 827 sq. ; compromises of, 830, 881 ; 
sources of, 888 ; points of difference with 
Articles of Confederation, 834 ; sent to the 
states, 335; amendments to, 340 : defects in, 
840 ; first test of, 347 ; two constructions of, 
848. See Amendments. 

Constitutional Convention, meets in Philadelphia, 
327 ; doings of, debates in, composition of, 
827 sq. 

Constitutional Union party, 612. 

Continental Congress, First, 235 ; character and 
acts of, 236 ; Second, 243 ; assumes sovereign 
power, 252 ; declares independence, 253 ; inter- 
feres with the army, 259 ; makes Washington 
dictator, 261 ; flees to Baltimore, 262 ; degen- 
eracy of, 2S3. 

Continental money, 314. 

Contreras, battle of, 532. 

Conway Cabal, 284. 

Conway, Thomas, intrigues against Washington, 
284. 

Gonyngham, Gustavas, sea captain, 295. 



Cooper, James Fenimore, 476, 619. 

Cooper, Peter, nominated for President, 887. 

Copley, John S., artist, 378. 

Corbiii, A. R., corners gold market, 830. 

Corinth, battle of, 719. 

Corubury, Lord, governor of New York, 145. 

Cornstalk, Indian chief, 290. 

Cornwallis, Lord Charles, joins Clinton in the 
South, 255 ; at Long Island, 257 ; at Trenton, 
264 ; at Brandy wine, 281 ; at Monmouth, 2S0 ; 
in command at the South, 804 ; at Guilford 
Courthouse, retreats to coast, 308 ; surrenders 
at Yorktown, 311 ; estimate of, 315. 

Coronado, e.xplores southwest, 54. 

Cortelyou, George B., in Roosevelt's Cabinet, 
905. 

Cortereal, explorations of, 26. 

Cotton gin, 45S. 

Cotton, great staple of the South, Confederate 
loans of, 706 ; production and exports of, 883 
and note. 

Cotton, John, pastor at Boston, rivalry with 
Hooker, 112. 

Council for New England, secures charter, 104. 

Council, the, in colonial government, 211, 212. 

Court, Federal Supreme, unique powers of, 834; 
first organized, 344; important decisions of: 
Dred Scott case, 595 sq. ; the Milligan case, 
730 note 1 ; Texas vs. White, 786 note, 817 ; 
Williams •bs. Mississippi, S04 ; Legal Tender, 
817 ; Slaughter House, 818 ; Northern Securi- 
ties case, 869 note ; the insular decisions, 900 
note. 

Court, General, of Massachusetts, 107 ; banishes 
Roger Williams, 108; and Anne Hutchinson, 
109 ; issues declaration of rights, 123 ; estab- 
lishes schools, 207. 

Courts, the colonial, 213. 

Cox, Jacob D., in Grant's Cabinet, 816. 

Orandall, Prudence, imprisoned for teaching 
colored children, 510. 

CranflU, J. B., nominated for Vice President, 874. 

Craven, Charles, governor of South Carolina, 91. 

Crawford Act, 406. 

Crawford, William H., in Monroe's Cabinet, 354; 
candidate for the presidency, 466. 

Credit Mobilier, 818, 827. 

Creek Indians, 438; defeated by Jackson, 480; 
removed from their lands, 471, 472. 

Creole Affair, the, 522. 

Cresswell, J. A. J., in Grant's Cabinet, 816. 

Crittenden, George B., 678. 

Crittenden, John J., offers " Crittenden Com- 
promise," 635 ; offers resolution in Congress, 
660. 

Crittenden, Thomas, at Mill Spring, 678. 

Crittenden Compromise, 635, 636. 

Crockett, Davy, killed at the Alamo, 517. 

Croghan, George, defends Fort Stephenson, 429. 



VIU 



INDEX 



Cromwell, Oliver, triumphs over tlie Ciivaliers, 
69 ; decides against Puritans In Maryland, 81. 

Crosby, governor of New York, enters suit 
against Peter Zenger, li5. 

Crown Point, founded by the French, 168 ; ex- 
pedition against, 183 ; captured by Seth 
Warner, 241. 

Crusades, the, etfect of, on Europe, 2. 

Cuba, discovered by Columbus, 17 ; invaded by 
Lopez, 562; annexation of, desired, 572; 
Spanish misrule in, rises against Spain, 890 ; 
American army in, 893 ; wrested from Spain, 
894 ; American occupation of, 900, 901 ; Consti- 
tutional convention in, 901 ; first general elec- 
tion in, 902 ; becomes a republic, 902 ; reci- 
procity treaty with, 906. 

Culpepper, John, leads rebellion In North Caro- 
lina, 85. 

Culpepper. Lord, governor of Virginia, 73. 

Cumbeiiand, the, sunic by the Jlerrimac, 674. 

Cumberland Koad, the, 451, 465. 

Curtin, Andrew, governor of Pennsylvania, 613 ; 
726. 

Curtis, Benjamin E., opinion of. In Dred Scott 
case, 596; 726; at Johnson's trial, 808. 

Curtis, Samuel R., Union commander at Pea 
Pvidge, 687. 

Cushing, Caleb, in Pierce's Cabinet, 571 ; 572 
note 1. 

Custer, George A., killed in Indian war, 828. 

Czar of Kussia, offers mediation In War of 1812, 
434 ; proposes The Hague Tribunal, 903, 904. 

Dade, Major, ambushed by Indians, 497. 

DalvOta, organized as a territory, 637. 

Dale, Richard, punishes Tiipoli, 382. 

Dale, Sir Thomas, governor of Virginia, 65. 

Dallas, Alexander J., secretary of the treasury, 
recommends a bank bill, 445; secures second 
bank charter, 452. 

Dallas, George M., Vice President, 519, 521. 

Dana, Charles A., opposes Grant's renomlnation, 
822. 

Dare, Virginia, first English child born in Amer- 
ica, 59. 

Davenport, John, founds New Haven, 113, 114. 

Davis, David, opposes Grant's renomlnation, 822 ; 
elected to the Senate, 839. 

Davis, Henry Winter, issues paper against Lin- 
coln, 789. 

Davis, Jefferson, in Pierce's Cabinet, 571 ; con- 
sults concerning Kansas-Nebraska bill, 575 ; 
608; notice of, elected President of the Confed- 
eracy, 631, 705 ; 636 ; withdraws from the Sen- 
ate, 637; sends agents to Washington, 641; 
calls for troops and calls Congress, 653 ; mili- 
tary strategy of, 696 ; at battle of Frazier's 
Farm, 699 ; dominates Confedenate Congress, 
705 ; refuses overtures of peace, 763 ; flees from 



Richmond, 771 ; compared with Lincoln, 788; 
flight, capture, imprisonment, release of, 784. 

Day, WiUiam R,, aids in framing treaty with 
Spain, 895. 

Dayton, Jonathan, in Burr's conspiracy, 392. 

Dayton, William L., nominated for Vice Presl 
dent, 584. 

Deane, Silas, sent to Paris, 276. 

Dearborn, Fort, 415 ; destroyed by Indians, 418. 

Dearborn, Henry, 415 ; fails to aid Hull, 417, 418; 
426; is reheved of command, 427. 

Debt, the public, in 1790, 844 ; in 1S8V, 504 ; in 
1861, 781 ; in 1805, 781. 

Decatur, Stephen, in command of the United 
States, 422. 

Declaration of Independence, events leading to 
251 ; passed, 253 ; reception of, by the people, 
254. 

Declaration of rights, issued by Massachusetts, 
123 ; Doyle's opinion of, 124. 

Declaratory act, 229. 

Deerfleld, attacked by Indians, 122, 165. 

Delaware, colony of, first settled by the Dutch, 
colony destroyed by Indians, 149 ; included in 
English conquest of New Netherlands, is sold 
to William Penn, is annexed to Pennsylvania, 
151, 154, 156. 

Delaware Indians, make treaty with Penn, 155. 

Delaware, Lord, governor of Virginia, rescues 
colony, 65. 

Delaware, state of, first to ratify the Constitution, 
335 ; 882. 

De Long, George W., explorer of Arctic seas, 877. 

Demarcation, line of, 20. 

Democracy, evolution of, in Virginia, 66 ; in Mary- 
land, 78 ; complete triumph of, 479 etpasaim. 

Democratic party, founded by Jefferson, 348 sq. ; 
gains control of the government, 372; impor- 
tance of its victor)', 376 ; increase under Jeffer- 
son, 382, 388 ; reasons for surviving the Whig 
party, 570; spUt at Charleston, 609; gains of, 
in 1862, 715 ; opposes administration, 725 sq. ; 
pronounces the war a failure, 764 ; opposes 
Republican reconstruction, 814 ; joins the Lib- 
eral Republicans, 825; regains supremacy, 860 

Demonetization of silver, by the United States, 
881 ; by Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Den 
mark, 885. 

De Soto, see Soto. 

Detroit, founded by the French, 168; besieged 
by Pontine, 195; 415. 

Dewey, George, at battle of Manila, 892 ; made 
an admiral, 903. 

Dexter, Samuel, is appointed secretary of war, 
871. 

Diaz, B.irtholomew, great voyage of, 4. 

Dickinson, .John, writes "Letters of a Farmer," 
230; in First Continental Congress, 235; op- 
poses independence, 252, 253 ; reports Articlei 



INDEX 



a 



of Confederation, 818; in Constitutional Con- 
vention, 328. 

Dieskau, French commander, defeated and slain, 
183, 184. 

Dingley, Nelson, frames Dingley Tariflf, 889. 

Dingley Tariff, the, 889. 

Dinwiddle, Robert, governor of Virginia, sends 
Washington on mission, 172, 173 ; attempts to 
awaken the colonists to action, 176 ; receives 
General Braddock, 178; proposes a stamp tax 
for America, 225. 

Dissenters, in North Carolina, 86 ; excluded from 
assembly in South Carolina, appeal to House 
ofLord^gO. 

DLx, John A., in Buchanan's Cabinet, 634. 

Dixon, Senator, amends Kansas-Nebraska bill, 
571. 

Dole, Sanford B., president of Hawaii, 878. 

Donelson, Fort, invested by Union army, 680 ; 
surrendered, 682. 

Dongan, Thomas, governor of New York, 142, 
163. 

Donop, Count, at Bordentown, 262. 

Dorr, Thomas W., leads Dorr rebellion in Rhode 
Island, 522. 

Douglas, Stephen A., 563 ; introduces Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, 573 ; motives for doing so, 573, 
575 ; counsel of, with Pierce and Davis, 575 ; 
great speech of, 576 ; great blunder of, 577 ; 
opposes Lecompton constitution, 594, 595 ; de- 
fends Dred Scott decision, 597 ; early Ufe and 
characteristics of, 599 ; compared with Lincoln, 
601 ; power of, as an orator, 602 ; utters " Free- 
port doctrine," wins senatorship, 603 ; nomi- 
nated for presidency, 610 ; defeated, 613, 614 ; 
great influence of, decides for the Union, 643 ; 
death of, 644 ; at Columbus, 646. 

Dover, New Hampshire, destroyed by Indians, 
163. 

Dow, Neal, Prohibition candidate for President, 
852. 

Downie, George, killed on Lake Champlain, 434. 

Draft, the, 727 ; exemptions from, 727 note 2 ; 
opposed la New York, 728. 

Drake, Francis, great voyage of, attacks Spain, 
57 ; rescues Raleigh's colony, 59. 

Drayton, Percival, in fleet against Port Royal, 
672. 

Drayton, T. F., in command at Port Royal, 
672. 

Dred Scott decision, 595 sq., 625. 

Drummond, Gordon, in command of British at 
Lundy's Lane, 432 ; attacks Fort Erie, 433. 

Drummond, William, governor of North Carolina, 
85 ; executed by Berkeley, 72. 

Dudley, Joseph, governor of Massachusetts, 
166. 

Dudley, Thomas, deputy governor of Massa- 
chusetts, 106 ; governor, 103. 



Duncan, Johnson K., commands forts Jackson 
and St. Philips, 689. 

Dunkards, in Pennsylvania, 204. 

Dunmore, governor of Virginia, flees from the 
people, 240; burns Norfolk, 254. 

Dupont, S. F., makes expedition to Port Royal, 
672. 

Duquesne, Fort, built by the French, 179 ; Eng- 
Ush defeat near, 180 ; captured by the English, 
becomes Pittsburg, 188. 

Duquesne, governor of Canada, 181. 

Dustin, Hannah, captured by Indians, 164 note. 

Dutch, the, settle in Maryland, 81 ; on Long 
Island, at Manhattan, at Albany, on the Dela- 
ware, etc., 133; found New Amsterdam, 133 
sg. ; demand share in government, 136 ; trade 
with the English colonies, 138 ; related to the 
English, 142 ; buUd Fort Casimir on the Dela- 
ware, conquer New Sweden, 137, 151 ; life of, 
in New York, 203, 204. 

Dutch navigators, achievements of, 131. 

D\vight, Timothy, author, 378. 

Eads, James B., introduces the jetty system, 876. 

Early, Jubal A., 724; at Gettysburg, 744; 
threatens Washington, 756 ; defeated at Ope- 
quan, 757 ; at Cedar Creek, 758. 

East India Company, 61 ; sends out Henry Hud- 
son, 131. 

Eaton, John H., in Jackson's Cabinet, 481 ; min- 
ister to Spain, 483 note 2. 

Eaton Scandal, the, 482. 

Eaton, Theophilus, founds New Haven, 113 ; 
governor for many years, 114 ; aids in forming 
confederation, 120. 

Eden, Charles, governor of North Carolina, 87. 

Edmunds, George F., in the Senate, 816. 

Edmunds law, against polj'gamy, 856. 

Education among the Puritans, 127 ; in New 
England, New York, New Jersey, and Penn- 
sylvania, 207 ; before the Civil War, 619. 

Edward, Fort, Schuyler's army at, 270. 

Edward VII, king of England, coronation of, 
617 ; visits the United States as Prince of 
Wales, 661. 

Edwards, Jonathan, leads revival, 129; writes 
" Freedom of the Will," 207. 

El Caney, captured by the Americans, 893. , 

Electoral colleges, created by constitution, 832 ; 
choose first President, 338. 

Electoral Commission, created by Congress, 889 ; 
decides for Hayes, 840. 

Electoral Count bill, 864. 

Eliot, John, apostle to the Indians, 121. 

Elizabeth, queen of England, 56 ; grants Gilbert 
a charter, 59 ; names Virginia, 59 ; her postu- 
late concerning ownership of territory, 189. 

Elkton, Maryland, Howe lands near, 280. 

Ellsworth, £. £., killed at Alexandria, 664 note. 



INDEX 



Ellsworth, Oliver, in First Congress, 842 ; chief 
justice of Supreme Court, 344. 

Emancii)ation of slaves, in the Northern states, 
458 ; in Mexico, 496 ; in England, 457, 69T ; in 
the Bistrict of Columbia, 713. 

Emancipation Proclamation, issued by Lincoln, 
714 ; grounds and right to issue it, 715. 

Embargo, on American shipping, 400 sq. ; 444. 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 476; defends Abolition- 
ists, 476, 619, 620. 

Emigrant Aid Company, 587. 

Endicott, John, leads settlement in Massachu- 
setts, 104; wars against the Pequots, 114. 

England, Church of, established in South Caro- 
lina, 90 ; in Georgia, 96 ; state church in the 
Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland, 206. See 
Episcopalians. 

England, Reformation in, becomes a first-class 
power, 56 ; ground for claiming North America, 
25, 57 ; great progress of, 57 ; defeats Spanish 
Armada, 58 ; civil war in, 69 ; seizes New 
Netherland, 189; war of, with Holland, 140; 
with France, 162, 165, 168, 171 ; captures Cuba 
and Phihppine Islands, 193 ; colonial policj' of, 
216 sq. ; misunderstands America, 221 ; de- 
clares war on France, 279 ; oppresses America, 
355; revives Rule of 1756, 355 ; 395 ; disadvan- 
tage of, in War of 1812, 416; losses of, in the 
war, 447 ; opens West India trade, 496 ; our 
cordial relations with, 661 ; sympathy of, with 
the South, 662 ; enraged over Trent Affair, 666 ; 
sends fleet to Mexico, 778 ; settles Alabama 
claims, 821 ; agrees to cooperate in seal fisheries, 
873 ; boundary dispute of, with Venezuela, 
884, 885. 

English, the, motives of, for colony building, 57, 
61 note 2, 175 ; relation of, to the Dutch, 142, 

. 143 ; claims of, in North America, 171 sq. ; 
characteristics of, compared with the French, 
174, 175 ; attitude of, toward the Indians, 177, 
193 ; in New England and the South, 198. 

English, W. H., 595 ; nominated for Vice Presi- 
dent, 852. 

English bill, the, 595. 

Enterpi'ise, the, captures the Boxer, 424. 

Episcopalians, in South Carolina, 90 ; in Georgia, 
96 ; in Pennsylvania, 204 ; in the Carolinas, 
Maryland, and Virginia, 206 ; growth and mis- 
sion work of, 620. 

Ericson, Leif, discovers America, 26. 

Ericsson, John, builder of the Monitor, 673. 

Erie, Fort, attacked by British, 433. 

Erskine, British minister, 897 ; exceeds instruc- 
tions, is recalled, 409. 

Essex, the, defeats the Alert, 421 ; destroyed at 
Valparaiso, 425. 

Estaing, Count de, 297 ; arrives at Savannah, 802. 

Ether, first used as an anaisthetic, 617. 

Eustls, William, secretary of war, 418. 



Eutaw Springs, battle of, 308 note 2. 

Evans, Oliver, inventor of steam engine, 378. 

Evarts, William M., at Johnson's trial, 809 ; Id 

Hayes's Cabinet, 844. 
Everett, Edward, nominated for Vice President, 

612. 
Ewell, Richard S., at Gettysburg, 740 sq. ; at the 

Wilderness, 753. 
Ewing, Thomas, chosen secretary of war, 807; 

opposes Grant's renomination, 822. 

Fair Oaks, or Seven Pines, battle of, 696. 

Fallen Timbers, battle of, 380. 

Faueuil Hall, Cradle of Liberty, 227. 

Farmers' Alliance, the, 847. 

Farragut, David G., 425 ; captures New Orleans, 
6SS sq. ; ascends the Mississippi, 783 ; victory 
of, in Mobile Bay, 760, 761. 

"Federalist," the, written by Hamilton, Madi- 
son, and Jay, 835. 

Federahst or Federal party, the, favors the Con- 
stitution, 885 ; becomes liberal construction 
party, 848 ; reaches its acme of power, 367 ; 
enacts obnoxious laws, 868 ; torn by factions, 
871 ; fall of, 372 ; estimate of, 373, 874 ; opposes 
War of 1812, 416. 

Fenwick, John, purchases part of New Jersey, 
147. 

Ferdinand and Isabella, at war with the Moors, 
9 ; receive Columbus after voyage, 21. 

Ferdinand, king of Spain, ignores Columbus, 21. 

Ferguson, Major, commands British at King's 
Mountain, 806 ; is killed, 807. 

Fessenden, William P., in Peace Congress, 635; 
659 ; at Johnson's trial, 810 ; in the Senate, 817. 

Field, Cyrus W., lays Atlantic cable, 616. 

Field, James G., nominated for Vice President, 
874. 

Filibusters, Nicaragua, 615. 

Filipinos, character of, 896 ; rebel against Ameri- 
can rule, 897 ; pacification of, 898 ; partial 
granting of self-government to, 898, 899. 

Fillmore, Millard, nominated for vice presidency, 
537 ; becomes President, career of, 546 ; signi 
Fugitive Slave Law, 548 ; 565 ; 571. 

Financial legislation, 846 ; during War of 1812, 
443 sq. ; during Civil War, 660, 731, 732, 785; 
829 sq., 869, 879, 880; 889 note 2. 

Fire Lands, 379. 

Fish, Hamilton, In Grant's Cabinet, 816. 

Fisher, Fort, captured; 758. 

Fisheries dispute, the, history of, 847 ; settled by 
Joint High Commission, 848 ; reopened, 865. 

Fisher's Hill, battle at, 757. 

Fisk, James, corners gold market, 830. 

Fitch, John, an inventor of the steamboat, 878. 

Flag, American, first used at Cambridge, 254. 

Fletcher, governor of New York, controls Penn- 
sylvania, 157 and note. 



INDEX 



Florida, explored by De Leon, by Narvaez, by De 
Soto, 42 ; ceded by Spain to England, 193 ; pur- 
chased by the United States, 456 ; boundary 
and government of, 476 ; secedes, 029 ; disputed 
election in, 888. 

Florida, West, Jetferson seeks to purchase, 384. 

Floyd, John B., commands at Fort Donelson, 
680 ; escapes to Nashville, 682. 

Foote, Andrew II., commands fleet at Donelson, 
080, 681 ; at Island No. 10, 087. 

Foote, Henry 8., quarrel of, with Benton In 
Senate, 545. 

Foraker, J. B., introduces Porto Rican bill in the 
Senate, 899. 

Forbes, General John, commands expedition 
against Duquesne, 188; anecdote of, 195. 

Force bill, of iaS3, 492; of 1871-1872, 803; ren- 
dered null by Supreme Court, 804; repealed, 
804 note 1 ; of 1890, defeated, 808. 

Forrest, Nathan, cavalry leader, 735. 

Foster, Augustus John, minister from England, 
412. 

Fox, George, founds the Quaker sect, conceives 
the idea of founding a Quaker colony, 151. 

France, development of, 56; at war with England, 
162, 165, 168; extravagant claims of, in North 
America, 168, 171 ; first to aid America in 
Revolution, 275 sq. ; makes treaty with Amer- 
ica, 277 ; revolution in, 852 ; is offended at Jay 
Treaty, 360 ; "quasi" war with, 864 «g. ,• opens 
colonial trade to neutrals, 355, 395 ; pays spolia- 
tion claims, 496 ; sends fleet to Me.xico, 778 ; 
conquers Mexico and puts Maximilian on the 
throne, withdraws army, 779. 

Franklin, battle of, 707. 

Franklin, Benjamin, arrives In Pennsylvania, 159 ; 
plans union at Albany Congress, 176 ; in Lon- 
don, 225 ; arraigned for Hutchinson letters, 241, 
member of Second Continental Congress, 243 ; 
meets Howe on Staten Island, 258 ; reception of, 
in Paris, 276 : signs Treaty of Paris, 312 ; in 
Constitutional Convention, 82T; prophetic 
words of, 412. 

Franklin, William B., at Frazler's Farm, 699; at 
Fredericksburg, 721 ; relieved of command, 
722. 

Fraser, Simon, 269 ; dies at Saratoga, 274. 

Frazier's Farm, battle of, 699. 

Frederick the Great, in Seven Tears' War, 178 ; 
gives opinion of Washington, 265, 278. 

Fredericksburg, battle of, 721, 722. 

Freedman's Bureau Act, 795, 796. 

Freeport doctrine, 603. 

Free silver, advocated, 875; becomes issue in 
campaign, 885 sq. ; espoused by the Democrats, 
887. 

Free Soil party, 588. 

Frelinghuysen, Frederick T., on isthmian canal, 
907. 



Frelinghuysen, Theodore, candidate for vice 
presidency, 518. 

Fremont, John C, conquers California, 529, 
marriage with Jessie Benton, 530; is court- 
martialed, 530 note ; nominated for the presi- 
dency, 584 ; character of, defeat, 585 ; in com- 
mand in Missouri, 609 ; cliarges against, 
removal of, 677 ; refuses to serve under Pope, 
706 note 2 ; Issues confiscation order, 677, 713 ; 
nominated for I'resident, 702 ; withdraws, 764. 

French, the, colonize Acadia and St. Lawrence 
Valley, 56, 160 ; attempt to colonize lower 
Mississippi Valley, 162; claims of, in North 
America, 168, 171,172; characteristics of, com- 
pared with the English, 174, 175 ; attitude of, 
towards the Indians, 175, 177 ; rise against their 
government, 351, 852. 

French explorers, 160 sq. 

Freneau, Philip, poet, 378. 

Fries Rebellion, 368 note. 

Froliisher, Martin, 57, 58. 

Frolic, the, defeated by the Wasp, 422. 

Frontenac, governor of Canada, instigates Indian 
massacres, 163, 177. 

Frontenac, Fort, captured by the English, 187. 

Frye, W. P., elected president of the Senate, 903. 

Fugitive Slave law, propo.sed, 541 ; enacted, 546 ; 
in operation, 548 sq. ; indorsed by Democratic 
and Whig conventions, 564 ; 624. 

Fulton, Robert, experience of with steam navi- 
gation, 407. 

Gadsden, Christopher, In Stamp Act Congress, 
227. 

Gadsden purchase, 534 note. 

Gag rule, adopted by Congress, 512 ; repealed, 
512. 

Gage, Thomas, governor of Massachusetts and 
commander of British army, 237 ; Bends 
troops to Lexington, 238; sends Howe to 
storm Bunker Hill, 246 ; incompetency of, 315. 

Gaines, Edmund P., 453, 497. 

Gaines Mills, battle of, 698. 

Gallatin, Albert, in whiskey Insurrection, 347 
note 2 , becomes follower of Jefferson, 351 ; 
becomes secretary of the treasury, notice of, 
380, 381, 409. 

Gama, Vasco da, 26. 

Garfleld, James A., 678; nominated for Prea- 
Ident, 851 ; is elected, 852 ; offends Conkling, 
852 ; shot by an assassin, 853 ; dies, 854. 

Gariand, A. H., in Cleveland's Cabinet, 862. 

Garrison. William Lloyd, meets Lundy, estab- 
lishes The Liberator, 509. 

Gasjiee, the, burning of, 231. 

Gates, Horatio, intrigues \vlth Congress, 263; 
succeeds Schuyler, 272 ; refuses aid to Arnold, 
278; in command at the South, 304; defeated 
at Camden, 305. 



INDEX 



Geary, John W., governor of Kansas, 591 ; re- 
signs, 592. 

Geary law, the, 846. 

Genet, Edmond Charles, "Citizen," French 
minister to America, 352 ; cold reception 
of, by Washington, 353 ; 354; later career of, 
374. 

Geneva award, the, 821. 

Genoa, rival of Venice in eastern trade, 2 ; birth- 
place of Columbus, 7. 

George, Fort, 418. 

George II, king of England, grants land to 
Ohio company, 172. 

George III, king of England, gains control of 
the realm, retains tea tax, 231; character of, 
chooses North premier, 232 ; resolves to hum- 
ble the colonies, 234 ; reception of petition by, 
hires Hessians, 251. 

Georgia, colony of, founded by Oglethorpe, first 
settlements of, 94 ; receives aid from Parlia- 
ment, slow growth, dissatisfaction of the set- 
tlers, 95; becomes a royal colony, products, 
growth, population, government, 96 ; overrun 
by British, 203. 

Georgia, state of, cedes western land, 324 note 1 ; 
objects to closing slave trade, 331 ; ratifies the 
Constitution, 335; sells Yazoo lands, 407; in- 
sists on removal of the Creeks, 471 ; secedes, 
630 ; under carpetbag rule, 800. 

Germain, Lord George, 268 ; costly blunder of, 
269 ; instigates Indian massacres, 290 ; 302. 

Germans, Pennsylvania, see Pennsylvania 
Germans. 

Germans, settle in "Virginia, 73 ; in Maryland, 
81 ; in North Carolina, 86, 87 ; in Pennsylvania, 
158 ; 198. 

Germantown, battle of, 282. 

Germany, attitude of, during Civil War, 779; 
Emperor of, decides boundary dispute, 821 ; 
agrees to divide Samoa, 872. 

Gerry, Elbridge, in Constitutional Convention, 
328 ; on mission to France, 366. 

Gettysburg, battle of, 739 sq. 

Ghent, Treaty of, 440, 446. 

Gibbs, General, with Pakenham at New Orleans, 
439 ; death of, 442. 

Giddings, Joshua R., on Creole affair, 522. 

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 57; obtains charter from 
Elizabeth, attempts to colonize Newfoundland, 
dies, 59. 

Giles, William B., 409. 

Gist, Christopher, guide to Washington, 178. 

Gladstone, WUliam E., quoted, 325, 662 and 
note 2. 

Glover rescue, the, 552. 

Golfe, the regicide, saves Hadley, 122. 

Gold, discovery of, in California, 535 ; aids in 
settling the slavery question, 539 ; in Alaska, 
812 ; discovery of, iu Colorado, 818. 



Goldsborough, L. M., in Burnside expedition to 

Roanoke, 671. 

Gordon, John B., at Fort Stedman, 770. 

Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, heads Council for New 
England, 104 ; 108 ; receives grant for New 
Hampshire, 117 ; receives charter for Maine, 
119. 

Gorman, Arthur P., prevents passing of Fores 
biU, 868 ; changes Wilson Tariflf, 881. 

Gorsuch, Dr., shot by fugitive slaves, 550. 

Gould, Jay, corners gold market, 830. 

Government, colonial, 210 sq. 

Governor, the colonial, 211, 212. 

Grand Gulf, occupied by Grant, 736. 

Grand Model, or Fundamental Constitutions, 
drawn up for Carohna, character of, 84; failure 
of plan, 85; attempt to introduce it in South 
Carolina, 89. 

Grand Pre, Acadia, scene of dispersion of the 
Acadians, 182. 

Granger, Gordon, at Mobile Bay, 760, 761. 

Grangers, the, 846. 

Grant, Ulysses Simpson, at Cairo, at Belmont, 
seizes Paducah, 679 ; captures forts Henry and 
Hieman, invests Donelson, 680 ; forces its sur- 
render, 682 ; notice of, 683 ; centers army at 
Pittsburg Landing, 683 ; in command at Shiloh, 
684 sq. ; attempts flanking Vicksburg, 734 ; 
runs the batteries, 736 ; at Raymond, Champion, 
Jackson, Big Black River, 737 ; forces surrender 
of Vicksburg, 739 ; at Chattanooga, 750 ; made 
lieutenant general, goes east, personal appear- 
ance of, 752 ; enters the Wilderness, 753 ; de- 
feated at Cold Harbor, crosses the James, 755 ; 
fails in campaign, 756 ; sends Sheridan to 
Shenandoah Valley, 757 ; at Petersburg, 768 ; 
receives Lee's surrender at Appomattox, 772 ; 
estimate of, as a soldier, 781, 782 ; as a states- 
man, 827 ; secretary of war, 806 ; nominated 
for the presidency, 813 ; elected, 815 ; urges 
annexation of San Domingo, 818 ; on Alabama 
claims, 820 ; opposition to renomination of, 822 
sq. ; urges resumption, 833 ; retirement of, 
813 ; tour of, 850 ; urged for third term, 850, 
851 ; last days and death of, 862. 

Grasse, Count de, arrives in Chesapeake, 309, 
310; defeats British fleet, 310; defeated by 
Rodney, 314. 

Gray, Elisha, inventor of the telephone, 876. 

Greeley, Horace, founds The Log Cabin, 507 ; 
537, 587; opposes coercing the South, 638; 
writes the Prayer of Twenty Millions, 714; op- 
poses Grant's renomination, 822 ; nominated 
for President by the Liberals, early life and 
career of, 824, 825 ; defeat and death of, 826. 

Greely, Adolphus W., explorer of Arctic seas, 
878. 

Greenback party, 837, 852; becomes National 
party, 857. 



INDEX 



xill 



Greene, Nathanael, joins Continental army, 240; 
notice of, 24T ; loses Fort Washington, 259 ; at 
Trenton, 263 ; at Germantown, 282 ; succeeds 
Gates at the South, 807 ; at Guilford Court- 
house, 308 ; estimate of, 316. 

Green Mountain Boys, capture Ticonderoga, 240 ; 
at Bennington, 272. 

Grenville, George, English premier, decides to 
tax the colonies, 222 ; proposes stamp duties, 
225 ; defends them, 229. 

Gresham, Walter Q., in Cleveland's Cabinet, 878. 

Gridley, Kichard, engineer, 169. 

Griswold, Roger, fights with Lyon In the House, 
369 ; conspires to disrupt the Union, 388, 389. 

Groveton, battle of, 707. 

Grow, Galusha A., Speaker of the House, 659. 

Grundy, FelLt, 413. 

Guadalupe Hidalgo, treaty of, 534. 

Guerriere, the, 412 ; defeated by the Constitu- 
tion, 421. 

Guilford Courthouse, battle of, SOS. 

Gustarus Adolphus, king of Sweden, plan* to 
colonize Delaware, 149, 150 ; incorporates a 
company, is killed at Lutzen, 150. 

Habeas Corpus, suspension of writ of, 660, 667 ; 
same in the South, 705 ; 715, 725 and note, 726, 
817. 

Hadley, attacked by Indians, 122. 

Hague, The, international tribunal of, 903, 904. 

" Hail Columbia," written by Hopkinson, 365. 

Hakluyt, Richard, writes "Western Planting," 
60. 

Hale, John P., Free Soil candidate for the presi- 
dency, 566 ; 659. 

Hale, Nathan, 266. 

HaUeck, Fitz-Greene, 476. 

Halleck, W. H., commander in chief, 676 and note, 
707; in the West, 678, 716; sends Buell to 
Chattanooga, 716. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 300 ; at Torktown, 811 ; 
issues call for Constitutional Convention, 824; 
in Constitutional Convention, 328; writes most 
of " The Federalist," 335 ; leads New York to 
ratify the Constitution, 337 ; at Washington's 
inauguration, 839 ; in first Cabinet, 343 ; makes 
treasury report, 344 ; bargain of, vnth JeflFerson, 
346 ; against whiskey insurrection, 347 ; com- 
pared mth Jefferson, 349 ; appointed major 
general, 366 ; attempts to defeat Adams, 363, 
371 ; thwarts Burr in New York, 389 ; is killed 
by Burr, 890 ; character of, 390, 391. 

Hamilton, Andrew, defends Peter Zenger, 145. 

Hamlin, Hannibal, elected Vice President, 611 ; 
in the Senate, 816. 

Hampton, Wade, Jr., at Orangeburg and Colum- 
bia, 769. 

Hampton, Wade, Sr., 416, 427. 

Hancock, John, 237; escapes the British, 2S8; 



president Second Continental Congress, 248 r 
opposes the Constitution, 835. 

Hancock, Winfield 8., at Fredericksburg, 721; 
arrives at Gettysburg, 742, 743 ; at Spottsyl- 
vania, 744 ; 815 ; nominated for President, 852. 

Hardee, William J., at Stone River, 719, 720; 
evacuates Savannah, 766. 

Hardy, Commodore, blockades New England 
coast, 425. 

Ilarmar, Josiah, defeated by Indians, 879 

Harpers Ferry, seized by John Brown, 604 sq. ; 
seized by Confederacy, 645; surrendered, 709. " 

Harrison, Benjamin, 411. 

Harrison, Benjamin, elected President, 867 ; im- 
portant acts of administration of, 868 sq. ; want 
of popularity and powers of leadership, renomi- 
nation of, 874 ; defeat of, 875 ; favors annexation 
of Hawaii, 879. 

Harrison, William Henry, early life of, at battle 
of Tippecanoe, 411 ; commands in the North- 
west, 429 ; defeats British at the Thames, 481 ; 
resigns from the army, 438 ; defeats Clay in con- 
vention, 506 ; is elected President, 507 ; inaugu- 
ration and death of, 513. 

Hartford, Connecticut, founded by Thomas 
Hooker, 112 ; produces first written constitu- 
tion, 113 ; seat of New England Confederacy, 
120. 

Hartford Convention, the, 446, 447. 

Harvard College, founding of, 127, 207. 

Harvey, John, governor of Virginia, 69. 

Haupt, Lewis M., on Nicaragua Canal Commla 
sion, 907. 

Havana, constitutional convention at, 901. 

Hawaii, treaty mth, withdrawn by Cleveland, 
878, 879; annexation of, 879 and note 2; made 
a territory. Constitution extended to, 900. 

Hawkins, John, 57, 58. 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 619, 620. 

Hay, John, secretary of state, 909 aq. 

Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, 911. 

Hay-Herran Treaty, 909. 

Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, 909. 

Hayes, Rutherford B., at South Mountain, T09 ; 
nominated for President, notice of, 886; in- 
augurated, withdraws troops from the Southern 
states, 840 ; administration of, 843 sq. 

Haymarket massacre, Chicago, 865. 

Hayne, Robert Y., debate of, with Webster, 488, 
489. 

Haynes, John, first governor of Connecticut, 118 ; 
aids in forming confederation, 120. 

Hayti (Hispaniola), discovered by Columbus, 18. 

Heath, William, fortifies West Point, 259 ; guards 
the Hudson, 810. 

Heintzelman, Samuel P., at Bull Run, 656; at 
Fair Oaks, 696. 

Heister, General von, attacks Americans d 
Brooklyn, 257. 



xlv 



INDEX 



Henderson, D. B., elected Speaker of the House, 
903. 

Hendricks, Thomas A., at Democratic conven- 
tion, 815; nominated for Vice President, 837, 
867. 

Henry IV, king' of France, " Henry of Navarre," 
issues Edict of Nantes, 89. 

Henry VII, king of England, issues grant to 
John Cabot to seek western lands, 28. 

Henry VIII, king of England, begins English 
Keformation, 98. 

Henry, Fort, captured by Grant, 680. 

Henry, Patrick, early life of, 223 ; in Parson's 
Cause, 224 ; makes speech to Virginia assem- 
bly, 226 ; In First Continental Congress, 235 ; 
governor of , Virginia, 283 ; opposes Constitu- 
tion, 335, 336. 

Henry, Prince of Portugal, the navigator, 6. 

Henson, Josiah, founds negro colony in Canada, 
555. 

Herbert, H. A., In Cleveland's Cabinet, 878. 

Herkimer, Nicholas, commands at Oriskany, 270, 
271. 

Hessians, the, hired by King George, 251 ; cap- 
tured at Trenton, 263 ; desert British army, 
287. 

Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, aids in rescue 
of Anthony Burns, 552. 

Hildreth, Richard, historian, 619. 

Hill, A. P., at Gaines Mills, 698; at Frazier's 
Farm, 699 ; at Gettysburg, 740 ; at the Wilder- 
ness, 753. 

Hill, D. H., at Fau- Oaks, 696. 

Histories of the United States, 619, and bibliog- 
raphy. 

Hoar, E. E., in Grant's cabinet, 816. 

Hobart, Garret A., nominated for Vice President, 
887 ; death of, 903. 

Hobson, Eichmond P., sinks tho Merrimae, 893. 

Holland, see Netherlands. 

Holmes, Ohver Wendell, 476, 619. 

Holt, Joseph, in Buchanan's Cabinet, 634. 

Homestead Act, the, 730. 

Hood, John B., succeeds Johnston, defeated, 
759 ; abandons Atlanta, 760 ; moves into Ten- 
nessee, 765 ; at battle of Franklin, 767 ; defeated 
at Nashville, 768. 

Hooker, Joseph, at Fredericksburg, 721 ; suc- 
ceeds Burnside, 722 ; defeated at Chancellors- 
ville, 723, 724; resigns, 740 ; at Lookout Moun- 
tain, 750. 

Hooker, Thomas, father of Connecticut, pastor 
at Newtown, controversy of, with Winthrop, 
founds Hartford, 112. 

Hopkinson, Joseph, writes "Hail Columbia," 365. 

Hornet, the, captures the Peacock, 423. 

House, the, of Eepresentatives, composition of, 
in First Congress, 342 ; opposes, then passes. 
Jay Treaty, 858, 859, See passim. 



House tax, the, 368. 

Houston, Samuel, leads Texan revolt, 496, 497 ; 
defeats Me.xicans at San Jacinto, 517. 

Howard, Lord, of Effingham, 58 ; another of same 
name, 73. 

Howard, Oliver Otis, at Chancellorsville, 723 ; at 
Gettysburg, 742 ; in Sherman's march to the 
sea, 765. 

Howard, William A., on committee to Kansas, 
590. 

Howe, EUas, invents sewing machine, 617. 

Howe, George A., killed at Ticonderoga, 187. 

Howe, Eichard, arrives at New York, offers 
olive branch, 256, 258. 

Howe, Eobert, American commander in the 
South, 302. 

Howe, Sir William, arrives in Boston, 245 ; leads 
charge at Bunker Hill, 246 ; succeeds Gage as 
commander, 248 ; sails to Halifax, 250 ; cap- 
tures Fort Washinfrton, 259 ; sails to the Chesa- 
peake, 269, 280 ; at Brandywine, 281 ; enters 
Philadelphia, 282 ; is superseded by CUnton, 
285 ; estimate of, 315 and note. 

Hudson, Henry, sent out by East India Com- 
pany, 131 ; sails to the Hudson Elver, to Dela- 
ware Bay, communicates with John Smith, 
seeks passage to the Orient, 1S2. 

Hudson Valley, English struggle for, 268 sq. 

Huguenots, settle in Virginia, 73 ; in Maryland, 
8] ; in North Carolina, 86 ; in South Carolina, 
character of, 89, 90. 

Hull, Isaac, in command of the Constitution, 
420. 

Hull, William, 416; surrenders Michigan, 417; 
condemned and pardoned, 418. 

Hunkers, of New York, 523 note ; 538. 

Hunt, W. H., governor of Porto Eico, 900. 

Hunter, David, at BuU Eun, 656 ; issues enianci* 
pation order, 713. 

Hurlburt, Stephen A., at Shiloh, 683. 

Hutchinson, Anne, banished from Massachusetts, 
killed by Indians, 109, 185. 

Hutchinson, chief justice of Massachusetts, 22?. 

Hutchinson letters, the, 241. 

Iberville, plants French colony on lower Missis- 
sippi, 167. 

Idaho, admitted to the Union, 870 

Ildefonso, Treaty of, 884, 8S5. 

Illinois, becomes a state, 456. 

Illiuois country, conquered by Clark, 292. 

Immigration, 878 and note 2 ; 622, 623. 

Impressment of seamen, 855, 894 sq. ,' 407; 
omitted from Treaty of Ghent, 445. 

Income tax, in war times, 785 ; In 1893, pro 
nounced unconstitutional, 881 and note. 

Indented servants, redemptioners, 199 ; most 
numerous at the South, 200 and note. 

Independence, Declaration of, 250 sq. 



INDEX 



Independence Hall, meeting of Second Conti- 
nental Congress in, 243. 

Indiana, becomes a state, 456. 

Indian affairs, mismanaged, 628. 

Indians, tlie, so named by Columbus, 17 ; race 
characteristics of, religion of, 28 ; home life, 
29 ; legends and superstition, 80 ; occupations, 
skill in wood craft, 32 ; as warriors, 83-35 ; 
capacity for civilization of, 30, 87 ; numbers of, 
in 1900, 87 note 2 ; future of, 88 ; distribution 
of nations and tribes, 38, 89 ; attack De Soto, 
48, 46 ; in French and Indian War, 174 sq. ; in 
Eevolution, 290 s?. ; removed from their lands, 
471, 472 ; at Pea Kidge,"687 ; in the Civil War, 
701. See Indian wars. 

Indian wars, in Virginia, 69, 71 ; in North Caro- 
lina, 86 ; in South Carolina, 91 ; in Connecticut, 
114; in New England, 121 sq. ; in New Nether- 
land, 135 ; in Ohio, 879, 380 ; in the South, 
489, 458, 454 ; Black Hawk War, 497 ; Semi- 
nole, 453, 497; 828. 

Indies, East, European trade with, 2. 

Indigo, introduced in South Carolina by Eliza 
Lucas, 92. 

IngersoU, K. G., nominates Blaine at Cincinnati, 
885. 

Ingham, Samuel D., in Jackson's Cabinet, 481. 

Institutions, American, sources of, 142, 143. 

Internal improvements, 464 sq. ,' recommended 
by President J. Q. Adams, 470. 

Interstate Commerce Act, the, 864. 

Inventions, 378, 458, 475. 

Irish, settle in South Carolina, 93 ; in New York, 
146. 

Iroquois, joined by Tuscaroras, become British 
subjects, 166 ; territorial claims of, 171, 172 ; 
side with the English, 177 ; deed lands to New 
York, 820. 

Irving, Washington, 476 and note 1, 619, 620. 

Isabella, queen of Spain, grants Columbus a 
hearing, 10 ; releases him from his enemies, 21. 

Island No. 10, surrender of, 687. 

Italy, school of navigation for the world, 6 note 2. 

luka, battle of, 718. 

Izard, George, commands at Sacketts Harbor, 



Jackson, Andrew, receives Aaron Burr, 892 ; 
birth, early life of, goes West, enters Congress, 
is made major general, 438 ; defeats the In- 
dians, 489 ; at battle of New Orleans, 440, 441 ; 
stories of, 449 ; in Seminole War, 453, 4.54 ; 
candidate for the presidency, 466 ; governor of 
Florida, 476 ; becomes President, 480, 481 ; 
introduces spoils system, 484 ; parallel of, with 
Calhoun, 485 ; quarrels with Calhoun, 486 ; 
ppeech of, at Jefferson banquet, 490, 491 ; 
vetoes bank charter, 498 ; reelected President, 
romoves bank deposits, 494 ;' censured by the 



Senate, 495 ; character and Influence of, 498 sq. ; 
personal traits of, 500, 501 ; attempted assassi 
nation of, 508. 

Jackson, Fort, 689. 

Jackson, Francis James, English minister, 410. 

Jackson, Governor, of Mi.ssouri, attempts to 
lead tl>e state to secede, 652, 658. 

Jackson, Mississippi, captured by Grant, 737. 

Jackson, Thomas J., "Stonewall," at Bull Run, 
656; threatens Washington, joins Lee, 696; at 
Cedar Mountain and Groveton, 707 ; captures 
Harpers Ferry, 709 ; at Chancellorsville, 723 ; 
death of notice of, 724. 

James I, king of England, imprisons and exe- 
cutes Raleigh, 60; grants Virginia charter, 
61 ; 68 ; despises Presbyterianism, persecutes 
Puritans, 99. 

James II, king of England, sends Andros to New 
England, 125, 163. 

James River, McClellan operates on, 694, 699 ; 
Grant crosses, 755. 

James the Pretender, 165. 

Jamestown, founding of, 62 ; character of colo- 
nists, 62. 

Jasper, William, 255. 

Java, the, defeated by the Constitution, 422. 

Jay, John, signs treaty of Paris, 812 ; at Madrid, 
322; first chief justice, 844; frames treaty 
with England, 356, 857, 358. 

Jay Treaty, the, 856 ; provisions of, 357 ; recep- 
tion of, 358, 859 ; offends France, 360. 

Jefferson, Thomas, member of Second Conti- 
nental Congress, 243 ; writes Declaration of 
Independence, 253 ; governor of Virginia, 307 ; 
escapes Tarleton, 809 ; seeks trade relations in 
Europe, 822; favors the Constitution, 837; 
in fii'st Cabinet, 343 ; bargains with Hamilton, 
346 ; compared with Hamilton, 349 ; wins 
Madison and Gallatin, 851 ; on French Eevolu- 
tion, 352 ; defeated by John Adams, 363 ; writes 
Kentucky resolutions, 370 ; elected President 
by the House, 872 ; personal appearance, inau- 
guration of, 880 ; attitude of, toward civil ser- 
vice, 881; skill of, as a manager, 871, 882; 
advises constitutional amendment, 886 ; sends 
Lewis and Clark on expedition, 887 ; issues proc- 
lamation against Burr, 893 ; reelected Presi- 
dent, 894 ; anxiety of, for West Florida, 896 ; 
rejects treaty, 397 ; popularity of, wanes, 402 ; 
character and estimate of 403 sq. ; religion and 
learning of, 405, 406 ; retirement and death of, 
408 and note; gradual change in party policy 
of, 451 ; opinion of, on Missouri Compromise, 
462 note 1. 

Jerry rescue, the, 551. 

Jessup, Thomas 8., captures Osceola, 498. 

John II, king of Portugal, deals treacherously 
with Columbus, 9. 

Johnson, Andrew, remains true to the Union, 



xvi 



INDEX 



659 ; nominated for yice President, 768 ; be- 
comes President, early life and character of, 
790 ; change In his attitude toward the South, 
issues amnesty proclamation, frames and puts 
in operation plan of reconstruction, 792 ; undig- 
nified conduct of, 795-797 ; suspends Stanton, 
806 ; removes him, is impeached by the House, 
807 ; trial of, by the Senate, 808 sq. ; acquitted, 
810. 

Johnson, Herschel V., nominated for Vice Presi- 
dent, 610. 

Johnson, Sir John, 294. 

Johnson, Sir Nathaniel, governor of South Caro- 
lina, 90. 

Johnson, Eeverdy, in Peace Congress, 635. 

Johnson, Richard M., in War of 1812, 430; kills 
Tecumseh at the Thames, 431 ; elected Vice 
President, 502. 

Johnson, Sir William, defeats Dieskau, 183 ; cap- 
tures Fort Niagara, 189. 

Johnston, Albert Sidney, at Bowling Green, 679 ; 
divides his army, 680 ; leaves Bowling Green, 
683 ; gives battle at Shiloh, 684 ; is killed, 685 ; 
estimate of, 782. 

Johnston, Joseph E., at Bull Run, 655, 656 ; has 
army at Manassas, 693 ; at Fair Oaks, 696 ; 
wounded, succeeded by Lee, 697; defeated near 
Vicksburg, 737 ; fights Sherman before Atlanta, 
758, 759 ; succeeded by Hood, 759 ; surrenders 
to Sherman, 772. 

Joint High Commission, the, 820. 

Joliet, Louis, French explorer, 161. 

Jones, Jacob, in command of the Wasp, 422. 

Jones, John Paul, in sea fight, 295 and note 2. 

Juarez, Benita, president of Mexico, 778; over- 
powers Maximilian, 779. 

Kalb, Baron de, arrives in America, 278 ; is sent 

South, 304 ; mortally wounded at Camden, 305. 
Kansas, fierce contest over, 586 sq. ; is admitted 

to the Union, 595 ; 625. 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, the, 571 sq. ; results of, 

578; 624. 
Kaskaskia, founded by the French, 168 ; captured 

by Clark, 292. 
Kearny, Stephen W., conquers New Mexico, 

enters California, 529 ; killed at Chantilly, 708. 
Kearsarge, the, destroys the Alabama, 777. 
Keene, General, at battle of New Orleans, 439, 

442. 
Keith, governor of Pennsylvania, first to propose 

stamp duties for America, 225. 
KeUogg, W. P., governor of Louisiana, 829. 
Kendall, Amos, 484 ; ruling of, concerning aboli- 
tion literature in the mails, 512. 
Kenesaw Mountain, battle of, 759. 
Kentucky, first settled by Boone, 291 ; becomes 

a state, 878 ; sends men to War of 1812, 430 ; 

refases to secede, 652. 



Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, 369, 870. 

Key, Francis Scott, writes "Star-Spangled Ban 
ner," 4-37. 

Keyes, Erasmus D., commands corps of McClel- 
lan's army, 694 note 1 ; at Fair Oaks, 696. 

Kidd, William, executed for piracy, 97. 

Kieft, William, governor of New Netherland, 134; 
character of, 135 ; recall, 136 ; protests against 
Swedes on the Delaware, 150. 

Kilpatrick, Judson, in Sherman's march to the 
sea, 765. 

King, Eufus, in constitutional convention, 328; 
in First Congress, 842 ; defeated for the presi- 
dency, 453 ; 4G0. 

King's Mountain, battle of, 306. 

King, William R., elected Vice President, 566; 
death of, 571 note. 

Kittanning, Indian town, captured by Armstrong, 
184. 

Knights of Labor, the, 865. 

Know-nothing party, origin and career of, 579 
sq. ; nominates Fillmore for President, 582. 

Knox, Henry, 248, 317 ; suggests Society of Cin- 
cinnati, 326 ; at Washington's inauguration, 
839 ; in first Cabinet, 343. 

Knox, P. C, in Roosevelt's Cabinet, 909. 

Knyphausen, General, at Brandywine, 281. 

Kosciusko, Thaddeus, 278 and note ; 809. 

Kossuth, Louis, visits America, 561. 

Ku Klux Klan, 800 ; laws against, 808, 817. 

Laconia Company, makes settlement in New 
Hampshire, 117. 

Lafayette, Marquis de, arrives in America, joins 
the army, 277 ; at Monmouth, 286 ; in Vir- 
ginia, 809 ; revisits the United States, 467 ; 
receives bonus from Congress, departs, 468 ; 
death of, 508. 

Lake Erie, battle of, 428. 

Lamar, L. Q. C, in Cleveland's Cabinet, 862. 

Lambert, General, at battle of New Orleans, 439, 
442. 

Lament, Daniel S., in Cleveland's Cabinet, 878. 

Land, claims and cessions of, by the states, 
819 sq. 

Lane, Joseph, nominated for Vice President, 610. 

Lane, Ralph, leads Raleigh's colony, 59. 

La Salle, Robert Cavalier de, explores the Missis- 
sippi, 161 ; attempts to colonize Gulf coast, 
death of, 162. 

Las Guasimas, captured by the Americans, 893. 

Laud, William, Archbishop of Canterbury, perse- 
cutes Puritans, 103. 

Lawrence, James, captures the Peacock, 428 ; 
is killed on the Chesapeake,, 428, 424. 

Lawrence, Kansas, founded, 587 ; sacked by a 
mob, 590. 

Lawrence, the, Perry's flagship, 428. 

Leavenworth, Kansas, founded, 587. 



INDEX 



xvij 



Lecompton constitution, framed, 593 ; urged by 
President Buchanan, 594 ; defeated, 595. 

Lecompton, Kansas, founded, 587. 

Lee, Arthur, 276. 

Lee, Charles, 259, notice of, 260 ; disobeys orders, 
is captured, 261 ; conduct at Monmouth, 286, 
287 ; death of, 288. 

Lee, Fort, 25S ; abandoned, 259. 

Lee, Henry, Light Horse Harry, captures Paulus 
Hook, 298 ; 309 ; leads against whiskey insur- 
rection, 347. 

Lee, Richard Henry, proposes Declaration of 
Independence, 253 ; opposes Constitution, 385, 
336 ; in First Congress, 342. 

Lee, Robert E., captures John Brown, 604 ; put 
in command of Army of Northern Virginia, 
notice of, 697 ; reenforces army, 698 ; attacks 
McCIellan at Malvern Hill, 700 ; withdraws to 
Richmond, 700, 701 ; invades Maryland, 108 sq. ; 
at Antletam, 710 ; recrosses the Potomac, 710 ; 
defeats Burnside at Fredericksburg, 721 ; and 
Hooker at Chancellorsville, 723, 724 ; moves 
into Pennsylvania, 740 ; at Gettysburg, 742 sq. ; 
offers battle in the Wilderness, 753 ; defeats 
Grant at Cold Harbor, 755 ; made commander 
in chief by Congress, 769 note 2 ; makes over- 
tures for peace, 770 ; surrenders at Appomat- 
tox, 772. 

Legal Tender Act, passed, 731. 

Leisler, Jacob, takes possession of New York, 
143 ; calls first colonial Congress, executed, 144 ; 
163, 164. 

Leon, Ponce de, accompanies Columbus on 
second voyage, 20 ; explores and names Florida, 
42. 

Leopard, the, fires on the Chesapeake, 397. 

Lesseps, Ferdinand de, attempts to build Panama 
Canal, 907. 

Letcher, John, governor of Virginia, calls for 
troops, 654. 

Lewis, Merriwether, leads expedition to the 
Northwest, 387, 388. 

Lemston, New Tork, 418, 419. 

Lexington, Massachusetts, Adams and Hancock 
at, 238 ; battle of, 239. [grims, 99. 

Leyden, Holland, temporary home of the Pil- 

Liberty party, 511, 521. 

Liberty, Sons of, 227 ; call first Continental 
Congress, 235. 

Lieb, Michael, senator from Pennsylvania, 409. 

Liliuokalani, queen of Hawaii, 879. 

Lincoln, Abraham, 584; early life and charac- 
teristics of, 599, 600 ; compared with Douglas, 
601 ; challenges Douglas to debating duel, 602 
asks fatal question of Douglas, 603 *, Cooper 
Union speech of, nominated for President, 611 
reaches Washington, pronounces inaugural 
639, 640 ; issues call to arms, &13 ; journey of, 
to Washington, 646; proclaims blockade, 650, 



651 ; calls for recruits jn army and navy, 653 ; 
message of, to Congress, 659; releases Mason and 
Slidell, 667 ; removes Fremont, 677 ; denounced 
by the radicals, 671 ; opposed to McClellau's 
plans, 693; relations of, with McCIellan, 702, 
703 ; recalls McCIellan, 708 ; dismisses him, 
711 ; overrules emancipation orders, offers to 
buy border state slaves, 713 ; issues Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation, 714 ; right to and object in 
issuing it, 715, 716 ; dismisses Buell, appoints 
Bosecrans, 718 ; banishes Vallandigham, 729 ; 
opposed for renomination, 761 ; grounds of op- 
position, 762 ; nominated, 762 ; reelected Presi- 
dent, 705 ; shot by Booth, 773 ; dies, 774 ; fame 
and character of, 774-776 ; compared with 
Jefferson Davis, 783 ; mild attitude of, toward 
the South, 786 ; at variance with Congress, 
786 sq. ; frames Louisiana plan of reconstruc- 
tion, 787 i vetoes congressional bill, 788 ; makes 
last speech, 789 ; urges Thirteenth Amendment, 
793. 

Lincoln, Benjamin, sent to Hudson Valley, 270 ; 
commands in the South, 302 ; surrenders army 
to Clinton, 302 ; receives the sword of Corn- 
wallis, 311. 

Lincoln-Douglas debates, 598 sq. 

Lincoln, Robert T., in the Cabinet, 854, 

Lind, Jenny, 562. 

Lisbon, center of nautical science, 8. 

Literature, 378, 475, 619. 

Little Belt, the, 412, 413. 

Livingston, Edward, in Jackson's Cabinet, 483. 

Livingston, Robert R., pronounces oath to 
Washington, 339 ; purchases Louisiana, 384, 
385 ; aids Fulton with the steamboat, 407. 

Locke, John, supposed to have written Grand 
Model, 84. 

Logan, chief of the Mingoes, 290 and note 2. 

Logan, John A., nominated for Vice President, 
857. 

Log Cahin, the, founded by Greeley, 507. 

London Company, sends colony to Virginia, 61 ; 
is granted second charter, 64 ; becomes Vir- 
ginia Company, 67. 

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 476 ; 619. 

Longstreet, James, at Fair Oaks, 696 ; at Get- 
tysburg, 740 sq. ; joins Bragg near Chattanooga, 
748 ; at Chickamauga, 749 ; attacks KnoxvUle, 
751 ; in the Wilderness, 753. 

Lookout Mountain, location of, 749; battle of, 
750. 

Lopez, Narcisco, invades Cuba, 562. 

Lords of Trade, authorize dispersion of the 
Acadians, 182. 

Loudon, Lord, commander of British, plans de- 
struction of Louisburg, 184. 

Louis XIV, king of France, revokes Edict o\ 
Nantes, 89 ; permits La Salle to explore the 
Mississippi, 161 ; sends colony to Gulf coast, 162 ; 



xyill 



INDEX 



espouses cause of James II, 162 ; and the Pre- 
tender, 165 ; founds Louisburg, death of, 167. 

Louis XVI, king of France, beheaded, 352. 

Louisburg, fortress of, founding of, 167 ; great 
strength of, ICS; captured by colonists, ceded 
back to France, 169; recaptured by the Eng- 
lish, 186. 

Louisiana, territory of, explored by La Salle, 
161 ; 3S3 ; ceded to Spain, 3S3 ; ceded to Na- 
poleon, 384 ; sold to the United States, 385 ; 
government of, 3S7 ; shape of, 534. 

Louisiana, becomes a state, 456 ; secedes, 630 ; 
accepts Lincoln's plan of reconstruction, 788; 
under carpetbag rule, 800 ; disfranchises the 
biacks in constitution, 804 ; political strife in, 
829 ; becomes Democratic, 829 ; disputed elec- 
tion in, 828. 

Lovejoy, E. P., killed by a mob, 510. 

Lovell, Mansfield, in command at New Orleans, 
690. 

Lowell, James Russell, 527 note 3 ; 619. 

Lowndes, William, 414 ; secures tariff of 1816, 
453, 460. 

Loyalists, the, persecution of, 236, 266; probable 
numbers of, 252 ; note on, 266 ; aid in Indian 
massacres, 298, 294 ; the loyalists and the 
treaty, 317. 

Lucas, Eliza, introduces Indigo In South Caro- 
lina, 92. 

Lundy, Benjamin, 609. 

Lundy's Lane, battle of, 4.32. 

Lutherans, the, 80 ; in Pennsylvania, 204; growth 
and mission work of, 620. 

Lyman, General, defeats Dieskau, 184. 

Lvon, Matthew, imprisoned under Sedition Law, 
369. 

Lyon, Nathaniel, 652 ; killed at Wilson's Creek, 
658. 

Lytton, Sir Edward Bulwer, quoted, 662. 

MacArthur, Arthur, military governor of the 
Philippines, 898 note. 

McCu-land, General, burns Charabersburg, 757. 

McClellan, George Brinton, in West Virginia, 
655; takes command of the Army of the Poto- 
mac, 669 ; commander in chief, 676, 692 ; re- 
lieved, 685, 693 ; popularity of, 691 ; moves 
army to the James, 693; at Williamsburg, 694 ; 
moves up the York River, 695 ; moves base to 
the James, 699 ; at Malvern Hill, 700 ; recalled 
from the peninsula, 701 ; restored to command, 
708 ; follows Lee into Maryland, 708, 709 ; at 
Antietam, 710 ; dismissed from the army. 
Grant's estimate of, 711 ; compared with 
Buell, 718 ; nominated for the presidency, 764. 

McClernand, John A., at Fort Donelson, 680; 
at Shiloh, 683, 685 ; at Arkansas Post, 735. 

McClure, A. K., opposas Grant's renomination, 
822. 



MacComb, Alexander^ at battle of Plattsburg, 
433, 434. 

McCook, Alexander D., at Perryville, 717 ; a( 
Stone River, 719. 

McCormick, Cyrus, invents mower and reaper, 
617. 

McCulloch, Benjamin, at Wilson's Creek, 658 ; 
killed at Pea Ridge, 687. 

McCulloch, Hugh, secretary of the treasury, 830. 

Macdonald, Allan, 255 note 1 . 

Macdonald, Donald, at Moore's Creek, 255. 

Macdonald, Flora, 255 note 1. 

Macdonough, Thomas, 433 ; defeats English on 
Lake Champlain, 434. 

McDowell, Irwin, at Bull Run, 655-657; guards 
Washington, 694. 

Macedonian, the, defeated by the United States, 
422. 

McHenry, Fort, bombarded, 437. 

McKinley, William, frames tariff bill, 867; nomi- 
nated for President, notice of, power as a party 
leader, 887 ; elected, 888, 889 ; calls extra ses- 
sion of Congress, 889 ; demands release of 
prisoners in Cuba, sends the Maine, calls for 
declaration of war, 891 ; calls for volunteers, 
892 ; urges cession of the Philippines, 890 ; 
second election of, 897 ; recommends free trade 
and civil government in Porto Rico, 899 ; rec- 
ommends increase of the army, 902 ; second 
inauguration of, shot by an assassin, 904 ; death 
and character of, 905. 

McKinley Tariif, the, 867; brings Republican 
defeat, 871 ; and the defeat of Harrison, 875. 

McLean, John, justice of the Supreme Court, 
584 ; opinion of, in Dred Scott case, 596. 

McPherson, J. B., at Vicksburg, 735; at Chatta- 
nooga, 758 ; killed, 760. 

Madison, James, calls Annapolis convention, 
824 ; in Constitutional Convention, 325, 327 ; 
draws up plan of Union, 829 ; in first Conp^ess, 
842; joins party of Jefferson, 351; becomes 
secretary of state, appearance of, 880, 881 ; 
inaugurated President, qualifications of, 408; 
chooses Cabinet, suspends non-intercourse, 
409; revives the same, dismisses Jackson, 410 ; 
agrees to declare war, 414 ; recommends an 
embargo, 444 ; retirement of, 453 ; death of, 508. 

Madison, Mrs. " Dolly," saves Washington's 
picture, 4;36 ; 453; 517. 

Magaw, Colonel, surrenders Fort Washington, 
259. 

Magellan, makes first voyage round the earth. 
26 ; 887, 892. 

Magoffin, Beriab, attempts of, to lead Kentucky 
to secede, 652. 

Magruder, J. B., 655; opposes McClellan on the 
peninsula, 694 ; at Malvern Hill, 700. 

Mails, in colonial times, 210; use of, for •bolitioii 
literatvire resisted, 612. 



INDEX 



xix 



Maine, the, blowu up at Havana, 891. 

Maine, colony of, charter granted to Gorges, is 
joined to Massachusetts, 119; invaded by 
British, 433 ; becomes a state, 456, 460. 

Maiden, Fort, 417, 429. 

Malvern Hill, battle of, TOO. 

Manassas, Virginia, armies gather at, 655, 656; 
captured by Jackson, TOT. 

Mangum, Willie P., candidate for presidency, 
502. 

Manhattan, settled by the Dutch, 183; see New 
Amsterdam and New York. 

Manila,, battle of, captured by Dewey and Merritt, 
892. 

Mann, Horace, denounces Webster, 544, 565 
note 3. 

Mansfield, Lord, on Stamp Act, 228; decides 
against slavery in England, 45T, 59T, 662. 

Manufacturing, forbidden in colonies, 217; es- 
tablished in the United States, 452. 

Marcy, William L., in Polk's Cabinet, 523; 563; 
in Pierce's Cabinet, 571. 

Marietta, Ohio, founded, oT9. 

Marion, Francis, the "Swamp Fox," 304, 805, 
30T. 

Markham, William, first governor of Pennsyl- 
vania, 155 ; grants new government to Penn- 
sylvania, 156. 

Marquette, Father James, floats down the 
Mississippi, 161. 

Marshall, James, discovers gold in California, 535. 

Marshall, John, favors the Constitution, 836 ; 
becomes secretary of state, 8T1 ; is appointed 
chief justice of the Supreme Court, 3T3; de- 
cision of, concerning territories, 3ST ; presides 
at Burr's trial, 393 ; great service of, as inter- 
preter of the Constitution, 489, 490 and note 1 ; 
death of, 508. 

Martin, Luther, defends Aaron Burr, 393. 

Maryland, colony of, founded, first proprietary 
government in America, 75 ; character of 
charter, 76, 78 ; early bounds of, 77 ; religious 
freedom in, 78 ; first settlers of, free from 
Indian wars and bad government, quarrels 
■with Virginia, 79 ; passes Toleration Act, 80 ; 
prospers, 81 ; becomes royal province. Is re- 
stored to the Calverts, estabUshes Church of 
England, 82 ; rural life in, 205. 

Maryland, state of, makes stand on land ces- 
sions, 320; ratifies Constitution, 336; refuses 
to secede, 651. 

Mason and Dixon Line, 158 and note 2 ; 198. 

Mason, James M., issues Ostend Manifesto, 572 ; 
writer of Fugitive Slave Law, 664 ; seized on 
the Trent, 665 ; released, 667. 

Mason, John, receives grant for New Hampshire, 
117. 

Massachusetts Bay, colony ot, «ee Massachusetts, 
colony ot 



Massachusetts, colony of, charter for granted, 
104 ; charter carried to New lingland, great 
migration to, 105 ; local and peneral govern- 
ment of, 106, 107, 210 sq.; rn|iid growth of, 
107; prepares to resist the king, 108; ban- 
ishes Roger Williams, 108 ; and Anne Hutchin- 
son, 109; executes Quakers, 110; witchcraft 
delusion in, 110; loses charter, 111, 125; joins 
confederation, 120 ; declaration of rights in, 
123 ; receives second charter, 126 ; second in 
population, 198 ; education in, 207 ; calls for aid, 
234, 235 ; forms provisional government, 286 ; 
moves for independence, 252. 

Massachusetts, state of, claims western lands, 
319 ; refuses to issue paper money, 828 ; rati 
fles Constitution, 836 ; refuses militia for Wai 
of 1812, 416; emancipates slaves, 458. 

Massasoit, chief of Warn pan oags, makes treaty 
with the Pilgrims, 101 ; befriends Roger 
Williams, 115. 

Mavila, battle of, 46. 

Maximilian, emperor of Mexico, overpowered and 
executed, 779. 

May, Cornelius, first director of Dutch colonies, 
133. 

May, Samuel, aids in Jerry rescue, 651. 

Mnyfloicer, bears Pilgrim Fathers to America, 
99 ; compact on, 100 ; 'ast survivors of, 127 and 
note; 605. 

Meade, George Gordon, at ChancellorsviUe, 723 ; 
in command of Army of the Potomac, 740 ; 
decides on battle at Gettysburg, 743. 

MechanicsvUle, battle of, 698. 

Mecklenburg Declaration, the, 242. 

Medicine, practice of, in the colonies, 208. 

Medina Cell, entertains Columbus, 10. 

Medina Sidonia, duke of, commands Spanish 
Armada, 58. 

Mela, theory of the earth of, 4. 

Memphis, Tennessee, captured by Union troops, 
738, 

Mercer, Hugh, mortally wounded, 265. 

Merrimae, the, burned at Norfolk, raised and 
converted into an Ironclad, 6T3 ; destroys 
United States vessels, 674 ; in fight with the 
Monitor, burned, 675. 

Merritt, Wesley, at Manila, 892 ; military gov- 
ernor of the Philippines, 898 note. 

Methodists, growth and mission work of, 620. 

Mexico, city of, surrenders to Scott, 583. 

Mexico, emancipates slaves, strained relations 
with, 496 ; at war with the United States, 627 
sq. ; conquered by France, 778. 

Michigan, territory of, surrendered by Hull, 416, 
417 ; recovered, 480. 

Michiliraackinac, capture of, by Indians, 196. 

Middle Colonies, the, 181 gq. ; mixed populatloi 
of, 198 ; social rank in, 200. 

Midnight JudlcUry, 873 ; act repealed, 888. 



INDEX 



Mifflin, Thomas, Intrigues with Congress, 284. 
Miles, Nelson A., at Bull Run, 656 note ; con- 
quers Porto Rico, 894. 
Miller, James, at Lundy's Lane, 482. 
MUl Spring, battle of, 678. 
Mills, Roger Q., frames the Mills bill, 867. 
Mims, Fort, Indian massacre of, 438. 
Minnesota, the, in fight with the Merrimac, 

674. 
Minuit, Peter, purchases Manhattan and founds 

New Amsterdam, 133; recalled, 134; leads 

'Swedish colony to Delaware, 150. 
Missionary Ridge, location of, 749 ; battle of, 750, 

751. 
Mississippi, becomes a state, 456 ; secedes, 629 ; 

new method of, in disfranchising the blacks, 

804. 
Mississippi River, discovered by De Soto, 52 ; 

explored by Marquette, by La Salle, 161 ; left 

open to British and American shipping in 

Treaty of Paris, 313 ; becomes boundary of the 

United States, 313 ; the jetty system in, 876. 

For military operations along, see battles, etc., 

of the Civil War. 
Mississippi Valley, explored by the French, 161 ; 

French colonies in, 167 ; chain of French forts 

in, 168 ; migration to, 456. 
Missouri, becomes a state, 463 ; refuses to secede, 

651, 652 ; Liberal Republican movement in, 823. 
Missouri Compromise, 456 sq. ; 509 ; proposal to 

extend it to the Pacific, 539 ; repealed, 573 sq. ; 

violated, 575 note 2 ; pronounced void in Dred 

Scott case, 596 ; 624. 
Missouri River, explored by Lewis and Clark, 

387. 
Mitchell, John K., confederate naval commander 

at New Orleans, 6S9. 
Mobile Bay, battle of, 760, 761. 
Mobile, surrender of, 761. 
Modoc Indians, 829. 
Mohammedans, the, cut off Christian Europe from 

Asia, 1. 
Molasses Act, the, 217, 218. 
Monitor, the, built by Ericsson, 673; in fight 

with the Merrimac, 675 ; wrecked, 675 note 2. 
Monkton, Colonel, commander expedition to 

Acadia, 181. 
Monmouth, battle of, 286. 
Monro, Colonel, surrenders Fort William Henry, 

185. 
Monroe Doctrine, first promulgated, 463. 
Monroe, Fortress, McClellan's base, 694. 
Monroe, James, in first Congress, 342 ; minister 

to France, SCO ; sent to Paris, 384 ; becomes 

secretary of state, 409 ; elected President, 453 ; 

character of, 453, 454 ; second election of, 462 ; 

promulgates Monroe Doctrine, 463 ; death of, 

508. 
Montana, admitted to the Union, 869. 



Montcalm, Marquis de, French commander, cap 
tures Oswego, 184; captures Fort William 
Henry, 185 ; endeavors to prevent Indian mas- 
sacre, 186 ; surrenders Quebec, dies, 192. 

Montgomery, Alabama, Confederate government 
formed at, 630. 

Montgomery, Richard, makes expedition to Can- 
ada, 249. 

Monticello, Jeff'erson's country home, 309. 

Montreal, surrenders to Amherst, 193. 

Moore's Creek, North Carolina, battle of, 255. 

Morales, Juan, surrenders Vera Cruz, 530, 531, 

Moravians, the, in Pennsylvania, 204. 

Morgan, Daniel, 24S ; sent to Hudson Valley, 
270 ; defeats Tarleton at Cowpens, 307. 

Morgan, Henry, the pirate, 97. 

Morgan, John H., cavalry leader, 747. 

Morgan's Raid, 746, 747. 

Morgan, William, discloses secrets of Free- 
masonry, 492. 

Mormons, the, origin of, 620 ; movement west- 
ward, 621 ; 856 ; 864. 

Morris, Gouverneur, in Constitutional Conven- 
tion, 328. 

Morris, Robert, aids the army, 264 ; in Constitu- 
tional Convention, 328; in first Congress, 842. 

Morristown, Washington encamps at, 265. 

Morse, Samuel F. B., .522; invented the tele- 
graph, 616. 

Morton, J. 8., in Cleveland's Cabinet, 878. 

Morton, Levi P., elected Vice President, 867. 

Motlej', John Lothrop, historian, 619. 

Moultrie, Fort, 255 ; abandoned by Anderson, 638. 

Moultrie, William, defends Charleston, 255 ; 
defends Port Royal, 302. 

Mower and reaper, invented by McCormick, 617. 

Mugwumps, the, 859. 

Muhlenburg, Frederick, speaker of first Con- 
gress, 842. 

Muhlenburg, Henry M., Lutheran patriarch, 
quoted, 264; 342. 

Murfreesborough, battle of, 719, 720. 

Nantes, Edict of, issued by Henry of Navarre, 

revoked by Louis XIV, 89. 
Napoleon Bonaparte, cedes Louisiana, 384, 385 ; 

boasts that his will would be the law of the 

world, 398 ; issues Berlin decree, 398 ; Milan 

decree, 399 ; Bayonne decree, 402 ; RambouU- 

let decree, 410 ; 415; 462. 
Narragansetts, aid King Philip in war, 122. 
Narvaez, Panfilo de, leads expedition to Florida, 

42, 5t ; cruelty of, 43. 
Nashville, founded, 291 ; slaveholders' meeting 

at, 540 ; battle of, 768. 
Nassau, Fort, on the Hudson, on the Delaware, 

133. 
National Republican party, 492 ; absorbed hi 

Whig party, 502. 



INDEX 



XXX 



Native- American party, see Know-nothing party. 

Nat Turner insurrection, 510. 

Naturalization law, 368, 383. 

Naval expeditions in Civil War, 670 sq. 

Navigation laws, 70 ; effect on Virginia, 71 ; on 
North Carolina, 85 ; evaded in New England, 
124 ; ignored by the Dutch, 138 ; discussion of, 
216 sq. 

Navy, Congress orders, 295; at the opening of 
War of 1812, 416; achievements of, 424. 

Nebraska, territory of, 573 ; admitted as a state, 
812. 

Negroes, standing of, before the law, 597 ; present 
condition of, in the South, 802, 803. 

Negro plot in New York, 145. 

Negro soldiery, 746. 

Netherlands, the, rise as a sea power, achieve- 
ments of, 131 ; grants charter to West India 
Company, 132 ; claim all territory between 
Chesapeake Bay and Cape Cod, 133 ; at war 
with England, 140, 296. 

Nevada, discovery of silver in, 618 ; organized as 
a territory, 637. 

New Amsterdam, founded by Mlnuit, 183 ; cos- 
mopolitan character of, 135 ; incorporated, 137 ; 
population of, 137 ; surrenders to EngUsh fleet, 
becomes New York, 139. 

Newburg addresses, 321. 

New England, earliest attempts to colonize, 61 
note 4, 100 note 1 ; explored and named by 
John Smith, 104 ; confederation of, 120 sq. ; ex- 
pansion and general progress of, 129 ; popula- 
tion at opening of Revolution, 130 ; slavery in, 
198 ; social rank in, 200 ; occupations in, 201 ; 
town life in, 202 ; church life and education in, 
206, 207 ; threatens to secede, 323, 626 and note ; 
demands that Congress control commerce, 
331. 

New Hampshire, colony of, first settlements of, 
117 ; towns of, unite and join Massachusetts, 
becomes royal province, government of, dis- 
putes with Mason's heirs, 118 ; disputes with 
New York about Vermont, 118, 119. 

New Hampshire Grants, see Vermont. 

New Hampshire, state of, quarrels with New 
York, 321 ; ratifies the Constitution, 335 ; eman- 
cipates slaves, 468. 

Kew Haven, founded by Davenport and Eaton, 
113 ; is united to Connecticut, 115 ; joins con- 
federation, 120 ; negro school at, 510 ; seat of 
Yale College, note 207. 

New Jersey, colony of, first settled, 146; first 
assembly in, settlers of, rebel, divided into 
East and West Jersey, 147 ; difference between 
East and West Jersey, 147, 148 ; is joined to 
New York, becomes royal province, 148; 
gro^vth, population, character of settlers, 148, 
149 ; rural life in, 204 ; education in, 207. 

New Jersey, state o^ emancipates slaves, 458. 



New Mexico, conquest of, 529 ; Texan claims on, 
relinquished, 546. 

New Netherland, 182 ; government of, 134, 135 ; 
extent of, 133 ; boundary of, limited, 137 ; ceded 
to England, 139 ; reconquered by the Dutch and 
re-ceded to England, 140 ; three settlements in, 
141. 

New Orleans, founded, becomes capital of Loulsl 
ana, 167; port of, closed, 384; artillery duel 
near, 440 ; battle of, 441 ; surrenders to Farra- 
gut, 690 ; political fight in, 829 ; exposition at, 
854 ; massacre of Italians at, 872. 

Newport, Captain, commands voyage to James- 
town, 61 ; explores .James River, 62 ; returns 
to Virginia with supplies, W. 

Newport, Rhode Island, founded by Coddlng^ton, 
joins Portsmouth, 115. 

Newspapers, in colonial times, 210 ; suppression 
of during the Civil War, 730 note 1, 782. 

New Sweden, founded, growth of, 150 ; conquered 
by the Dutch, 137, 151. 

New York, city of, formerly New Amsterdam, 
one of the four largest colonial cities, 198 ; 
importance of, 208 ; Washington enters, 256 ; 
draft riots in, 728. 

New York, colony of, formerly New Netherland, 
early government of, 141, 142 ; demands popular 
government, first assembly of, adopts " declara- 
tion of rights," 142 ; joined to New England 
and New Jersey, 142 ; Leisler controls, 143, 144 ; 
Zenger case in, negro plot in, 145 ; growth and 
population, 146 ; soil, fur trade, society of, 203 ; 
education in, 207. 

New York, state of, claims western lands, 319 ; 
cedes lands to the Union, 320 ; quarrels with 
New Hampshire, with Connecticut, 321 ; 
opposes, then ratifies, the Constitution, 337 ; 
Burr defeated in, 3S9 ; invaded by British, 483 ; 
emancipates slaves, 458 ; pivotal state in presi- 
dential elections, 521, 538, 860. 

Niagara, Fort, built by the French, 168 ; expedi- 
tion against, 188. 

Nicaragua, offers canal franchise, 907 ; canal route 
across surveyed, 908. 

Nicholson, Sir Francis, governor of Virginia, 73 ; 
befriends William and Mary College, love affair 
of, 74 ; commands expedition to Canada, 166. 

Nicollet, Jean, discovers Lake Michigan, 160. 

Nicolls, Richard, conquers New Amsterdam, 189 ; 
first governor of New York, character and 
death of, 140 ; frames the " Duke's Laws," 141, 

Nine Men, the, chosen bj' Stuyvesant, 136. 

Norfolk, Virginia, burned by Governor Dun- 
more, 254. 

North Carolina, colony of, first attempts to colo- 
nize, first permanent settlements in, charter 
for, 83 ; extent of charter, origin of name, 
" Grand Model " for, 84 ; first assembly in, in- 
surrection in, 85 ; separated from South Caro 



INDEX 



lina, aDd becomes royal colony, 87 ; products, 
character of settlers, 87 ; first to move for in- 
dependence, 252. 

North Carolina, state of, joins the Union, 837 ; 
secedes, 645; provisional governor appointed 
for, 792 ; disfranchises negroes, 804. 

North Castle, Lee holds army at, 260, 263. 

North Ualcota, becomes a state, 870. 

Northfield, attacked by Indians, 122. 

North, Lord Frederick, premier of England, 232 ; 
proposes yielding to the colonists, 279. 

North Point, battle of, 437. 

Nova Scotia, see Acadia. 

Ogdensburg, New York, British repulse at, 420. 

Oglethorpe, James, founds Georgia, his object, 
receives charter, becomes first governor, 94 ; 
leads expedition against St. Augustine, de- 
fends his colony, returns to England, 95. 

Ohio Company formed, 172. 

Ohio, Indian war in, 379 ; becomes a state, 880. 

Ohio Valley, claimed by French and English, 171 ; 
claimed by Virginia, 319 ; Burr's operations in, 
392. 

Oklahoma opened to settlers, 871. 

Oliver, Mordecai, 590. 

Olney, Richard, in Cleveland's Cabinet, 878 ; cor- 
respondence of, with Lord Salisbury, 884, 

Omaha, terminus of Pacific Railroad, 818. 

O'Neal, Peggy, Mrs. Eaton, 482. 

Opekankano, Indian chief, makes war on Vir- 
ginians, 68. 

Opequan, battle of, 757. 

Orange, Prince of, marries Princess Mary, 141. 
See William and Mary. 

Orders in Council, 399, 418; repealed, 415. 

Ordinance of 1787, the, 324, 366, 458. 

Oregon, explored by Lewis and Clark, 888; owner- 
ship of, declared by Democrats, 519, 520; set- 
tled by Americans, grounds for American and 
English claims of, divided, 525 and note, 526. 

Oregon, the, joins fleets of Sampson and Schley, 
893. 

Original Package law, 870. 

Oriskany, battle of, 270, 271. 

Ortiz, Juan, De Soto's interpreter, 44, 46, 52. 

Osceola, Indian chief, assassinates General 
Thomson, 497 ; captui-e of, 498. 

Ostend Manifesto, 572. 

Otis, E. S., mihtary governor of the Philippines, 
898 note. 

Otis, James, resists writs of assistance, 222, 223 
and note ; in Stamp Act Congress, 227. 

Oxenstiern, Swedish statesman, sends colonists 
to Delaware, 150. 

Paine, Thomas, writes "Common Sense," 252. 
Pakenham, Sir Edward, leads array to Louisi- 
ana, 439 ; is killed at New Orleans, 442. 



Palatinate of Durham, model for Maryland, 76 
origin and character of, 76. 

Palma, Estrada, first president of Cuba, 902. 

Palmer, John M., nominated for the presidency, 
888. 

Palmerston, Lord, British premier, quoted, 664. 

Palo Alto, battle of, 527. 

Panama, secedes from Colombia, 910; makes 
canal treaty with the United States, 911. 

Panama Canal Company (French), 907, 908. 

Panama Congress, 470. 

Panic, of 1818, 465 ; of 1837, 503 sq. ; of 1878, 

• 832 ; of 1893, 880. 

Paper money, issues of, 159, 814, 823 ; by the 
Southern Confederacy, 706; 781. 

Paris, Treaty of, after French and Indian Wai- 
198 ; treaty of, after the Revolution, 312 ; its 
provisions, 813 ; after war with Spain, 895. 

Parker, John, opposes British at Lexington, 239 
and note. 

Parker, Sir Peter, joins Clinton in the South, 254. 

Parker, Theodore, defends abolitionists, 511 ; de- 
nounces Webster, 544 ; 552. 

Parliament, English, sends fleet to Virginia, 69 ; 
sends commission to Maryland, 81 ; aids in 
colonizing Georgia, 95 ; opposes the Quakers, 
152; passes Navigation Laws, 216 sq. ; passes 
Stamp Act, 224 sq. ; repeals it, 228 ; govsrns 
England for two generations, 231 ; intolerable 
acts of, 234. 

Parson's Cause, 228, 224. 

Parties, political, rise of, 34S ; .'^ee Federalist, Re- 
publican. Democratic, Anti-Masonic, Know- 
nothing, Prohibition, National Republican, 
Whig, etc. 

Paterson, William, presents plan of Union, 829 ; 
in first Congress, -342. 

Patroon system, established on the Hudson, 184; 
character of, 203. 

Patterson, Robert, in Mexican War, 581 ; at Bull 
Run, 655, 656. 

Payne, Lewis, attempts to assassinate Seward, 
773 ; fate of, 785. 

Peace Congress, the, 685. 

Peacock, the, captured by the Hornet, 423. 

Peake, Captain, in command of the Peacock, 
423. 

Pea Ridge, battle of, 687. 

Pearson, Captain, fights John Paul Jones, 295. 

Peary, R, E., Arctic explorer, 876. 

Pemaquid, Maine, destroyed by Indians, 163. 

Pemberton, John C, succeeds Van Dorn, 719; 
surrenders Vicksburg, 739. 

Pendleton, George H., 659 ; nominated for the 
vice presidency, 764, 815; introduces Civil 8er 
vice Reform bill, 856. 

Penn, Richard, carries petition to England, 244. 

Pean, William, purchases part of New Jersey, 
147 ; purchases Delaware, 161 ; becomes a foJ- 



INDEX 



xxUt 



lower of Fox, relations to his father, receives 
charter for Pennsylvania, 152 ; character of, 154 ; 
first voyage of, to Pennsylvania, founds Phila- 
delphia, makes famous treaty with the Indians, 
155 ; presents frame of government, 156 ; 
deprived of colony, receives it hack, revisits 
Pennsylvania, misfortunes of, 157 ; death and 
character of, 158. 

Pennsylvania, colony of, charter of, granted to 
Penn, 152; dispute concerning boundary of, 
153 and note 2 ; first legislature in, 15G; colo- 
nial development of, 159 ; mixed population, 
rural life in, 204, 205 ; education in, 20T ; claims 
Wyoming Valley, 293. 

Pennsylvania, state of, disputes with Connecticut 
over Wyoming Valley, 321 ; ratifies the Consti- 
tution, 835 ; emancipates slaves, 458. 

Pennsylvania Germans, arrive in Pennsylvania, 
158 ; character of, 158, 159 ; oppose slavery, 199, 
457. 

Pensions Dependent bill, vetoed by Cleveland, 
863 ; passed, 868. 

People's party, " Popiilists," nominates Weaver 
for President, 874 ; endorse Bryan, 888. 

Pepperell, William, commands expedition to 
Louisburg, 169. 

Pequot War, the, 114. 

Percival, Spencer, British premier, 418 ; shot by 
a lunatic, 415. 

Percy, Lord, rescues British at Lexington, 240 ; 
250. 

Perez, Juan, befriends Columbus, 10. 

Perry, OUver Hazard, builds fleet on Lake Erie, 
defeats Barclay, 428. 

Petersburg, Virginia, assaulted by Grant, 756 ; 
occupied by Grant, 768 ; battle at, 770. 

Petitions to Congress, 511. 

Petroleum, discovery of, 617. 

Philadelphia, founded by Penn, early growth of, 
155 ; largest city in the colonies, 198 ; refuses 
landing of tea, 238 ; British army enters, 282 : 
leaves, 285 ; Constitutional Convention meets 
at, 327 ; honors Washington, 889 ; national con- 
vention at, 825 ; centennial at, 833 sq. 

Philip II, king of Spain, sends the Armada to 
England, 57 ; great power and revenue of, 890. 

Philip, King, Indian chief, makes war on settlers, 
122, 123 ; death of, 128. 

Philip's War, King, 121 sq. ; cost of, 123. 

Philippine Islands, a possession of Spain, cap- 
tured by England, re-ceded to Spain, 193 ; taken 
by the United States, 892, 895 ; ceded to the 
United States, 896 ; extent, soil, natives of, 
896 ; revolt against American rule in, 897 ; 
pacification of, 898 ; government of, 898, 899. 

Phillips, William, Burgoyne's artillerist, 269; In 
Virginia, 809. 

Phillips, Wendell, defends Abolitionists, 510 ; 652. 

Phipps, Sir William, captures Port Koyal, sails 



against Quebec, becomes governor of Mass» 
chusetts, 164. 

Pickens, Andrew, 804.' 

Pickering, Timothy, secretary of state, 860; con. 
spires to disrujit the Union, 888, 839. 

Pickett, George E., makes famous charge at Get- 
tysburg, 745; at Five Forks, 770. 

Pierce, Franklin, in Mexican War, 582 ; nomi- 
nated for presidency, 503 ; notice of, 563 ; elec- 
tion of, 566 ; inaugurated, 571 ; popularity of, 
wanes, 572. 

Pierpont, Francis H., governor of Virginia, 654, 
655. 

Pigott, Sir Robert, holds Newport, 297. 

Pike, Albert, commands Indians at Pea Kidge, 
6SS. 

Pike, Zebulon, explores Northwest, 888 ; cap- 
tures York, is killed, 426. 

Pilgrims, as Separatists settle in Leyden, set out 
for America in the Mayjlower, 99 ; land at 
Plymouth, Massachusetts, 100. 

Pillow, Gideon J., in Mexican War, 532 ; at Fort 
Donelson, 681, 682. 

Pinckney, Charles, 460. 

Pinckney, Charles C, In Constitutional Conven- 
tion, 828; sent to France, 860; candidate for 
presidency, 394. 

Pinckney, Thomas, 415. 

Pinkney, William, 896, 412, 418 ; favors slavery 
in Missouri, 460. 

Pinzon, Alonzo, aids Columbus, 10 ; commands 
the Pinta in famous voyage, 12 ; separates 
from Columbus, 18. 

Pinzon, Vincent, commands the Nina In voyage, 
12. 

Pirates, the, 96, 97. 

Pitcairn, John, opens war at Lexington, 289 ; 
killed at Bunker Hill, 247. 

Pitt, William, Earl of Chatham, becomes English 
premier, sends fleet against Louisburg, 186; 
plans to conquer Canada, 189 ; anecdote of, 
195 ; speaks for colonies, 228 ; again premier. 
229 ; tribute of, to Continental Congresa, 286; 
death of, 279. 

Pittsburg, birthplace of the Republican party, 
582 ; center of railroad strike, 845. 

Piatt, Thomas C, resigns from the Senate, 858. 

Piatt Amendment, the, 901. 

Plattsburg, battle of, 484. 

Plymouth, England, Pilgrims embark from, 99. 

Plymouth, Massachusetts, landing place of the 
Pilgrims, 100. 

Plymouth colony, settled by Pilgrims, 100 ; goT- 
ernment of, a pure democracy, 102 ; purchssei 
its freedom, 102; joins confederation, 120; Is 
joined to Massachusetts, 126. 

Plymouth Company, attempts to found a colony 
on coast of Maine, 61 rote 4 ; merges lnt« 
CouncU for New England, 104. 



INDEX 



Pocahontas, rescues John Smith, 63 ; marries 
John Kolfe, goes to England, dies, 64. 

Toe, Edgar Allan, 476, 619. 

Point Pleasant, battle of, 290. 

Polk, James Kno.x, nominated for presidency, 
519 ; characteristics of, 523 ; agrees to com- 
promise on Oregon boundary, 525, 526. 

Polk, Leonidas, 557 ; at Columbus, Kentucky, 
679 ; at Perryville, 717 ; incident of, 717 note 1 ; 
killed at Eine Mountain, 759. 

Polk, William, 416. 

Polo, Marco, journey to Cathay, 5 ; relates his 
travels, 6. 

Pomeroy Circular, the, 762. 

Ponce, Porto Rico, surrenders to Miles, 894. 

Ponce de Leon, see Leon. 

Pontiac, Indian chief, conspiracy of, 194; charac- 
teristics of, 195. 

Pope, John, captures Island No. 10, 687 ; cam- 
paign of, in Virginia, 706 sq ; at second Bull 
Run, 708. 

Population, 621, 647; 904 and note. See also 
under various colonies, and American Chro- 
nology. 

Porter, David, in command of the Essex, 421 ; 
at Valparaiso, 425 ; at Wilmington, North 
Carolina, 768. 

Porter, David D., commands fleet at New Orleans, 
6S9 ; at Vicksburg, 786. 

Porter, Fitz-John, at Gaines Mills, 698 ; court- 
martialed and dismissed, 707 note 2. 

Port Hudson, surrenders to Banks, 739. 

Porto Rico, American armies in, 894 ; civil gov- 
ernment established in, free trade with, 899, 
900. 

Port Royal, Acadia, captured by Phipps, 164 ; 
becomes Annapolis, 165. 

Postal rates, 562. See Mails. 

Pottawatomie massacre, 591. 

Powhatan, Indian chief, 66. 

Prentiss, Benjamin M., in command at Cairo, 
669 ; at Pittsburg Landing, 683 ; captured, 685. 

Presbyterians, in Pennsylvania, 204 ; growth and 
mission work of, 620. 

Prescott, William, commands at Bunker Hill, 
245. 

Prescott, William H., historian, 619. 

President, the, fires on the Little Belt, 412, 418. 

President, the, method of electing, 832. 

Presidential Succession law, 863. 

Presque Isle, Erie, founded by the French, 172. 

Press, the cyUnder, invention of, 617. 

Prevost, Augustine, British commander In the 
South, 302. 

Prevost, Sir George, governor general of Canada, 
427 ; invades New York, 488, 484. 

Price, Sterling, 652 ; at Wilson's Creek, 658 ; at 
Pea Ridge, 687 ; at luka, 718; at Corinth, 719. 

Prideaux, General, killed before Niagara, 189. 



Princeton, battle of, 265. 

Printz, John, governor of New Sweden, 150. 

Privateering, in War of 1812, 425 S(]. ; remarki 
on, 42G. 

Proctor, Henry, British commander in North- 
west, 429 ; is defeated at the Thames, 431. 

Prohibition party, 837 ; nominates Neal Dow for 
the presidency, 852 ; nominates St. John, 857 ; 
nominates Bidwell, 874. 

Prophet, the, Indian chief, 411. 

Proprietary government, origin of, 75. 

Ptolemy, his theory of the earth, 4. 

Public Opinion, the universal master, 691 ; tyr- 
anny of, 692. 

Pulaski, Count, arrives in America, 278 ; death 
of, 802. 

Punishments, in colonial times, 200. 

Puritanism, waxes strong in England, 103 ; de- 
cHnes in England and America, 124. 

Puritans, gain control of Virginia company, 68 ; 
gain control of Maryland, degraded by Crom- 
well, 81 ; persecuted by Charles I and Laud, 
103 ; distinguished from Pilgrims, 104 ; become 
Separatists, 106 ; move to Connecticut Valley, 
113 sq. ; laws and character of, 127 sq. ; settle 
in New Jersey, 146 ; town life and customs of, 
202. 

Putnam, Israel, 187 ; leaves plow to join the 
army, 240 ; at Bunker Hill, 246 ; guards Phila- 
delphia, 263 ; note on, 267. 

Putnam, Rufus, " Fatjjer of Ohio," 379. 

Quakers, the, settle in Maryland, 81 ; arrive in 
Massachusetts, executed, 110 ; occupy West 
Jersey, 148 ; characteristics of, decide to found 
a colony in America, 152 ; oppose slavery, 199, 
457. 

Quebec, founding of, 160 ; attacked by Phipps, 
164 ; situation of, 189 ; invested by British 
under Wolfe, 190; surrenders to Wolfe, 192; 
assaulted by Americans, 249. 

Quebec act, 234. 

Queenstown Heights, battle of, 419. 

Quitman, John A., in Mexican War, 532. 

Race problem, the, 799 sq. See Negroes ana 
Slavery. 

Railroads, development of, 474, 475; 618; act for 
Pacific Railroad passed, 730 ; completed, 818. 

Raisin River massacre, 429. 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 57 ; father of English coloni- 
zation in America, attainments of, receives 
charter and sends first colony and second, 59 ; 
writes " History of the World," is imprisoned 
and beheaded by James I, 60. 

Rail, Johann, killed at Trenton, 263. 

Randolph, Edmund, in Constitutional Conven- 
tion, 328 ; presents plan of Union, 329 ; in first 
Cabinet, 343 ; at Burr's trial, 393. 



INDEX 



Randolph, Edward, builds up liberal party in 
New Kng-Iand, 124. 

Randolph, John, opposes administration, 896 ; 
duel of, -with Henry Clay, 468, 469 ; 559 note ; 
561. 

Ean^olph, Peyton, 248 note. 

Rawdon, Lord, arrives at Charleston, 802 ; esti- 
mate of, 315. 

Raymond, battle of, 787. 

Raymondj Henry J., 582; chairman Republican 
national committee in 1864, predicts Lincoln's 
defeat, 763, 764; leads Johnson Republicans, 
797. 

Read, George, in First Congress, 342. 

Reconstruction, no precedent for, in history, 
786 ; Lincoln's plan of, 787 ; congressional bill 
for, 788; Johnson's plan of, 792; congressional, 
795, 798; provisions of, 798; results of, 799, 
802 ; undoing of, 803, 804. 

Eedemptioners, indented servants, 199. 

Red Jacket, Indian chief, 432 note 2. 

Red River Expedition, 758. 

Reed, Thomas B., introduces new rules In the 
House, 868 ; reelected speaker of the House, 
889. 

Keeder, Andrew H., governor of Kansas, 587 ; 
dismissed, 588. 

Reformation in England, 56. 

Reformed Church, Dutch, 188. 

Regulating Act, 234. 

Reid, Whitelaw, nominated for vice presidency, 
874. 

Reno, Jesse L., at Chantilly, 708; killed at 
South Mountain, 709. 

Republican party, founded by Jefferson, see 
Democratic party. 

Republican party, the, founding of, 578 sq. ; 
components of, 581 ; first defection in, 677; be- 
comes divided over reconstruction, 786 sg. ; 
deceptive platform of, in 1868, 814 ; achieve- 
ments of, 822. 

Republican, Liberal, party, 822 sq. ; nominates 
Greeley, 824 ; dissolved, 832. 

Resaca de la Palma, battle of, 527. 

Resumption Act, 833, 844. 

Returning boards, created in the South, 817 ; give 
electoral votes to Hayes, 838, 839. 

Revere, Paul, 235; famous ride of, 238; notice 
of, 242 ; 336. 

Revolution, the American, remote causes of, 220, 
221 ; first battle of, 289 ; account of, 220-317 ; 
results of, 813 sq. ; magnitude ,_ of, compared 
with the Civil War, 780. 

Revolution, the English, 163. 

Revolution, the French, 351 sq. ; effect of, on 
America, 352. 

Reynolds, John F., killed at Gettysburg, 742. 

Rhode Island, colony of, founded by Roger Wil- 
liams, 115 ; religions liberty, restriction of suf- 



frage, receives a charter, 116; receives a second 
charter, 116; government of, 116, 117; yields 
to Andros, 125 ; moves for independence, 252. 

Rhode Island, state of, refuses impost tax, 822 ; 
takes no part in Constitutional Conventions, 
331 ; becomes Democratic, 882 ; refuses militia 
for War of 1812, 416 ; Dorr rebellion in, 522. 

Kiall, General, defeated by Scott at Chippewa, 

4;n. 

Rice, Introduced in the Carolinas froln Madagas- 
car, 92. 

Richmond, Virginia, Burr's trial at, 898 ; be- 
comes Confederate capital, 645; McClellan's 
objective point, 694 ; occupied by Union army, 
burning of, 771. 

Riedesel, Baron, Hessian commander, 269. 

liiedesel, Baroness, 274 ; extracts from diary of, 
288. 

Ripley, Eleazar, at Lundy's Lane, 438. 

Roanoke Island, settled by Raleigh's colony, 59 ; 
lost colony of, 60 ; captured by Burnside, 671. 

Roberts, Brigham H., excluded from the House, 
902. 

Robertson, James, 291. 

Robertson, W. H., 852. 

Robinson, Charles, leads emigrants to Kansas, 
587. 

Robinson, John, pastor of the Pilgrims at Ley- 
den, 99. 

Rochanibeau, Count, arrives from France, 809. 

Rockingham, marquis of, premier of England, 
228 ; again premier, dies, 312. 

Rodgers, John, fires on Little Belt, 412. 

Rodney, Admiral, 810 ; defeats the French, 314. 

Rolfe, John, marries Pocahontas, 64. 

Roosevelt, Theodore, leader of Rough Riders In 
Cuba, 893 ; becomes President, 905 ; secures 
settlement of the miners' strike, 905 ; author- 
ized to construct Isthmian Canal, 909; urges 
the building of canal at Panama, 911. 

Rose, George, minister from England, 398. 

Rosecrans, W. S., in command in West Virginia, 
669; at luka, 718; at Corinth, at Stone River, 
719 ; at Chickamauga, 749. 

Ross, Robert, captures Washington, 485, 486; 
killed before Baltimore, 437. 

Rule of 1756, revival of, 355, 895. 

Rumsey, James, an Inventor of the steamboat, 
379. 

Rush, Dr. Benjamin, 284. 

Russia, attitude of, during the CItU War, 779. 
See Czar of. 

Uutledge, John, 258; In Constitutional Conven- 
tion, 828. 

Ryswick, Treaty of, 164. 

Sacramento, terminus of Pacific Railroad, 818. 
St. Augustine, founding of, 55 note 1; rep«Is 
Oglethorpe, 95 ; captured by Jackson, 454. 



xxvl 



INDEX 



St. Clair, Arthur, at Ticonderoga, 269 ; defeated 
by Indians in Ohio, 379, 880. 

St. John, John P., candidate for President, 857. 

St. Leger, General, 268 ; flees to Canada, 271. 

St. Louis, national conventions at, 836, 887 ; dedi- 
cation of World's Fair buildings at, 906. 

St. Mary's, Maryland, founded, 79. 

St. Phihps, Fort, 689. 

Salem, Massachusetts, Endicott migrates to, 104 ; 
witchcraft delusion in, 110. 

Salisbury, Lord, English premier, in Venezuelan 
affair, 884, 885. 

Salzburgers, settle in Georgia, 94. 

Samoa, affairs at, 872. 

Samoset, Wampanoag Indian, 101. 

Sampson, William T.", in Cuban waters, 892, 894. 

San Domingo, annexation of, urged by Grant, 
818. 

Sandys, Sir Edwin, gains control of Virginia 
company, 66, 67 ; aids the Pilgrims, 99. 

San Francisco, reception of news of gold discov- 
ery at, 535. 

Sanitary and Christian Commissions, the, 747. 

San Jacinto, battle of, 517. 

San Jacinto, the, overhauls the Trent, 665. 

San Juan, battle of, 893. 

Santa Anna, Antonio, defeated at San Jacinto, 
517 ; character of, restoration to Mexico, 526, 
527 ; at Cerro Gordo, 531. 

Santiago, battle of, 894. 

Santiago, Cuba, surrenders to the Americans, 804. 

Saratoga, battles of, 273 ; surrender of Burgoyne 
at, 275. 

Savannah, Georgia, founded by Oglethorpe, 94 ; 
captured by the British, 802 ; captured by 
Sherman, 766. 

Saj'le, William, founder and first governor of 
South Carolina, 88, 89. 

Schenectady, New York, destroyed by Indians, 
163. 

Schley, Winfleld 8., rescues the Greely party, 
877 ; in Cuban waters, 892 ; at battle of 
Santiago, 894. 

Sch'jfleld, John M., with Sherman before Atlanta, 
758, 759 ; confronts Hood at Franklin, 767 ; 
joins Sherman, 769. 

Schurz, Carl, at Gettysburg, 742 ; in the Senate, 
816. 

Schuyler, Philip, in command at the North, 269 ; 
obstructs Burgoyne's progress, 270 ; is super- 
seded by Gates," 272 ; 289 ; 817 ; in first Con- 
gress, 342. 

Scotch-Irish, migrate to Virginia, 73 ; to North 
Carolina, 87; to New York, 146; to Pennsyl- 
vania, 159 ; character of, 159. 

Scots, settle in New York, 146. 

Scott, Dred, sues for freedom, 596. 

Scott, Winfield, at Qiieenstown, 419 ; at Chip- 
pewa, 431 ; at Lundy's Lane, 482 ; sent to 



South CaroHna, 492 ; defeats the Creeks, 497 ; 
is sent to Vera Cruz, 529, 530 ; at Cerro Gordo, 
531 ; ascends the Cordilleras, 533 ; captures 
Mexico, 533 ; compared with Taylor, 537 ; 
nominated for the presidency, 565; 655 ; retire- 
ment of, 692. 

Seal fisheries, 873. 

Secession, threats of, 540, 628 ; right and pretext 
for, 628 ; of South CaroHna, 629 ; of Mississippi, 
of Florida, of Alabama, 629 ; of Georgia, of 
Louisiana, of Texas, 630 ; constitutional right 
of, 682; of Virginia, of North Carolina, of 
Arkansas, of Tennessee, 645. 

Sedgwick, John, at Chancellorsville, 724 ; killed 
at Spottsylvania, 754. 

Semmes, Kaphael, commander of the Alabama, 
777. 

Senate, the United States, composition of, in 
first Congress, 342 ; ratifies Jay Treaty, 857 ; 
censures Jackson, 495; elects Johnson Vico 
President, 502 ; balanced between free and 
slave states, 534. See under various treaties 
and acts of Congress. 

Separatists, 98; at Scrooby, remove to Amster- 
dam, then Leyden, henceforth called Pilgrims, 
99. 

Serapis, the, in sea fight, 295. 

Sevier, John, 291 ; at King's Mountain, 306. 

Sewall, Arthur, nominated for Vice President, 
888. 

Sewall, Judge, confession of, 129. 

Seward, William II., 493 ; makes great speech in 
the Senate, 544 ; refuses to be candidate for 
President, 5S3 ; leader of Republican thought, 
610 ; in Lincoln's Cabinet, 041 ; aims to secure 
neutraUty in Europe, 603; addresses circular 
to state governors, 664; attempted assassina- 
tion of, 773, 791 ; influence over President 
Johnson, 791 ; on Alabama claims, 819. 

Sewing machine, invented by Howe, 617. 

Seymour, Horatio, quells draft riot, 728 ; nomi- 
nated for presidency, 815. 

Shafter, William R., in command in Cuba, 893. 

Shannon, the, captures the Chesapeake, 423. 

Shannon, Wilson, governor of Kansas, 588, 591. 

Shays's rebellion, 823, 349. 

Sheaffe, General, succeeds Brook, 419 ; defends 
York, 426. 

Shelburne, Earl of, negotiates Treaty of Paris, 
312. 

Shelby, Isaac, at King's Mountain, 806 ; in War 
of 1812, 430. 

Shenandoah, the. Confederate privateer, 778. 

Shenandoah Valley, devastated by Sheridan, 757. 

Sheridan, Philip H., 720 ; devastates Shenandoah 
Valley, at Opequan, 757; defeats Early at 
Cedar Creek, 758 ; at Five Forks, 770 ; sent to 
Texas, 779 ; estimate of, 782. 

Sherman, John, on committee to Kansas, 690; 



INDEX 



659 ; opinion of, on Tenure of Office law, 808 ; 
in the Senate, 816 ; brings about resumption of 
specie payments, 844. 

Sherman, Roger, member Continental Congress, 
235, 253 note 1 ; in Constitutional Convention, 
328; at Washington's inauguration, 339. 

Sherman, Thomas W., in expedition to Port 
Royal, 672. 

Sherman, William Tecumseh, at Louisville, 679 
note; at Shiloh, 683, 684; notice of, 686; de- 
feated at Chickasaw, captures Arkansas Post, 
735; reaches Chattanooga, 750; sent to Knox- 
ville, 751 ; leaves Chattanooga for Atlanta, 758 ; 
defeated at Kenesaw, 759 ; captures Atlanta, 
760 ; marches from Atlanta to the sea, 765, 
766 ; captures Savannah, 766 ; leaves Savannah 
to join Grant, 768; receives surrender of John- 
ston, 772 and note 1 ; estimate of, 782 ; mild 
attitude of, toward the South, 787. 

Sherman Silver law, enacted, 869 ; repealed, 880. 

Shirley, William, governor of Massachusetts, 
sends expedition to Louisburg, 169 ; decides 
on dispersion of the Acadians, 181 ; proposes 
stamp tax for America, 225. 

Shirley, William, Jr., secretary to General Brad- 
dock, 178; killed on Braddock's Field, 181. 

Sickles, Daniel E., at ChancellorsvUle, 723, 724 ; 
at Gettysburg, 748, 744. 

Sigel, Franz, 706 note 2 ; at Martinsburg, 756. 

Silver, discovered in Nevada, 618 ; demonetized 
by Congress, 831. See Demonetization, Bland- 
Allison, and Sherman laws. See also Free 
SUver. 

Simms, WiUlam Gllmore, 619. 

Sioux Indians, 39 ; defeat Custer, 828. 

Sitting Bull, leader of the Sionx, 828. 

Slavery, Introduced into Virginia, 67 ; in South 
Carolina, 88 ; in Georgia, 96; in New England, 
198 ; in the South, 199 ; during colonial period, 
457; in Missouri, 459; attacked by the Aboli- 
tionists, 509, 510, 512 ; excluded from Cali- 
fornia, 539 ; character of. In the South, 556 nq. ; 
population, 021 ; abolished in District of Co- 
lumbia, in new territories, 713 ; abolished by 
Thirteenth Amendment, 793, 794. 

Slave tax, 368. 

Slave trade, left open for twenty-one years in 
Constitution, 331 ; 446; prohibition of, by law, 
450. 

Slidell, John, sent to purchase California, 526; is 
sent to France on the Trent, 664 ; captured, 
665 ; released, 667. 

Slocum, Henry W., in Sherman's march to the 
sea, 765. 

Sloughter, governor of New York, signs warrant 
to execute Leisler and Milborne, 144. 

Smith, Caleb B., in Lincoln's Cabinet, 641. 

Smith, Charles F., at Fort Donelson, 680, 6S1 ; 
dies, 685 note. 



Smith, E. Kirby, 717 ; at Stone River, 719, 720 ; 
surrender of, 772. 

Smith, Franci.s, commanded British at Lexington 
and Concord, 238, 239. 

Smith, Gerrit, aids in Jerry rescue, 551 ; fur- 
nishes money for John Brown, 607. 

Smith, Hoko, in Cleveland's Cabinet, 878. 

Smith, John, in Burr's conspiracy, 392. 

Smith, John, migrates to Jamestown, 62 ; ad- 
ventures of, captured by Indians, saved by 
Pocahontas, 63 ; becomes governor of Virginia, 
explores the Chesapeake, 64; explores and 
names New England, 104; writes Henry 
Hudson, 132. 

Smith, Joseph, founder of Mormonlsm, 620. 

Smith, Robert, secretary of state, 409. 

Smith, Samuel, senator from Maryland, 409. 

Smith, William, fugitive slave, 550. 

Smuggling, in the colonies, 218. 

Smyth, General Alexander, 418 ; succeeds V»n 
Rensselaer, 420. 

Social life, in the colonies, 198 sq. ; in 1830, 
478 sq. 

Sothel, Seth, governor of North Carolina, 85 ; of 
South Carolina, driven from the colony, 89. 

Soto, Ferdinand de, early life, joins in conquest 
of Peru, 41 ; embarks for Florida, 42; attacked 
by Indians, 43, 49 ; visits Indian queen, 48 ; in 
battle of Mavila, 49-50 ; discovers the Missis- 
sippi, dies, 52. 

Soul6, Pierre, issues Ostend Manifesto, 572. 

South, the, colonies of, settlements in, 55 sq. ; 
mixed population in, 198 ; social rank in, 200 ; 
British attack on, 255 ; war transferred to, 288, 
290, 301 sq. ; population of, 647 ; advantages 
and disadvantages of, at opening of the Civil 
War, 64S ; losses of by the Civil War, 780, 781 ; 
sympathy for, 795; why "solid," 800; white 
domination essential to, 801 ; resources of, 844, 
845, 883 ; great progress of since the war, 883. 

South Carolina, colony of, charter for, earliest 
attempts at settling, differs from other colonies, 
88 ; popular government in, 69 ; Church of 
England established in, attacked by Indians, 
90 ; issues paper money, 91 ; revolution in, 
becomes royal colony, 91 ; slave insurrection 
in, products of, 92, 206 ; slavery in, population 
In 1760, character of society, 93 ; social life in, 
206. 

South Carolina, state of, favors foreign slave 
trade, 331 ; ratifies Constitution, 336 ; gradual ^ 
estrangement of, from the Union, 487 ; passes 
nullification ordinance, 491 ; agrees to com- 
promise, 491; secedes from the Union, 629; 
under carpetbag rule, 800 ; disfranchises the 
negroes, 804; disputed election in, 839. 

South Divkota, becomes a state, 839. 

Spain, takes lead in discovery and exploration, 
40; gains possession of South America and 



xxviil 



INDEX 



Mexico, claims Nortli America, 55 ; motives of, 
for colonizing, 55 ; causes of her downfall, 56 
890 ; declares war against England, 296 
decides to close the Mississippi, 323 ; 462, 463 
pays American claims, 496 ; sends fleet to 
Mexico, 778 ; war with, 889 sq. ; cedes Porto 
Rico to the United States, 894 ; present condi- 
tion of, 895 ; cedes the Philippines to the 
United States, 896. 

Spoils system, introduced by Jackson, 484. 

Spottswood, Alexander, governor of Virginia, 73 ; 
opinion of American morals, 200. 

Spottsylvania, battle of, 754. 

Springfield, Illinois, burial place of Lincoln, 774. 

Squanto, aids the l^ilgrims, 101. 

Stagecoach, use of, in colonial times, 209. 

Stamp Act, the, 224; first proposals of, 225; 
causes riots, 227 ; remarks on, 228. 

Stamp Act Congress, 227. 

Standard Oil Company, organized, 864. 

Standish, Miles, joins Pilgrims in Mayflower, 99 ; 
sent to England by Plymouth, 102, 

Stanton, Edwin M., in Buchanan's Cabinet, 634 ; 
becomes Lincoln's secretary of war, 695; is 
suspended hy Johnson, 806 ; is removed, 807 ; 
appointed to the Supreme Court, death of, 810. 

Stanwix, Fort, 268, 270. 

Star of the West, driven from Charleston Har- 
bor, 638. 

Star-route frauds, 855. 

" Star-Spangled Banner," writing of, 437. 

Stark, John, 187 ; 264 ; In command at Benning- 
ton, 271, 272 ; 816. 

State governments, 326. 

State rights, 345 ; a weapon for the slaveholder, 
626 and note. 

Staten Island, British army on, 256. 

States-General of France, 352. 

Steamboat, the, development of, 40T, 478 ; 618. 

Stedman, Fort, battle of, 770. 

Stephen, General, at Germantown, 282 and note. 

Stephens, Alexander H., opposes Scott, 566 ; 
elected Vice President of the Confederacy, 
631, 705. 

Stephens, Samuel, governor of North Carolina, 
85. 

Stephenson, Fort, attacked by British, 429. 

Steuben, Baron, aids the Americans, 278; drills 
soldiers at Valley Forge, 284; 307; at Wash- 
ington's inauguration, 339. 

Stevens, John, inventor, 474. 

Stevens, John L., minister to Hawaii, 878. 

Stevens, , Thaddeus, 493 ; leader in Congrress, 
659 ; loads radicals in the House, 787, 795 ; 
moves great reconstruction measure, 797; 
moves the impeachment of Johnson, 807 ; char- 
acteristics and death of, 812. 

Stevenson, Adlai E., nominated for vice presi- 
dency, 874. 



Stewart, J. E. B., captures John Brown, 604; 
makes circuit of Union army, 698. 

Stewart, William M., withdraws from Republi 
can convention, SS8. 

Still, WiUiam, 555. 

Stirhng, "Lord," 257 and note 1. 

Stone, Charles P., at Ball's Bluff, arrest of, 692. 

Stone, William, governor of Maryland, 80 ; de- 
graded from office, 81. 

Stoneman, George, cavalry leader, 769. 

Stone Pviver, battle of, 719, 720. 

Stony Point, captured by Wayne, 297. 

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 555, 619, 620. 

Strikes : railroad strike, 845, 884 ; miners, 905. 

Stny vesaut, Peter, governor of New Netherland, 
character of, chooses assembly, 136 ; conquers 
New Sweden, 137, 151 ; later career of, 139, 
140. 

Sullivan, General John, 248 ; captured at Brook- 
lyn Heights, 257; sent to Philadelphia, 258; 
joins Washington, 263 ; at Brandywine, 281 ; 
at Germantown, 282 ; raids Indian country, 294 ; 
is sent against Newport, 297 ; 317. 

Sumner, Charles, elected to the Senate, 548 ; 
speaks against Fugitive Slave law, 572 note 3 ; 
speaks on "Crime against Kans.as," 589; as- 
saulted by Brooks, 590 ; leads radicals in the 
Senate, 787, 795; estranged from Grant, 819 
and note. 

Sumner, Edwin V., commands a corps in Mc- 
Clellan's army, 694 note 1 ; at Fair Oaks, 696, 
697 ; at Fredericksburg, 721 ; relieved, 722. 

Sumter, Fort, occupied by Anderson, 638 ; ob- 
ject of contention, 642 ; bombardment of, 643, 
effect of, on North and South, 643, 644; re- 
stored, 773. 

Sumter, Thomas, "South Carolina Gamecock," 
804, 805, 307 ; in first Congress, 343. 

Surprise, the, privateersman, 425. 

Sutter, John A., 535. 

Swansea, attacked by Indians, 122. 

Swedes, colonize Delaware, 150 ; conquered by 
the Dutch, 187, 151 ; naturalized by Penn, 156. 

Sykes, George, at Gettysburg, 744. 

Taft, William R., at head of Philippine Commis- 
sion, 897 ; governor of the Philippines, 898 ; in 
Roosevelt's Cabinet, 899. 

Talmadge, James, opposes slavery in Missouri, 
459. 

Tammanj' Hall, 867 and note. 

Taney, Roger B., in Jackson's Cabinet, 488; re- 
moves bank deposits, 494 ; becomes chief 
justice, 499 ; renders Dred Scott decision, 596. 

Tariff, the: first framed, 348; of 1816, 458; of 
1824, 465 ; North and South change places con- 
cerning, 487; of "Abominations," 488; op- 
posed by South Carolina, 491 ; Walker Tariff, 
524 ; of 1857, 524 ; of 1888, 856 ; McKinley 



INDEX 



xxiX 



Tariff, 867 ; Wilson Tariff, 881 ; Dingley Tariff, 
889. 

Tarleton, Banistre, defeats Sumter, 805 ; defeated 
at Cowpens, 807 ; in Virginia, 809 ; estimate of, 
815. 

Tatnall, Josiah, in command at Port Koyal, 
672 ; abandons it, 673. 

Tavern, the New England, 202. 

Taylor, John W., opposes slavery in Missouri, 
459. 

Taylor, Eichard, surrenders Confederate army, 
772. 

Taylor, Zachary, sent to Texas, defeats Mexicans, 
527 ; captures Monterey, .528 ; at Baena Vista, 
528 ; compared with Scott, 5-S7 ; nominated for 
tl;e presidency, 5!?7 ; character of, 538, 539 ; 
death of, 545. 

Tea, landed in New York, Philadelphia, Charles- 
ton, Boston, destroj'ed in Boston harbor, 233. 

Tecumseh, Indian chief, aspires to unite tribes, 
opposes treaty with Harrison, 410, 411 ; with 
Proctor in Northwest, 429 ; killed at the 
Thames, 431 ; stories of, 448. 

Telegraph, the, first practical use of, 519 ; in- 
vented by Morse, 522, 616. 

Telephone, the, invented by Bell and Gray, 876. 

Temperance issue, the, 581. 

Tennessee, becomes a state, 879 ; secedes from 
the Union, 645 ; lost to Confederates at Shiloh, 
704; readmitted, 796. 

Tennessee River, course of, 679. 

Tennessee Valley, first settled, 291, 379. 

Tenure of Ofrice law, passed, 805 ; violated by 
Johnson, 807 ; modified, 817. 

Terry, Alfred H., at Wilmington, 768; joins 
Sherman, 769. 

Texas, revolts against Mexico, 516, .517; seeks 
admission to the Union, 517 ; admitted to the 
Union, 534; receives payment for claims on 
New Mexico, .546 ; 624 ; secedes, 630. 

Thames, the battle of, 431. 

Thayer, Eli, organizes Emigrant Aid Company, 
587. 

Thomas, George H., in command at Mill Spring, 
678 ; at Stone River, 720 ; at Chickamauga, 
749 ; succeeds Rosecrans, 750 ; occupies Nash- 
ville, 767; defeats Hood at Nashville, 768; 
estimate of, 782. 

Thomson, Wiley, assassinated by Osceola, 497. 

Thornton, Sir Edward, proposes Joint High 
Commission, 820 and note. 

Thurman, Allan G., in the Senate, 817 ; nomi- 
nated for Vice President, 866. 

Ticonderoga, Fort, defeat of the English before, 
187 ; surrenders to Ethan Allen, 240 ; captured 
by British, 269. 

Tilden, Samuel J., governor of New York, 883 ; 
nominated for President, notice of, 836, 837. 

Tippecanoe, battle of, 411. 



Tobacco, first introduced into England, 59; 
becomes staple in Virginia, 66. 

Toleration Act in Maryland, 80. 

Tompkins, iJaiiiel 1)., elected Vice President, 453. 

Toombs, Robert, 506 ; in Davis's Cabinet, 682 ; 
on firing on Fort Sumter, 642. 

Topeka, Kansas, founded, 587; constltutioa 
framed at, .589. 

Toral, General, surrenders Santiago, 894. 

Tories, see Loyalists. 

Toronto (York), captured by Pike, 426. 

Toscanelli, Florentine astronomer, 8. 

Townshcnd, Charles, lays tax on tea, glass, etc., 
229. 

Traveling, moans of, in colonial times, 208, 209, 
877. 

Treasury, the independent, .505, 524. 

Trent, the, stopped by the San Jacinto, 666. 

Trent affair, the, 601 nq. 

Trenton, battle of, 263. 

Trenton, New Jersey, honors Washington, 339. 

Tripoli, war with, 382. 

Trist, Nicholas B., .533,' .544. 

Troup, governor of Georgia, defies tho govern- 
ment, 471. 

True-blooded Yankee, the, privateersman, 425. 

Trumbull, Jonathan, in first Congress, 843. 

Trumbull, Lyman, 6.59 ; at Johnson's trial, 810 ; 
opposes Grant's ronomination, 822 ; before Lib- 
eral convention, 824. 

Trust, anti-, law, passed, 869. 

Tryon, governor of North Carolina, fires on 
regulators, 230. 

Tubman, Harriet, .5.5.5. 

Turks, the, conquer Armenia and Asia Minor, 1. 

Tuscarora Indians, lead in massacre in North 
Carolina, remove to New Yfirk, 86. 

Tweed Ring, the, exposed by Tilden, 836 ; l>41. 

Twelve Men, the, called by Governor Kieft, 135. 

Twiggs, David E., at Cerro Gordo, 531, 632; 
surrenders army in Texas, 639. 

Twiller, Wouter van, governor of New Nether- 
land, 1.34 ; character of, recill, 1.35. 

Tyler, John, 46ii ; is elected Vice President, 606, 
607; becomes President, record of, 514; vetoes 
Whig bank bills, 515 ; is read out of the party, 
515 ; fails to form new party or win the Demo- 
crats, 516 ; attempts annexation of Texas, 517, 
618 ; narrowly escapes death, 518 ; is nominated 
for presidency, 519 ; withdraws, 520 ; retire- 
ment of, 623 ; President of Peace Congress, 
523, 635. 

Tyler, Robert 0., .at Bull Run, 656. 

" Uncle Tom's Cabin," .5.55 ; reception of, .566. 

Underground Railroad, the, 553 sq. 

Underbill, John, marches against Indians, \Z\ 

136. 
United States, the, defeats the Macedonian, 41^ 



INDEX 



Upshur, Abel P., secretary of state, killed, 617. 
Dtrecht, Treaty of, 166. 

"Vaca, Cabeza de, 64. 

Vallaudigham, Clement L., 728 ; arrested by 
Burnside, sentenced, banished, escapes to 
Canada, 729 ; defeated for governor of Ohio, 
730 ; death of, 730 note i. 

Valley Forge, encampment at, 288 gq. 

Van Buren, Martin, in Jackson's Cabinet, 481 
strategy of, 483 ; becomes Vice President, 499 
becomes President, 501 ; notice of, 502, 503 
suggests independent treasury, 505 ; defeat of, 
by Hi^rison, 507; defeat of, by Democratic 
convention, 518, 519 ; heads Free Soil ticket 
for presidency, 538. 

Van Dorn, Earl, 686; at Pea Ridge, 687; at 
luka, 718 ; at Corinth, 719 ; occupies Vicksburg, 

733 ; captures Holly Springs, 735. 

Vane, Harry, governor of Massachusetts, 108 ; 

favors Anne Hutchinson, 109. 
Van Rensselaer, Stephen, 418; resigns, 420. 
Vaudreuil, governor of Canada, 166 ; quarrels 

with Montcalm, 1S9. 
Venango, Fort, built by the French, 172. 
Venezuela, boundary dispute with England, 884, 

885 and note 1. 
Venice, commercial rival of Genoa and Constan- 
tinople, 2. 
Vera Cruz, surrenders to Scott, 531. 
Vergennes, French minister, aids colonists, 276. 
Vermont, colony of, " New Hampshire Grants," 

set apart, 118 ; rebels against New Yorkers, 

119. 
Vespuclus, Americus, voyages of, across the 

Atlantic, name of, given the New World, 25. 
Vicksburg, neglected by Halleck, occupied by 

Van Dorn, 733 ; Grant attempts cajiture of, 

734 ; grand assault on, 738 ; surrender of, to 
Grant, 738, 739. 

Victoria, queen of England, proclaims neutrality, 
668. 

Vincennes, founded by the French, 168 ; cap- 
tured by Clark, 292. 

Virginia, named by EHzabeth, 59 ; comprises all 
eastern North America, 60 ; divided between 
London and Plymouth companies, 61. 

Virginia, colony of, fii st settled, suffering in, 62 ; 
receives second charter, 64 ; third, starving time 
in, 65 ; slaves first sold in, 67 ; becomes royal 
colony, 69 ; under the Commonwealth, 69 ; 
" first families " of, 70 ; population in 1700, ex- 
tends beyond the Alleghanies, 78 ; quarrels with 
Maryland, 79 ; most populous colony, 198 ; 
rural life in, 205 ; adopts anti-British resolu- 
tions, 226 ; adopts " Virginia resolutions," 230 ; 
pronounces for independence, 252. 

Virginia, state of, claims western lands, 319 ; calls 
Annapolis convention, 824 ; approves Constttu- 



tlonal Convention, 325 ; opposes Constitution, 
336 ; ratifies, 337 ; retains tract in Ohio, 379 ; 
considers emancipation of her slaves, 510 • 
secedes, 645 ; opening of Civil War in, 655, 656. 

Virginia Company, merged from London Com- 
pany, 67 ; loses charter, 68. 

Vries, de, p.atroon of New York, 135; plants first 
colony in Delaware, 149. 

Wade, Benjamin, 659 ; issues paper against Lin- 
coln, 789 ; at Johnson's trial, 810, 811 and notel. 

Wadsworth, Captain, hides Connecticut charter 
in an oak, 126. 

Wadsworth, James S., in command at Washing- 
ton, 708 ; killed in the Wilderness, 753. 

Waldseemiiller, suggests name America, 25. 

Walker, Sir Hovendon, sails with fleet to Canada, 
166. 

Walker, John G., at head of canal commission, 
907. 

Walker, Robert J., in Polk's Cabinet, 524 ; gov- 
ernor of Kansas, 592 ; abandoned by adminis- 
tration, 593. 

Walker, WUliam, makes expedition to Nicaragua, 
615. 

Walker Tariff, 624. 

Walking Purchase, 156 note. 

Wallace, Lew, at Fort Donelson, 680 ; at Shiloh, 
686. 

Wallace, W. H. L., at Pittsburg Landing, 683 ; is 
killed, 685 note. 

Walloons, the, settle on the Hudson, 133. 

Ward, Artemus, in command at Cambridge, 245. 

Warner, Seth, leads " Green Mountain Boys " 
against New York, 119 ; captures Crown Point, 
241 ; at Bennington, 272. 

Warren, Fort, Mason and Slidell imprisoned at, 
665. 

Warren, G. K., at Five Forks, 770. 

Warren, Joseph, writes Suffolk resolutions, 236 ; 
collects military stores, 237 ; killed at Bunker 
Hill, 247. 

Wars: Indian, 68, 71, 86, 91, 114, 121, 135, 137, 
411, 439, 458, 497, 828 ; see Indian wars ; colo- 
nial, 160 sq. ; King Willisim's, 162; Quee» 
Anne's, 165 sq. ; ^mg George's, 168; French 
and Indian," 171 sq. ; the Revolution, 220 gq. ; 
War of 1812, 408 sq. ; in the Mediterranean, 
882, 448; Black Hawk and Seminole, 497; 
Mexican, 527 sq. ; Civil War, 624 sq. ; Spanish, 
889 sq. 

Washburn, Elihu B., 659 ; in Grant's Cabinet, 816. 

Washington, city of, first Laid out, 875; captured 
and burned by the British, 435; threatened by 
Confederates, 658, 696, 756. 

Washington, Fort, 258 ; captured by British, 269. 

Washington, George, ancestry of, 70 ; notice of, 
makes journey to French fort, 173; at Great 
Meadows, 174; on Braddock's staff, 179; 183 • 



INDEX 



xxxl 



195 ; leads Virginians to resistance, 230 ; in first 
Continental Congress, 235 ; chosen commander 
of the army, 243, 244; assumes command at 
Cambridge, 247 ; occupies Dorchester, 249 ; at 
New York and Long Island, 256, 257 ; leaves 
New Tork for White Plains, 258; retreats 
across New Jersey, 260 sq. ; crosses the Dela- 
ware, 263 ; escapes Cornwallis at Trenton, 264 ; 
heroism of, at Princeton, 265 ; at Morristown, 
265 ; breaks camp, confronts Howe at Brandy- 
wine, 2S0, 281 ; at Germantown, 282 ; at Valley 
Forge, 283 6^. ; at Monmouth, 286 ; rebukes 
Lee, 287 ; discovers Arnold's treason, 301 ; 
writes to Gates, 305; takes his army South, 
810 ; proclaims end of the war, 312 ; estimate of, 
as a soldier, 316 ; farewell of, to the army, 317 ; 
becomes peacemaker between the states, 321 ; 
writes to state governors, 323 ; chosen to Con- 
stitutional Convention, 325 ; requested to 
become king, 325 note ; becomes prefident of 
the Cincinnati, 326 ; in Constitutional Conven- 
tion, 827 ; made chairman, 328 ; elected first 
President, 338 ; inaugurated at New York, 339, 
841 ; proclamation of, 347 ; second election of, 
851 ; attitude of, toward Gen(it, proclamation 
of neutrality of, 353 ; sends Jay to England, 
856 ; sends treaty to Senate, 357 ; retirement of, 
861; character of, 361, 362; appointed com- 
mander against France, 366 ; death of, 374 ; 
characteristics of, 875. 

Washington, state of, admitted to the Union, 
870. 

Washington, Treaty of, 819. 

Washington, William, cavalry leader, 809, 310. 

Wasp, the, defeats the Frolic, 422. 

Waterloo, battle of, 616. 

Watertown, protest of people of, against taxation 
without representation, 107. 

Watson, Thomas E., nominated for Vice Presi- 
dent, 888. 

Wayne, General Anthony, 282 ; at Monmouth, 
286; captures Stony Point, 297; 816; defeats 
the Indians in Ohio, 380. 

Weaver, James B., nominated for President, 852, 
874 ; carries western states, 875. 

Webb, General, refused aid to Fort William 
Henry, 185. 

Webster, Daniel, 313 ; quoted, 344 ; opposes 
tariff, 465; great speech of, in answer to 
Hayne, 489 ; candidate for presidency, 502 ; 
becomes secretary of state, 513 ; arranges 
treaty with Ashburton, 516; resigns, 517; 
opposed to nomination of Taylor, makes 7th 
of March speech, 543; decline in i)opularity of, 
544, 565 ; in Fillmore's Cabinet, 546 ; 565 ; com- 
pared with Clay, 567 ; talents and character of, 
567-569 ; death of, 569. 

Webster, Noah, 476 and note 2. 

Webster- Ashburton Treaty, 516. 



Weed, Thurlow, 498, 537 ; predicts Lincoln's 
defeat in 1864, 76.3. 

Weehawken, dueling ground, 390, 391. 

Welles, Gideon, in Lincoln's Cabinet, 641. 

Wesley, Charles, secretary of Oglethorpe in 
Georgia, 95. 

Wesley, John, visits Georgia, opposes slavery. 
95, 457. 

West, Benjamin, artist, 378. 

West, John, governor of South Carolina, 89. 

West India Company, Dutch, chartered, 182 ; 
its powers, 133. 

West Point, fortified, 259; attempted betrayal 
of, 299 sg. 

West Virginia, becomes a state, 654. 

Wetherford, Indian chief, at Fort Mims, 439 ; 
surrenders to Jackson, 449. 

Weyler, General, Spanish commandant in Cuba, 
890. 

Whalley, the regicide, 123 note. 

Wheeler, Joseph, in command in Cuba, 893. 

Wheeler, William A., nominated for Vice Presi- 
dent, 836. 

Whig party, the, founded, 502 ; denounces Presi- 
dent Tyler, 515 ; fall and character of, 569, 570. 

Whiskey insurrection, 347. 

Whiskey ring, 827. 

White, Hugh L., candidate for the presidency, 
502. 

White, John, leads Raleigh's second colony, 59. 

Whitefleld, George, founds a school in Georgia, 
95 ; aids in New England revival, 129. 

White Plains, battle of, 258. 

Whitman, Marcus, missionary in Oregon, 525. 

Whitney, Eli, invents cotton gin, 878 ; 458. 

Whitney.W. C, in Cleveland's Cabinet, 862. 

Whittier, 476; defends Abolitionists, 510 ; writes 
"Ichabod," against Webster, 544; 619. 

Wicaco, Swedish church, 155. 

Wickes, Lambert, takes prizes on the sea, 295. 

Wilderness, battle of the, 753. 

Wilkes, Charles, captures Mason and Slidell, dis- 
coverer of Wilkes's Land, 665. 

Wilkesbarre, site of Wyoming massacre, 293. 

Wilkinson, James, discloses Conway Cabal, 284 ; 
in Burr's conspiracy, 392, 393 ; commands in 
War of 1812, 416 ; defeated at Chrystler's Field, 
427 ; dismissed from the service, 431. 

William and Mary, sovereigns of England, at war 
with France, 162. 

William and Mary College, founded by Dr. Blair, 
74. 

William Henry, Fort, captured by Montcalm, 
185. 

Williamsburg, Virginia, 173 ; arrival at, of Gen- 
eral Braddock, 178; battle of, 694. 

Williams, Eev., captured by Indians, 165 note. 

Williams, Roger, arrives in Massachusetts, ban- 
ished from the colony, 108 ; remarks on, 109 ; 



INDEX- 



founds Providence, 115 ; obtains two charters 
for Khode Island, 116 ; 129. 

Wilmington, Delaware, founded by Swedes, 
150. 

Wilmiugton, North Carolina, captured, 76S. 

Wilmot, David, 584 ; iu Peace Congress, 635 ; 
659. 

Wilmot Proviso, 534. 

Wilson, Henry, in the Senate, 659, 795, 816; 
nominated for Vice President, 825 and note 3. 

Wilson, James, in Constitutional Convention, 
828. - 

Wilson, William L., framer of Wilson Tariff, 880. 

Wilson's Creek, battle of, 658, 659. 

Wilson Tariff, 881. 

Winchester, General James, 416. 

Winchester, Virginia, armies at, 655, 656; battle 
of, 757. 

Wingfleld, first president at Jamestown, 62. 

Winslow, Edward, a Mayflower Pilgi-im, 99 ; 
makes treaty with Massasoit, 101 ; sent to 
England in Puritan cause, 108 ; aids in forming 
confederation, 120. 

Winslow, John, in e.xpedition to Acadia, 181. 

Winslow, John A., commander of the Eear- 
sarge. 111. 

Winthrop, John, leads colony to Massachusetts, 
105 ; founds Boston, 106 ; aids in confedera- 
tion, 120. 

Winthrop, John, the younger, founds Saybrook, 
113 ; secures charter for Connecticut, 115 ; gov- 
ernor for many years, 115. 

Wirt, William, at Burr's trial, 893 ; in Monroe's 
Cabinet, 453 ; candidate for the presidency, 492. 

Wise, Henry A., governor of Virginia, 606 ; sur- 
renders Roanoke Island, 671 ; at Malvern Hill, 
700. 

Witchcraft delusion, in Massachusetts, 110. 

Wolfe, General James, aids in capturing Louis- 
burg, 186 ; invests Quebec with British army, 



190 ; scales Plains of Abraham, 191 ; captures 

Quebec, dies, 192. 
Woman suffrage, 870 and note. 
Wood, .Leonard, leader of Rough Riders in Cuba, 

893; governor of Cuba, 900. 
Wool, John E., at Queenstown, 418. 
Worden, John L., in command of the Monitor, 

674, 675. 
World's Fair, at Chicago, 881 sq. 
Worth, William J., in Me.xican War, 532. 
Wright, Luke E., governor of the Philippines, 

899. 
Writs of assistance, 222 ; resisted by the people, 

228. 
Wyoming, becomes a state, 869. 
Wyoming massacre, 298. 
Wyoming Valley, location of, 293. 

X. T. Z. correspondence, 364, 365. 

Yale College, founding of, 207 note. 

Yamassee Indians, attack South Carolina colo- 
nists, 90. 

Yazoo frauds, 407. 

Yazoo River, Sherman on, 735. 

Yeamans, Sir John, plants colony on Cape Fear 
River, 88 ; introduces slavery in South Caro- 
lina, 88 ; governor of South Carolina, 89. 

Yeardley, Sir George, introduces popular govern- 
ment iu Virginia, 67 ; death of, 69. 

York, Duke of, see James II. 

Yorktown, surrender of British army at, 311 ; 
reception of the news in America, England, 
and France, 812 ; McClellan besieges, 694 ; 
centennial of Cornwallis's surrender at, 854. 

Young, General, in war with Spain, 893. 

Young's Prairie, negro colony at, 551. 

Zenger, Peter, wins victory for liberty of Vku 
press in New York, 145. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Following is a list of such books on American history as may 
be most useful to the general reader, and most probably within his 
reach. The special student is directed to the fuller bibliography as 
found in the various volumes of Winsor's Narrative and Critical His- 
tory, in the Cambridge Modern History, Vol. VII, or in Channing and 
Hart's Guide to American History. The foot-note references in this 
volume also will cite the reader to many works not mentioned in 
this department. For a critical and usually fair estimate of books 
on American history the reader is directed to Larned's Literature of 
American History. 

GENERAL HISTOEIES 
On the Entire Field : 

Cambridge Modern History, Vol. VII ; Woodrow Wilson, History of the 
American People, 5 vols. ; Bryant and Gay, Popular History of the United 
States, 5 vols. ; John Clark Ridpath, Pop^dar History of the United States ; E. 
Benjamin Andrews, History of the United States, 2 vols.; Higginson, Larger 
History of the United States; Alexander Johnston, The United States; Its 
History and Constitntio7i ; Goldvrin Smith, TTie United States; Francis Newton 
Thorpe, A History of the American People ; Albert Bushnell Hart, History Told 
by Contemporaries, 4 vols. ; and the better class of school histories, which fur- 
nish excellent outlines. 

Histories of Limited Periods: 

George Bancroft, History of the United States, 1492-1789, 6 vols, (last 
revision); Richard Hildreth, History of the United States, 1492-1821, 6 vols. ; 
Francis Parkman, France and England in IS'orth America, 9 vols., under various 
titles ; John Bach McMaster, History of the People of the United States, 1784- 
1829, 5 vols, (to be completed to the Civil War) ; James Schouler, History of the 
United States, 1789-1865, 6 vols.; Henry Adams, History of the United States, 
1800-1817, 9 vols.; James Ford Rhodes, History of the United States from the 
Compromise of 1850, 4 vols. ; Justin Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, 
1000-1840, 8 vols.; John Andrew Doyle, Tlie English in America, 1492-1700, 
3 vols.; Ed. Channing, The United States of America, 1765-1865; Herman von 
Hoist, The Constitutional Histoi-y of the United States, 1783-1861, 8 vols.; 
George Tucker, Tlie History of the United States, 1492-1840, 4 vols. 

WORKS ON SPECIAL TOPICS, OR PERIODS 
The Aborigines : 

Daniel G. Brinton, Myths of the New World, and other volumes ; Hubert H. 
Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, 5 vols. ; Helen Hunt Jackson, A 

xsxiii 



BIBLIOGEAPHY 



Century of Dislionor ; George E. Ellis, The Bed Man and White Man; George 
B. Grinnell, Story of the Indian, and other volumes ; Richard I. Dodge, Our 
Wild Indians. 

Discovery and Exploration : 

John Fiske, Discovery of America^ 2 vols. ; Edward J. Payne, History of 

America., 2 vols. ; Henry Harrisse, Christopher Columbus ; Washington Irving, 
Life and Voyages of Columbus, 4 vols, ; Charles K. Adams, Christopher Colum- 
bus ; Henry Vignaud, Toscanelli and Columbus ; Charles R. Beazley, John and 
Sebastian Cabot; Theodore Irving, The Conquest of Florida ; Grace King, De 
Soto and his Men; J. G. Shea, Exjjloration of the Mississippi Valley; T. W. 
Higginson, American Explorers; E. J. Payne, Voyages of Elizabethan Seamen; 
and the general works mentioned above, especially the first volumes of Bancroft, 
Hildreth, Winsor, and Doyle. 

The Colonial Period : 

Henry Cabot Lodge, The English Colonies in America; Reixben Gold 
Thwaites, The Colonies; Richard Hakluyt, Discourse on Western Planting; 
John Fiske, Old Virginia and Her Neighbors, 2 vols., Beginnings of Neio Eng- 
land, The Dutch and Quaker Colonies, 2 vols., and New France and New Eng- 
land ; Edward Eggleston, The Beginnings of a Nation; William Bradford, 
History of Plymouth Plantation; John G. Palfrey, Cony^endious History of 
New England, 4 vols. ; Charles F. Adams, Three Episodes in Massachusetts 
History; E. B. Greene, Tlie Provincial Governor; Hugh E. Egerton, Short 
History of British Colonial Policy; William MacDonald, Select Charters; 
Rossiter Johnson, History of the French War ; William M. Sloan, Tfie French 
War and the Bevolution ; Frank R. Stockton, Buccaneers and Pirates; Mrs. 
Alice Morse Earle, Home Life in Colonial Days, Curious Punishments of By- 
gone Days, and other volumes ; George Park Fisher, The Colonial Era ; Sidney 
George Fisher, Men, Women, and Planners in Colonial Times. 

Biographies. — Of Cotton Mather by Barrett Wendell; of General Ogle- 
thorpe by Henry Bruce ; of James Otis by Francis Bowen ; of William Penn by 
Samuel M. Janney ; of William Pitt by Lord Rosebery; of Peter Stuyvesant by 
Bayard Tuckerman ; of Boger Williams by Oscar S. Straus ; of John Winthrop 
by Joseph H. Twichell ; of Thomas Hooker by George L. Walker. 

The Revolution: 

John Fiske, TJie American Bevolution, 2 vols. ; Sir George Otto Trevelyan, 
The American Bevolution, 3 vols. ; H. C. Lodge, Story of the Bevolution, 2 vols. ; 
Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Bevolution; C. H. Van Tyne, 
Loyalists in the Bevolution ; Moses Coit Tyler, Literary History of the Bevo- 
lution, 2 vols. ; Francis Wharton, Bevolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence, 
6 vols. ; Richard Frothingham, Bise of the Bep^iblic ; Charlemagne Tower, La- 
fayette in the American Bevolution ; Sidney G. Fisher, True History of the 
Bevolution. Autobiography of Franklin. 

Biographies.— Of Franklin by Paul L. Ford, by John B. McMaster, by 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



John T. Morse ; of Washington by Paul L. Foid, by Washington Irving, 4 vols., 
by Woodrow Wilson, and by II. C. Lodgo, 2 vols. ; of Jefferson by James 
Schouler, by J. T. Morse, by Jauies Parton, by H. S. Randall, and by George 
Tucker ; of James Otis by William Tudor ; of Paul lievere by Elbridge H. 
Goss, 2 vols. ; of Joseph Warren by Richard Frothinghaui ; of Patrick Henry 
by Moses Coit Tyler ; of Benedict Arnold by Jared Sparks, 3 vols. ; of John 
Andre by Winthrop Sargent ; of liobert Morris by W. G. Sumner, by E. P. 
Oberholtzer ; of Samuel Adams by J. K. Hosmer ; of Ethan Allen by Henry 
Hall ; of John Jay by George Pellew. 

The Formation of the Union : 

John Fiske, TJie Critical Period; Francis A. Walker, Making of the Nation; 
Albert B. Hart, Formation of the Union; Alexander Hamilton and others. The 
Federalist; George T. Curtis, Constitutional History of the United States, 2 vols. ; 
Francis N. Thorpe, Constitutional History, 3 vols. ; the last volume of George 
Bancroft's History, the fourth of Hildreth, and the first volumes of McMaster, 
Schouler, and Von Hoist. 

The National Period, to the Civil War : 

The fifth and sixth volumes of Hildreth, the histories of Schouler, McMaster, 
and Von Hoist, the nine volumes of Henry Adams, Vols. Ill and IV of Woodrow 
Wilson's history. Vols. Ill and IV of Bryant and Gay's history, and Vols. VII 
and VIII of Winsor's history ; J. P. Gordy, A Political History of the United 
States, 2 vols. ; John W. Burgess, The Middle Period; Walter F. McCaleb, The 
Aaron Burr Conspiracy ; Thomas H. Benton, Thirty Years^ View, 2 vols; Ben- 
son J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the War of IS 12 ; Theodore Roosevelt, 
Tlie Naval War of IS 12; Rossiter Johnson, The War of 1812 ; Nathan Sargent, 
Public Men and Events, 2 vols. ; Benjamin F. Perry, Beminiscences of Public 
Men; Henry A. Wise, Seven Decades of the Union; Josiah Quincy, Figures of 
the Past; Theodore Roosevelt, Winning of the West, 4 vols. ; Edwin Earl Sparks, 
Expansion of the American People ; Wilber H. Siebert, The Underground Rail- 
road; Henry Wilson, Bise and Fall of the Slave Poioer, 3 vols. ; H. R. Helper, 
The Impending Crisis; Harriet Martineau, Society in America; Alexis de 
Tocqueville, Democracy in America ; R. M. Ormshy , History of the Whig Party, 
Edward Stand wood, History of the Presidency ; John Quincy Adams, 3Iemoirs , 
Ben Perley Poore, J?e9?u'HJSce)iCfis; Alexander Johnston, History of American 
Politics; Vols. I and II of Rhodes' history ; Vol. I of Greeley's American Con- 
flict, and Vol. I of William H. Smith's A Political History of Slavery. 

Biographies. — Of Gouverneur Morris by Theodore Roosevelt ; of Hamilton 
by H. C. Lodge, by J. T. Morse, 2 vols. ; of Albert Gallatin by John A. Stevens, 
by Henry Adams ; of Burr by James Parton ; of Madison by Sidney H. Gay ; 
of J. Q. Adams by J. T. Morse ; of Bufus King by Charles R. King ; of John 
Marshall by A. B. Magruder ; of John Bnndolph by Henry Adams ; of 
Tecumseh by Benjamin Drake ; of John Brnron and Calhoun by Von Hoist ; 
of James Buchanan by George T. Curtis, 2 vols. ; of Webster by George T. 
Curtis, 2 vols., by J. B. McMaster ; of Henry Clay by Carl Schurz, 2 vols. ; of 
Andrew Jackson by W. G. Sumner, by W. G. Brown ; of Van Buren, by Edward 



xxxvl BIBLIOGRAPHY 



M. Shepard, by George Bancroft ; of Lewis Cass by A. C. McLaughlin ; of 
Winfield Scott by Marcus J. Wright. 

The Civil War and After: 

J. S. Pike, First Blows of the Civil War; Horace Greeley, The American 
Conflict, Vol. II; Theodore A. Dodge, BircVs Eye View of Our Civil War; 
Rossiter Johnson, Short History of the War of Secession ; John C. Ropes, Story 
of the Civil War, 3 vols. ; John W. Burgess, The Civil War and the Consti- 
tution, 2 vols. ; Edward McPherson, Political History of the Behellion ; Comte 
de Paris, Military History of the Civil War, 4 vols. ; John W. Draper, History 
of the American Civil War, 3 vols. ; Alexander H. Stephens, War Between the 
States, 2 vols. ; Jefferson Davis, The Bise and Fall of the Confederate Govern- 
ment, 2 vols. ; The Century Company, Battles and Leaders, 4 vols. ; William H. 
Seward, Diplomatic Histoi-y of the War for the Union ; J. C. Schwab, Confederate 
States of America ; F. L. Olmsted, The Cotton Kingdom ; William G. Brown, TJie 
Loiver South in American History; the third and fourth volumes of Rhodes, 
and the final volumes of Schouler and of Bryant and Gay ; David D. Porter, 
Naval History of the Civil War; Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, of W. T. 
Sherman, and of P. H. Sheridan ; Joseph E. Johnston, Narrative of Military 
Operations ; Raphael Semmes, Service Afloat; George B. McClellan, McClellan''s 
Own Story ; Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History, 10 vols. 

John W. Burgess, Beconstruction and the Constitution; E. Benjamin 
Andrews, The United States in Our Own Times; James G. Blaine, Twenty 
Tears of Congress, 2 vols. ; Hugh McCullough, Men and 3Ieasures of Half a 
Century ; John D. Long, The American Navy, 2 vols. ; H. A. Herbert, ]VJiy the 
Solid South; Henry W. Grady, The New South; Paul L. Haworth, Hayes- 
Tilden Disputed Presidential Election. 

Biographies. — Of Abraham Lincoln by J. T. Morse, by Carl Schurz, by 
Ida M. Tarbell ; of Charles Summer by Moorfield Storey ; of George H. Tliomas 
by T. B. A''an Home ; of Samuel J. Tilden by John Bigelow, 2 vols. ; of Bobert 
Toombs by P. A. Stovall ; of Thaddeus Stevens by E. B. Callender ; of A. H. 
Stephens by R. M. Johnson and J. S. Black ; of Bobert E. Lee by J. E. Cooke ; 
of Thomas J. Jackson, by R. L. Dabney ; of U. S. Grant by Adam Badeau, by 
C. C. Chesney ; of Salmon P. Chase by J. W. Schuckers, by A. B. Hart. 

Miscellaneous : 

J. F. Jameson, Dictionary of U. S. History ; Alexander Johnston's articles on 
American history in Lalofs Cyclopedia, 3 vols. ; portions of Larned's History 
for Beady Beference, 6 vols. ; portions of Lecky's History of England, 
McCarthy's History of Our Own Times, and of other English histories ; James 
Bryce, The American Commonwealth, 2 vols, (also an abridged one-volume 
edition); F. W. Taussig, Tariff History of the United States; A. S. BoUes, 
Financial History of the United States ; John W. Foster, A Century of American 
Diplomacy ; State histories, especially 'of the American Commonwealth Series ; 
local histories as issued by the various historical societies ; historical fiction. 



SUGGESTIONS TO THE READER . 

Among the general histories Bancroft's held first place for many 
years, but it is now largely superseded by others. His account of 
the Revolution and of the formation of the government, however, 
still rank among the best. Hildreth is painstaking and accurate, 
but his style is not attractive, and his partisan bias is too much in 
evidence. 

Of the complete histories of the country, from the Discovery to 
the present time, we have but two extensive ones of importance — 
those of Bryant and Gay, and of Woodrow Wilson, each five volumes. 
The former, written by Gay and not Bryant, is clear and interesting 
in style ; but the perspective is bad. It gives altogether too much 
space to the colonial period as compared with the national. Wilson's 
history is written in excellent style. Its chief defect lies in the 
assumption that the reader knows the facts, or does not wish to know 
them. It is a series of consecutive discourses on public questions, 
rather than a history, and may be very useful to a reader who is 
already fairly familiar with the facts. An important one-volume 
history of the United States is the Ccmihridge Modern History, Vol. 
VII. This book is the work of many writers instead of one ; and, 
though most of them are specialists, a continuous narrative, showing 
the gradual development of the nation, is wanting. The proportion 
is also defective ; for example, fifty-seven pages are devoted to the 
framing of the Constitution, while the sixty years following its adop- 
tion are crowded into but ninety pages. 

The history of our national period before the Civil War has been 
written by three historians — Von Hoist, McMaster, and Schouler. 
Von Hoist's work (written in German, translated by J. J. Lalor) is a 
learned discussion of political events and parties. The originality of 
the author is striking, but the style is often heavy. The writer is not 
free from political bias, nor is he in full sympathy with American 
institutions. McMaster's work is written in a vivacious, attractive 
style. As a vivid presentation of the social and industrial life of the 

zzxvii 



SUGGESTIONS TO THE READEE 



people, and as a storehouse of facts, gathered from original sources, 
the work of McMaster has no equal. Its great defect lies in the fact 
that it is disconnected, and that the writer does not fully discuss 
public questions ; does not sufficiently show the influence upon our 
national development of great movements and great characters. In 
this respect McMaster occupies a ground quite opposite that occu- 
pied by Von Hoist and Woodrow Wilson. A medium ground is 
taken by Schouler, whose work bristles with facts, and who, at the 
same time, gives admirable characterization of great men, and intelli- 
gently discusses important movements. But Schouler's style is often 
wanting in dignity and clearness. Two admirable accounts of the 
development of the United States are those of Goldwin Smith and 
Edward Channing. These are each given in a single small volume, 
and each may be characterized as a bird's eye view, rather than 
a history. 

A reader may acquire a good knowledge of American history by 
reading the histories of limited periods, only a few of which can 
here be mentioned. The best account of the discovery of America 
for the general reader will be found in the two volumes of John 
riske ; while the best short biography of Columbus is that of C. K. 
Adams, which is based largely on the more learned work of Harrisse. 
Payne's History of America is in part a scholarly study of the abo- 
rigines. Grace King's De Soto and His Men is brightly written and 
fairly accurate. 

The best short history of the colonial period as a whole is that of 
E. G. Thwaites. Lodge's English Colonies is much fuller and gives 
an excellent account of the life of the people ; but the most attractive 
writer on the colonial period, except Parkman, is John Fiske, who 
has given us six volumes on this period, covering almost the entire 
subject. The history of A. J. Doyle, an Englishman, is full and 
broad in spirit. For a series of pictures of colonial life, habits, 
manners, dress, and furniture the delightful volumes of Mrs. Earle 
have no equal. 

The history of the French-English struggle for North America 
has been admirably presented by Francis Parkman, who practically 
exhausts the subject. For accuracy and for beauty of style Parkman 
has no superior as a historian. The history of the Kevolution is 
best presented by Fiske in two volumes and by Trevelyan in three 
volumes, with others to follow. The latter, an Englishman, writes 
from the Whig view point, and deals with the Americans in the 



SUGGESTIONS TO THE READER xxxlx 



utmost fairness. For tlie short period of disorder, between the close 
of the Revolution and the framing of the Constitution, The Critical 
Period by Fiske is by far the best we have. On the formation of 
tho national government Hart's Formation of the Union is the best 
short account; while the fuller accounts by Bancroft, by Curtis in 
his History of the Constitution, and by Thorpe in his Constitutional 
History, are of great value. 

On the period following the adoption of the Constitution the 
reader will find, in addition to the works of McMaster, Schouler, and 
Von Hoist, already mentioned, other works of great importance. 
Henry Adams's History, covering the first sixteen years of the cen- 
tury in nine volumes, is accurate, exhaustive, and most delightfully 
written. It is to be regretted that this writer has chosen to discon- 
tinue his great work at this stage. The slavery agitation before the^ 
Civil War is best treated in the first volumes of Greeley's American 
Conflict, of Wilson's Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, and of A. H. 
Stephens's War between the States ; while most interesting side lights 
will be foimd in Sargent's Public Men and Events, Quincy's Figures 
of the Past, Forney's Aiiecdotes of Public Men, and Wise's Seven 
Decades. 

For the account of the great events immediately preceding the 
war the history of James Ford Rhodes stands above all others. As 
a historian Rhodes must be classed with Fiske, Park man, and Henry 
Adams ; his only fault is a slight tendency to prolixity. 

The history of the Civil War has been written by various his- 
torians. The best short histories arc J. C. Ropes's Story of the Civil 
War and T. A. Dodge's Bird's-Eye View of Our Civil War. Fuller 
accounts are given in the histories of the war by Comte de Paris, by 
John W. Draper, by John W. Burgess, by Greeley in the second 
volume of TJie American Conflict, by Rhodes in his third and fourth 
volumes, and by Schouler in his sixth volume. The best military 
history is found in Battles and Leaders, four large volumes written by 
leading participants of both sides. Two southern views are Jefferson 
Davis's Pise and Fall of the Confederate Government, and A. H. 
Stephens's War between the States. In addition to these the following 
are recommended : William Garrott Brown's The Loiver South in 
American History; W. H. Seward's Diplomatic History of the Civil 
War; T. S. Goodwin's Natiiral History of Secession; W. A. 
Dunning's Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction; J. C. Schwab's 
Confederate States; the various biographies of this department as 



Xl SUGGESTIONS TO THE READER 

given \inder Bibliography; S. S. Cox's Three Deoadesj Ben: Perley 
Poore's Reminiscences ; Hugh McCnllough's Men and Measures of 
Half a Century, and the personal memoirs of U. S, Grant, of W. T. 
Sherman, and of P. H. Sheridan. 

No complete history of Eeconstrnction and of the period follow 
ing has been written, the best perhaps being Burgess's Reconstruction 
and the Constitution, the recent volume of E. Benjamin Andrews, 
and the fifth volume of Bryant and Gay. A fuller history of the 
times may be gathered from McPherson's Handbook, published every 
second year from 1868 to 1894, except in 1870, from Appleton's 
Annual Cyclopedia, and from the many able articles on public ques- 
tions in The Atlantic Monthly, The Forum, TJie JSl'orth American Re- 
vieiv, Tlie Neio Princeton Revieio (merged into The Political Science 
Quarterly), and The Nation. The history of this period is greatly 
illuminated by the personal writings of various public men, especially 
by the Recollections of John Sherman, by the two recent volumes of 
Senator Hoar, and Twenty Years of Congress by James G. Blaine. 
The work of Blaine is not very critical and is marred by too adu- 
latory notices of contemporaries ; but the style is excellent. For 
current history the reader is directed, in addition to the daily papers, 
to the weekly review of events in Tlie Outlook and in The Nation, to 
the monthly review in TJie Woi'kVs Work and in Tlie Review of Re- 
views, and to Tlie Political Science Quarterly. 

The special student will delve more deeply than the general 
reader. He must go to the original sources, such as the Colonial 
Archives, British State Papers pertaining to the colonies, the Annals 
of Congress, Elliots' Debates, Supreme Court decisions, messages and 
papers of the Presidents and the various Works of the leading states- 
men. Every reader, however, should aim to read at least a few of the 
speeches of the leading statesmen of each period of our development, 
a good collection of which is Alexander Johnston's Representative 
American Orations, in four volumes. 

Pinally, if asked by the busy American reader to name one handy 
reference book, one compendious history of the United States (in 
addition to the present volume to be sure), and one miscellaneous 
work, describing the American people, government, and institu- 
tions, we would recommend Jameson's Dictionary of American His- 
tory, Cambridge Modern History, Vol. VII, and Bryce's American 
Commonwealth. 



Printed in the United States of America. 



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Bv THE Right Hon. JAMES BRYCE, D.C.i.. 
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